5 Days Old
12 Months Old
Claire is officially one year old today! She had a lot of fun at her party and was completely pooped by bedtime. In lieu of gifts, “Claire” chose to have guests bring a check in the amount they would have spent on a gift to go to the Children’s Hospital of Richmond. There’s another foundation, The Peter Pan Foundation, which will make an additional $100 contribution once we submit the paperwork later this week. In total, thanks to your (and “Claire’s”) generosity, our combined contribution will be over $300 to Children’s Hospital! I’m mailing the checks later this week.
There are some thank-you's that are in order:
- To my mom for staying with Claire on Friday so I could run errands for the party
- To everyone who attended the party and celebrated with us
- To those who couldn’t make it to the celebration but still sent cards and checks (and flowers)
- To Angela for cleaning up afterward
- To everyone else who offered to help
- To The Taylors, and especially Sheridan for staying late, for last night - they babysat so Dave and I could have dinner out for my birthday
See below for lots of pictures. The first few are from Alex’s friend Brady’s party, which was the same day as Claire’s party. (Alex has attended four birthday parties in June.) The party was at Hanover Plant & Vegetable Farm - sounds like a boring venue, but it was actually quite fun. Alex got to go on a hayride, ride a pony, see bunnies and chickens and geese, feed goats, and eat cake. But if you ask him about everything he got to do he'll likely tell you, "The goat bit my fingers."
Also, if anybody wants a copy of "Claire's First Year in Photos" (the DVD that we played during the party), let me know and I'll make you one. At 40 minutes it's way too large for any place to host it so I can't put it up here.
Alex looking a bit scared to get on the pony:
He had a look of sheer amazement when I said, "Alex, you're riding a horse!" But this picture doesn't quite capture his expression because I think he was mid-blink:
Feeding the goats, right before he accidentally put his fingers in the goat's mouth (apparently a 2-year-old has a memory span of about 2 seconds when there's something as exciting as goats who need to be fed because I repeatedly shouted that he needed to keep his hand flat - poor kid):
Claire's party - hanging out in the backyard:
Claire smiling at Pop:
The cake - nobody knows, until now, that I attempted to write "Happy Birthday, Claire!" and it looked so bad that I mixed in the writing with the chocolate icing. Dave went out and got some letters and then took a turn at writing her name. I think it turned out well:
Eating cake as if it were a sandwich:
Claire received her gift from Mommy and Daddy this morning (yes, she received a present from us - we didn't deprive her of ALL presents):
Claire's day started to go downhill around 4:30 today when she burst into tears because I wouldn't let her eat Play-Doh:
Alex enjoying Claire's cake tonight:
She didn't enjoy her cupcake tonight nearly as much as she enjoyed the cake at her party. We're not sure whether she was just tired or in pain from teething. She had a slight fever (99.6) so I'm betting her gums are hurting. Poor thing goes to the doctor tomorrow morning and will receive vaccinations. Anybody want to babysit tomorrow afternoon? :)
