Claire turns 5!

 Claire turned 5! Can you believe it?

It's starting to be bittersweet watching Claire grow up. She was a super hard toddler, so each year brought me a sigh of relief, but now that Claire has life kind of figured out, I find myself missing her sweet little moments. She sure is smart and is really good at putting me in my place.

We made a weekend out of it. Friday, Claire was ecstatic to find out I made her an appointment to get her ears pierced. Around here, when you turn 5, that's just what you get to do. So, after Dance, we promptly took her over and she climbed up in the chair like a big kid, picked out her pretty star earrings, and was the center of attention as the lady shot her earrings in and Claire didn't even flinch. She was a rockstar!

She was so brave and hasn't looked back since. She was made for those star earrings!

The next day (Saturday) was her scheduled birthday party. Claire isn't super social, so I take it upon myself to force her to be so on her birthday. She's so lucky. We planned a neighborhood party and invited just about everyone. It was awesome! 

Claire's invitation she helped design. She did a great job!

The weather continued to be beautiful all weekend long, and I was so happy! We invited way too many kids to be able to have a party in our house. We had face painting, lawn games (thanks to Greggy), a scavenger hunt, cupcakes, and presents. It was a fun party and we had a huge turnout! 

We have the cutest neighborhood girls who were so excited to paint faces for me! 

Greg leading lawn games.

He was hilarious!

Teaching the kids toilet tag.

Claire was a bit overwhelmed and found a quiet place to hide. Greg had to go find her when it was time to eat cupcakes. She recovered relatively well from the social shock after that.

Claire's friends! She was swimming in presents. We have the cutest neighborhood kiddo's!

We love Claire!!

My parents arrived a few minutes before the party ended.

After the party, Claire was so excited to eat with cousins at Pizza Pie Cafe. We love that place for birthday's because not only does the birthday girl eat free, but they bring out a free pazookie! And, it's the best pazookie Greg and I have ever tasted - no joke. But, they didn't tell us when they brought the pazookie and Claire's table ate the whole thing!! Oh well, there's always next time ... hopefully.

Claire, her pazookie, and her fancy new Elsa waterbottle.

Sunday morning was Claire's birthday, and it also happened to be our Ward's Primary Program, so that was fun! We made sure to give Claire sufficient time to open and enjoy her presents that morning.

LOL dolls

A Mama Unicorn and Babies from Grandma/Grandpa Mark

A fancy new scooter with lights!

The Primary Program is my favorite Sunday of the year! The girls both memorized their parts and did so well talking into the microphone and singing their songs.

I had to play the piano, so Greg manned the Quincey while he accompanied my parents on the bench. Afterwards, I played the piano again in Primary and Claire was a hoot to watch! We let her bring 1 toy to church and she swam the mermaid through the air the entire singing time. I was dying!

Claire's birthday dinner was just the 5 of us, which was nice. Sometimes Claire is known for saying surprisingly good prayers, and I caught the tale-end of this one. It is so cute watching her pray.

Definitely the least cute cake I've ever made, but Claire didn't care, so neither did I. It tasted good, and that's all that mattered.

Afterwards, we went for a walk around the block to try out Claire's fancy new light-up scooter. It was so much fun and she can be seen from a mile away.

Happy Birthday Claire! We love you and the beautiful little soul that you are!

- You love having Ms. Lindsay Aubree for preschool

- You love unicorns and mermaids

- You love Ms. Karen's singing class

- You love Ms. Cherie's dance class

- You are a fish and love swimming whenever you can

 - You are scary smart and quick to learn

- You say the darndest things

- Mom has yet to beat you at the Memory Game

- You love with all your heart and are the best sister!

Our family wouldn't be near as fun without you!

Peach Days

Peach Days happened to be on the Sept 11 weekend again this year. I had to go to the store for something and ended up driving up Hwy 89 and got the chills when I looked up and saw this.

