Cake & Gifts

The favorite parts of the party for the birthday girl were: Having everybody sing Happy Birthday to her, blowing out her candle, eating her ice cream cupcake, and of course... opening her gifts! Her are some cute pics of all of the above mentioned!

Make a wish!

She loved the attention! Typical first born: Attention Seeker!

Yummy (they really were delicious cupcakes)!!!

Mmmm!!!!

YAY! Finally time to open the gifts!

Claire got some great presents! THANK YOU!!

Nuna made Claire a Raggedy Ann (or Raggelly Ann as Claire says!!). Claire chose pink and brown for the colors, so she's not your typical red doll, but we think she is adorable and she looks perfect on Claire's doll quilt!

Claire & "Ragelly Ann"!

I Scream, You Scream...

I scream, You scream, We ALL scream for Claire's 4th Birthday (oh yeah, and we also scream for ice cream!). The ice cream table minus the ice cream at this point. It was too hot to leave it out!

The kids enjoying their ice cream!

I think Benjamin wore more ice cream than he ate!

Anna is a huge ice cream lover!

Lots of different toppings and fun stuff to put on your sundae or cone!

Ice cream is the BEST!

Claire's Ice Cream Social

For Claire's 4th birthday, I hosted an ice cream social! It was a HOT day so it was perfect for the cool treat! We all had a fun day celebrating our big four year old!

I had so much fun with the ice cream decorations!

My mom made ice cream cone cupcakes to go along with the ice cream theme! They turned out even cuter than I anticipated!!

I LOVE planning birthday parties!

Birthday Dress

Claire was so excited to wear her birthday dress to church on Sunday morning! She looked so sweet in her pretty dress! My four year old! How old are you, Claire?

Some sweet photos of the birthday girl with her baby sis!

~Kisses~

Yeah, they love each other!

Claire's 4th Birthday

On July 16th, Claire turned FOUR! It's hard to believe that my baby is a big four year old! I have to admit that I was a bit nostalgic when I put her to bed the night before her birthday. I am so thankful for a healthy, smart, growing girl, but there is definitely a part of me that wants her to stay little forever! The moment she was born my life changed in ways I could've never imagined. Motherhood is AMAZING, a roller coaster at times, but amazing nonetheless!! I woke up five minutes before the time of her birth (no alarm clock... a mama just knows!!), so I took a picture of my sleeping girl at 3:40am on July 16th (the date and time she was born four years ago!).

I had a couple gifts for her to open when she woke up!

She was so excited from the moment she got up!

When Daddy got home, we gave Claire her big gift! A princess bike!!! She was beyond excited to get a big girl bicycle!

This picture is precious! Claire was running to me to hug me right after she saw her bike!

Such a great little bike rider! She picked it up quickly!

Daddy coaching Claire! As a side note: She does have a helmet!

7.16.10

Part two of C's Birthday:Claire has become a pro at posing!!

I had to add this sweet picture of my Anna! She said "Happy Birthday, Sister" at least one hundred times that day!

Opening up a gift from Grammy & Papa!

At the restaurant, Grammy let Claire open up a special gift. It was a book about horses and a certificate for her to go ride a horse. Not a pony... a HORSE! She was so excited!

Claire had the option to invite Anna along for the horse riding. She is telling Anna that she can come along (after a little coaxing!). The girls are going to LOVE this adventure!

The waitresses singing Happy Birthday to Claire! I love her face! Pure joy!!!

I can't imagine our family without Claire. She adds so much joy, excitement, energy, and love to our home. She has truly made me a better person and I thank God constantly for the gift of Claire! Happy 4th Birthday, Claire Bear!