Claire is 4!

I know I have been out of the blogging world for a while. I have been busy with 2 birthdays, Christmas, making photo books galore, and feeling pretty crappy from morning sickness. Ahhh! Oh yes, baby #3 is due August 17th. Yea! We're pretty excited about it, and I'm happy to be almost out of the morning sickness phase. Phew! Anyway, more on that another time. Today, I want to share about my beautiful 4 year old girl and her fun birthday!

So Claire's birthday was December 19th. This year, we decided to let her have a friend birthday party, a first for her, which we held on the 15th. We hosted it at Lolli Polli, a place here where there is a huge room of wall to wall trampolines! We also got a party room that we rented for 2 hours. Not only was this a lot of fun for Claire and her six friends who attended, but it was crazy cheap! It was less than $4 per kid, and less than $5 to rent the room for a total of under $33. It was so worth it for Claire to have a party at one of her favorite places, and for us not to have to cram all those kids and parents into our small apartment (not to mention the clean up.) Win! The time went really fast while the kids had fun jumping, singing karaoke, riding little rides, playing birthday bingo, eating cake, etc. It was fun for us to visit with some of their parents who are also some of my closest friends. :) Here are some of the pics from the party.

The party room was already nicely decorated.

We brought some of our own decorations and balloons though since I just thought these were too cute to not buy. :)

Maddie likes the video games that are just her size. 

Claire and the karaoke machine. 

The birthday girl loves these rides. 

Claire jumping with Ella in the background. 

Lizzy, Ella, and Tommy playing birthday bingo!

More birthday bingo fun!

Claire really wanted pupcakes again like she had for her second birthday. She was so excited about them, and they are pretty fun to make!

Singing happy birthday.  I think Claire felt weird to have everyone sing to her. She  got very still and serious.

Avery, Kailani, and Claire eating the pupcakes

Everyone loved the candy/ cookie toppings

Lily, Lyn, and Lizzy

Maddie even got a present from Alisha. It was a little doll that looks a lot like her dressed in a giraffe costume like she was for Halloween. 

Everyone likes to help open presents! It was cute to see everyone really excited for Claire to open the present they brought for her. :)

Claire's presents. 

We moms decided that trampolines are not just fun for kids. We joined them at the end, and had lots of fun!

Alisha leading a little "Ring Around the Rosey"

She had a great time at the party. Later that night, her friend who ended up with a terrible ear infection and was at the doctor during the party, stopped by to give her a present too. And by "a" present, I mean, a huge bag with a TON of presents. My friend, Alexandra, is extremely generous when she goes to any gift giving party.

It was nice to celebrate Claire's actual birthday as a family on her birthday day this year. Last year we celebrated it early just in case I went into labor or was in the hospital with Maddie (which of course didn't happen as she was born the next day.) We had a great celebration at home. While she wanted to go to Red Lobster like last year, that wasn't possible in Korea, so I made her what she wanted at home - shepherd's pie. We had a cozy meal at home with more pupcakes, ice cream and presents. Here are a few more pictures.

Presents from us and Aunt Cay and Uncle John. (More presents came later in the mail.)

She loves her melodica. I had never heard of such a thing until Chris showed me. Cool!

A book with a picture of her face on every page.

She loves her princess pen and notebooks from Aunt Cay.

Claire with her presents - a melodica, a craft kit, a magnetic board with letters and numbers, her book with her picture, 2 notebooks, and a princess pen. :) (She always wants to wear that dress that Miss Cat gave her for birthday/ Christmas. I usually say no unless it's Sunday because I don't want her to romp around in it. It was her birthday though, so I said yes.)

I have to say, while I am sometimes sad reminiscing about the cute baby Claire once was and realizing the time going by, I am so proud of the little girl she is and the person she is becoming. I am so blessed to have her as my daughter. She is so smart, imaginative, clever, funny, energetic, beautiful, graceful, an awesome big sister, nurturing, affectionate, sensitive, thoughtful, loving, caring, careful, and sweet. I have been impressed with how she does what she says she will, has integrity, takes care of her sister, and is so willing to help. I have the most wonderful conversations with her - imaginative ones, silly ones, deep gospel ones, great life lesson ones like how to treat others and how we are so blessed for things like food, clothing, toys, warmth, etc., and just everyday ones like what our favorite part of the day was or what she learned at preschool. This little girl is so incredibly special. She seems so grown up to me in so many ways. I'm impressed with how she prays with such meaning and asks great questions when we read scriptures or have a spontaneous gospel discussion. I love talking about how to treat others. This little girl continues to amaze me more and more the older she gets. I feel so blessed to have her as my sweet daughter, a big sister and great example for Maddie and future children, and my friend.