Claire, our big 4 year old!

Claire was so excited to turn 4! 

This year, the weather was still warm at the end of September, so I decided this was the year to give her a birthday party (I basically forced her to be social) and it ended up being so fun! We had the neighborhood kids come over after early-out for some backyard games and cupcakes. It ended up being a lot of fun!

Claire and I spent the morning getting ready. We baked cupcakes, hung decorations, and made some fun games. Claire even mastered blowing up balloons, which was helpful. 

As always, I am the worst at documenting events when I am in charge of them, so these pics are the best we have of Claire's cute friend party.

Claire is really into kitties right now, and finding this kitty corn pinata was the icing on the cake!

Funny story about the icing on these cupcakes: I found a yummy new buttercream recipe I wanted to try. I halved the recipe, but for some reason it tasted like all butter, and even the kids when they were eating the cupcakes said it tasted like butter. It's not until I was looking at the recipe later that I realized I halved everything except the butter. No wonder! Oh well :). I've been known to be a blonde.

We played "Pin the Nose on the Kitty." Claire helped me draw and color this poster. It turned out pretty cute.

The next day (Saturday) was Claire's real birthday. My mom and little sister came up for the weekend, and we all had fun going to the Hogle Zoo, where my other sister met us with her two kids.

The whole crew minus Claire and Greg. Go figure.

Fun on the Carousel.

Not my best cake, and Elsa looks like she's seen better days. It's the best I could do this year 🤣.

After the Zoo, we went mini golfing at Cherry Hill. Claire was content to run around like her usual crazy self while Sof took golfing very seriously. Lately Claire has become so fun. I think 4 is [our] magical year!

We had the Johnson's over to help devour Claire's Elsa cake. Luckily, I was able to [mostly] fix the buttercream frosting before icing this cake. It wasn't too bad.

And, in true Claire fashion, she 100% surprised us by riding her pedal bike for the first time all by herself. We were so impressed!

That night as I was putting Claire to sleep, I asked her what her favorite part about the Zoo was. And you know what she said? Leaving!

Lately she has become quite the little ham, always saying the opposite of what I think she will. And although we spent an arm and a leg on the zoo, and she acted unimpressed, I know she had fun.

Girlfriend is hilarious and will forever be keeping us on our toes.

We love you Claire!