Clara's Big Partay

Last week, on Friday, we celebrated Clara's birthday. It began in the morning with a new kitchen. In the afternoon the cousins and Grammy and Pop-pop came up for a combined Clara/Lizzy party that began at the Murray pool. After that we were joined for the Princess and the Frog portion of the party at our home by Phil and Kids, Jayson and Maddy, and Court for a barbeque and lots and lots of presents.

Clara must have gone down this slide a hundred times

She whips down it soooooo fast.

Happy Birthday to Our Baby

Of all my babies, it seems that Clara was little the shortest amount of time. It has always felt like she is racing to grow up, rushing through babyhood. She held her head up nearly from day one, rolled over early, sat up early, crawled early, walked early, climbed early, spoke early, dressed herself early, and developed very strong preferences and opinions early. (Sadly she is not even remotely interested in potty training, so in this she is well behind her siblings, grrr). The picture below was taken, in the early pre-sun hours of the morning. That is usually when Clara gets up. But she doesn't wake us up. She just takes care of business. Lately that involves trying to change her own diaper. Usually she gets dressed in some kind of get-up, plays, and turns on all the lights upstairs. She speaks like she is twenty (although often the content of her babbling is completely stream of consciousness. "It's very cold outside, so I'm going to be bored when I get borned so I can play with my Barbies"). She goes to a library story time where there is a mat on the floor and she always, always, always, sits on the purple M. She always pushes up her sleeves. She has a definite idea of beautiful, and it may not mesh with mine, but it isn't worth fighting her on aesthetics. She can entertain herself like no other three year old I know. She goes in her room and plays and plays and plays with her toys. I've never known a kid of mine to do that.

For awhile I wondered if I even wanted a number four. Three seemed good. But as time went by it became apparent that someone was missing. There was a strong, strong, someone missing. And so we had Clara. Our strong strong someone came. And now we just can't begin to imagine life without this crazy wonderful little girl. Tomorrow our baby turns three. Every single one of us adores her and derive massive amounts of pleasure and endless entertainment from her crazy strong personality. We love our three year old! Happy birthday to my little baby who was born sassy.

On the menu (and all over the floor) for this particular breakfast: All-Bran (gross) and Grape Nuts with an extremely generous amount of sugar and milk. She was beyond proud and we were beyond annoyed.

One other quick story: Life with four children means that my brain is on overload. We are going so many places, and in so many directions I can barely keep track. I signed Clara up for a dance class, which thrilled her to no end. I thought it began on Thursday at 5:00. It turns out I actually signed her up for the Wednesday class and when we showed up on Thursday Clara was really disappointed. She stuck out her quivering lip when I explained that we missed her class and I was very sorry. "Mom, I am very very sad. Very very very sad." It was so cute and heart breaking.

The Baptism, Or How We Celebrated Round 2

It was a great day. The baptism was really nice. My Dad spoke and Rob's parents did the music. Tucker was very excited and happy. We were so glad to celebrate with our families. We had a huge spread after and we celebrated Tuck's birthday with the family. We reprised some of the friend party games for the cousins and it was good fun.

How We Celebrated Round 1

On Thursday, Tucker's actual birthday, we had a friend party. About 10 kids from school came. Hours of prep went into this party, and thank goodness Rob's mom was around to help out. I thought I might collapse by the end of the party. There is a lot of energy packed into those kids. A lot.

Anyway the party featured a geology theme. Activities included a rock hunt, a search for buried treasure, a volcanic eruption, sculpting contest, fossil making, cupcake decorating, and a free for all half hour of playing in the backyard which led to some tears and tempers flaring. But we survived and Tucker was pleased.

Happy Happy Birthday Tucker, Dear

Tucker turned eight on Thursday. Eight? Really??? Already? Are the next eight years going to fly by as quickly, and before I know it he is going to be in high school, driving, and who knows what else??? Please stay young a little longer.

Tucker is a pleasure to be around. He is a really intellectually curious kid, always figuring things out, researching, and learning. He discovered an interest in geology and being the self motivated learner he is, has since read several books on geology. He has a pretty in depth understanding of the topic and could teach me a thing or two. One thing I love about Tucker, and I hope he won't take this the wrong way is the air of absent-minded-professorness he embodies. He is, I think, very busy thinking about things and so it is hard to get those shoes tied, loose papers put away, toothpaste off of his shirt, get that homework started, and to get that desk cleaned up. In school they set academic and character goals every term. Tucker's perpetual unmet academic goal is to improve his penmanship (he has teeny tiny writing just like his Dad's). Last term his character goal was to keep his desk clean. They have to evaluate their goals and he gave himself this evaluation regarding his desk: I didn't do it because I forgot to think about it too much. But he manages to stay on top of school, despite his organization style.

He is also a kind kid. He has taken a new kid at school under his wing, showed him the ropes, and helps him a lot. He is just a sweet and good kid and we enjoy him so much. We couldn't be more proud to be his parents. We love you Tucker!

Pictures courtesy of Katy.

Kites

Saturday was perfect weather for kite flying. Perfect.