Here turtle turtle!

We have been blessed with amazing weather these past few days! Yesterday we decided to take some cracker and feed the turtles in the pond.

 This guy ate the majority of the crackers while many other turtles observed.

 What a fun activity to do on a beautiful day!

Baker turned cook!

I ordered a cooking kit through Rad Dish and the minute it arrived, Claire couldn't wait to start cooking. Each month they send 3 recipes with a grocery list and step by step kid-friendly instructions for children to do cooking and baking. When Jeff and I got home, we walked into the dining room table set and dinner ready to be served. Claire and G-Ma worked very hard to get a nice meal on the table. Come to find out, the only thing G-ma helped with was cutting the onion!

This is a picture of the dessert...sticky toffee pudding. It was delicious!

 Claire removing her main dish out of the oven!

 Ta-da! Dinner is served! She made Irish cottage pie (same as Shepherd's Pie) and it was amazing. The best part was that Claire even ate it and loved it! The picky girl who won't eat anything mixed together or touching dug into her meal and finished her plate! I love this idea and can't wait for next month's menu to arrive!

Our little baker!

Claire has gotten to the point now that she can make a cake or cupcakes entirely on her own! I get a little nervous but do my best to stand back and just let her learn and experiment. She has really become a good baker and I know her Snugglebunny would be so proud of her! He is the one who got her started with baking before she could even walk!

 She made the batter all by herself with the beaters and then filled each cupcake spot the just the right amount.

 She figured out how to fit both pans of cupcakes and a small cake in the oven at one time.

 Claire had fun decorating the cupcakes and cake while Dad was the taste tester (even though Claire was unaware at the time!)

 Success!

Six Flags Fiesta Texas with G-Ma

We had a wonderful weekend at Six Flags Fiesta Texas with G-ma! Claire conquered her fear of the big roller coaster, Superman! She was a trooper even though she didn't enjoy the ride! We even got G-ma to go on some big rides like the Superman and the super high swings! It was so fun to watch everyone having a great time together. We are so loving our time with Grandma and are treasuring every moment!

Building an ice cream truck for church car parade

The girls had a car parade and "drive in movie" night at church last Wednesday. The weekend before they spent many hours working on building their ice cream truck for the big event. Jeff had them work through each step and discuss the pros and cons of their ideas before putting them into action.

They had to do the entire project by themselves with just minimal help from Jeff. 

 Of course girls have to have some fun to break up the hard work!

They also have to break for some pizza and water.

 The almost finished project! We are so very proud of their teamwork, effort, and creativity!

 Here they are in the church parade. The girls didn't win a prize but they definitely won in many other ways...they learned how important it is to work together and value each other's ideas, how it is good to brainstorm before jumping in to the idea, and they walked away feeling very proud of their accomplishment. I have to say, they won in so many ways and had such a fun time doing this together!

8 and under champs swim meet

Claire had her best swim meet to date yesterday. We were glad to have G-Ma spend the day with us and watch Claire get her best times ever!

 Claire swam the fly for the Medley Relay and her team got 3rd place.

 She came in 6th for her 50 yard backstroke.

 She rocked the 25 yard breaststroke and came in 2nd place! She took of almost 2 seconds on her previous time and came in with a time of 24.95 seconds.

 Claire placed 4th in the 25 yard freestyle and took 2.28 seconds off of her previous time and came in with a time of 17.35 seconds.

 We could not be more proud of the effort and hard work Claire has put into swimming. She definitely loves the sport and works hard at practice. Her hard work really paid off and she continues to get stronger and faster each meet! 

There is nothing better than coming home to snuggle with her favorite dog after a great swim meet!