More Birthday Madness

Due to conflicting schedules it took a few days to get around to celebrating Clara's birthday as a family.  But we pulled it off.  

Fort Making

The kids threw this luxury fort together recently.  It has a nice flagstone floor and granite countertops (ha).  It was fun to make but unfortunately the infamous Reno winds picked up that night and Rob had to get up in the middle of the night to remove the tarp before it blew into the neighbors pond.  Building them is the fun part anyway, right?

Clara's Big Birthday Bash

Clara's birthday was a busy day for our family.  Due to an orchestra concert we decided to celebrate as a family on Friday instead.  So I planned a friend party for her on her actual birthday during the day.  It was a doozie.  The theme was St. Patricks Day.  

 We started out with lunch.  Green, of course, was the theme:

 Cute Landon and Stone:

 After lunch was the treasure hunt:

 This picuture of Ren, the cute blonde, is adorable:

 The treasure was shamrock boppers:

 Presents were next.  At first the crowd kept their distance, but in a matter of seconds, the crowd had encroached:

 My friend Molly brought a pinata and the kids had a good time with it:

 The grand finale was the cake (cupcakes):

It was very fun, but I was beat by the end!  Thank goodness for several of the mom's who stayed to help me.  It would have been a disaster without them.  I think fun was had by all.

Clara is 5!

Can't believe she is 5.  Time flies.  If the next 5 years go as quickly as the past....I don't want to think about it.  Clara, Clara, Clara.  Such a girl.  This girl won't be ignored.  This girl is full of life and personality and ideas and creativity.  She spends HOURS creating cute things out of paper, glue, and whatever else strikes her fancy.  Hours.  She is tough and she is fun.  She knows what she wants and nothing else will do.  We love her to pieces and are so happy she is part of our family. (Last night she asked, "Why do I have to be the littlest one?"  That is Clara, in a hurry to grow up). Happy birthday!

Tucker's Birthday (The Fun Never Stops)

After we got home from church Tucker got to open his presents.  This year's big gift was air soft guns.  Pretty sweet.

 We all joined in on the target practice:

 We drove up to Tahoe meadows.  Some played in the snow and did some sledding and some of us snow shoed.  It was good fun.  Tucker told me, "I used to think snow shoeing was hard.  I guess I used to be a wimp."  The weather was amazing (we were plenty warm).

 While we were off tromping through the snow Clara and Anders were being buried in snow caves courtesy of Lucy.

 Sledding was pretty junk thanks to millions of footprints.

 Dinner was delish.  Rob's perfect hamburgers.

 The cake was decadent and delicious:

 And as an extra on Monday Bill and I headed up to Tahoe to take in the view.  It was very fun to have him around for all of the celebrations.