Claire's A Cutie!

Claire's personality- the FUN side- is really starting to come out. She is such a HAM. And, she knows how to push buttons!

The other day we were driving in the car. Claire had a pair of dress-up shoes and she said, "my princess shoes", to which Audra started crying and screaming- "Claire keeps saying they are her dress-up shoes, but they're not- they're MY dress-up shoes!"

Trying to diffuse this obvious catastrophe and end of the world moment, I said, "Audra, they are both of your shoes- they belong to both you and Claire."

Audra turned to Claire and very matter-of-factly said, "Claire, they are not your shoes. They are both of our shoes."

Claire then immediately turned to Audra and very calmly said, "My princess shoes." Audra screamed and wailed for 5 more minutes.

For being only 2, this girl has all of our numbers!

She also takes after Audra. She now insists on picking out all of her own clothes and putting them on all by herself. She loves dresses, and LOVES Audra's Pinkalicious dress. Sometimes, she wears 3 shirts and no pants. That's the way we roll at this house- anything goes when it comes to clothes.

But doesn't she look SO cute?

Audra's Portfolio

Here's some of Audra's art work and other stuff from school:

Snuggle Buddies

Every night after Claire finishes her dinner (all two bites of it) she says, "I want to sit on the couch with mommy." She doesn't like to sit, though- she likes to climb all over me. Ben got this great shot the other night:

Here's To A Great Dad!

This Family Circus was in the newspaper a couple weeks ago, and when I saw it I LOVED it because it totally reminded me of Ben, and tonight it was once again so apparent how lucky I am to have Ben as the father of my kiddos! They are so lucky to have him! I LOVE watching him play chase, hide-and-seek, and Build-a-Bear dress-up with the girls. He is so awesome. Seriously. He rocks. And I think my girls know it- they LOVE their daddy!

Firetruck!!

This time, we saw a firetruck for a good reason!

Audra's pre-school had the local fire department bring their truck down and siblings and parents were invited to come take a tour and meet the firemen. It was really great- and I learned a few things as well.

 They were divided into two groups. One group got to tour the firetruck while the other group saw what firemen wear. Thankfully, while the firemen was talking about what he wears, there were some books for Claire to look at. It takes a lot to entertain that girl.

 The fireman put on his gear and he talked for a long time about how he isn't scary with his gear, 

that it is still him and that he is really nice. He said sometimes little kids will be afraid of him and 

run away from him when he is trying to help, but that he isn't scary at all. Claire looked up

from reading his book and said, "he's really scary."

 The pre-school class got to get up and have their picture taken as a class up here on the firetruck, so Claire also insisted on getting up there. It was really neat.

 Audra also learned to stop, drop, and roll- which she tells me "get on the floor" if you are on fire. She'll learn though. I am glad the pre-school is doing so much to teach her all of these great skills. I also thought it was great that the firemen would come out to a small pre-school with only 9 kids to teach them about fire safety. What a great day!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Tuesday was the big 3-3. I have to keep doing the math in my head now to remember how old I am, and Ben is at the point where he always asks me how old he is. Aren't we a little young for that?

Anyway, we really didn't do anything too special for my Birthday- which I was totally OK with. I am realizing that I have a lot of Birthdays- every year they keep coming. I don't need a big spectacle for each one- especially when there are everybody's else's Birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine's Day, Christmas, etc. There are a lot of great things to celebrate! So it was nice to just relax and spend time as a family. We went out to dinner at Gorbanzo's- not even a restaurant with menus. That's what happens when you have a Claire-Bear in the family: sit down dinners are not worth the effort. But, I LOVE Gorbanzo's and Ben does not, so we don't go there very often, so I was more than happy to have my Birthday dinner there.

For my Birthday, I really didn't want anything. Weird, huh? But September ended up being an expensive month, and Christmas is just around the corner, and I have pretty much everything I want, so Ben told me that Audra had an idea of what to get me and I told him that is what I wanted. Whatever Audra picked out.

Completely on her own, Audra came up with the gift idea. Then, Ben took her to the store and she picked out the exact gift. What did she get me:

A head band! She is obsessed with head bands, so this is really cute that she picked this out for me. I, of course, LOVE it and think it is about the best Birthday present ever, and I wear it with pride!

At The Zoo

We got one of those Living Social deals for 50% off at the zoo, so today we headed to see the animals. And I will say, this is a once a year activity. Not because we do not like the zoo, on the contrary it was fantastic. However, traffic getting to the zoo is a beast, and there is no way I want to make that drive more than once a year- or once every 5 years. We'll see.

But, we really did have a great time. The kids can't stop talking about. Claire keeps saying over and over again, "Monkeys swinging, monkeys swinging!"

 Claire could have just watched the monkeys all day long. She LOVES monkeys! Luckily, the zoo had plenty.

Audra said her favorites were "the zebras, the giraffes, and the zebras" (no, that's not a typo).

 

Audra got tired and got into the stroller for a ride. Claire went and gave her a huge hug and said, "Oh, Audra, are you OK?" 

 Then, Claire decided she also wanted to ride. As you can tell, they both LOVED it.

I absolutely love this picture of Claire.