The girls had a birthday party that coincided with our regular plans of going to Peach Days earlier, so we went mid-afternoon and had an early dinner. Since our peaches froze this year and our tomatoes weren't producing super well, we made it a priority to stop and get some produce at the fruit stands. 

Next Stop: Peach City.

The food was delicious, as always and the peach shakes absolutely divine! I'm pretty sure the knowledge of our yearly peach shakes is the reason Greg is still living. My mouth is watering just typing about them. 

It brings me so much joy whenever I catch these two holding hands. I'm always sure to snap a picture, because I know these moments are limited.

It brings me so much joy to watch Claire run. She is hilarious and reminds me of Velma on Scooby Doo.

Greg was ecstatic to learn the girls were old enough to ride the carousel by themselves this year. 

Peach Days is the best! And so are their faces 💓

Remembering 9-11

September 11 is always a surreal day for me. I remember with scary detail the things I experienced in my 5th grade classroom while all teaching was halted, and instead we watched the TV nonstop the entire school day. My teacher was ex-military, so he was quick to shut down any talk of anyone saying anything like "cool," "wow," "look at the flames" etc. He was candid in his remarks as to why what we were witnessing was not "cool," "wow," or in any way entertaining. Now that I'm an adult and have a more mature way of seeing things, I'm realizing the impact that day had on American history. At how torn apart the country seems these days, it is amazing to see that in the moment of tragedy, our people will pull together.

A Sept 11 Memorial came to the Davis County Fairgrounds this year and we were sure to take our kids to it. They spared no detail in documenting the events of that day. Although our girls weren't able to understand much of what they were watching and seeing in the pictures and videos, they were able to understand that it was a scary day. It was a good experience for us as parents to be able to teach our girls about history, and how it can impact our future.

Cute Sof comforting Claire. They were feeling all of the feels looking at the pictures.

They had separate rooms where people could sit and watch documentaries of survivors. It was surreal to sit and watch the same broadcasts I saw as a 10 year old. It's crazy to relive things after 21 years.

This was super cool to me and something I didn't know happened.

After getting through the heavy history stuff, there were fun activities for the kids outside. 

The girls were thrilled to get some balloon animals; kitties, of course.

The coolest bus ever!

Me and my Quincey babes. She makes everything better!

Claire Starts Pre-K

I'm learning that Claire is smart. Like, crazy smart. She has the memory of an elephant, nothing goes unnoticed, and she is constantly surprising me at her crazy attention to detail. Her genius is both a blessing and a curse. For one, she often remembers where I put things and can tell me where they are when I forget (or when she hides them). But, her genius causes her to obsess over things, like starting Pre-K for example. It was a loooooooonnnnnnnggggggggg couple of weeks until it was her turn to go to her class. 

This is Claire with Ms Kaylin. Our neighboorhood absolutely raves about Ms Kaylin, so I was pretty excited for Claire to experience her awesomeness.

Claire only had Ms Kaylin for 3 days, until we got an unexpected text saying she had been in a biking accident and was unconscious at the hospital. After multiple surgeries, she was deemed unfit to teach, and we were left high and dry for a few days while we waited to see how she was. Her injuries were so extensive, that her husband emailed us a list. She broke all sides of her body except her left leg - it was crazy! She was optimistic that she would be able to return to teaching by December, but I wasn't too sure that was going to happen, so I frantically called around and got Claire signed up for another preschool. I may have jumped the gun, but Claire needs opportunities to be social, and I need the 3 hours I get on Tuesday's and Thursday's to be productive - it's necessary for both of our sanities!

Ms. Kaylin had her accident the day before the first scheduled field trip to the Kaysville Fire Department, and since she had made an appointment, we all went anyway. It was pretty cool but equally sad to be there without her.

Claire wasn't able to celebrate her birthday in Preschool like we planned, but luckily her new preschool made up for it on the 2nd day she was there. She is happy to be back at Apple Tree Schoolhouse and chose to celebrate by having her classmates dress in their jammies.