Sunday, July 19, 2020

Claire's birthday party!

Claire had an awesome 11th birthday party! She had 6 of her closest friends over for a swim day and sleepover (sadly, Addisyn Merriwether couldn't make it). She wanted a flamingo themed party and the girls all loved to pile onto the huge flamingo float!
 They all enjoyed some time in the hot tub as well, but not for too long since it was so warm outside.
 Claire picked a cookie cake with flamingo decoration!





 We had planned some fun games for the girls to play. We started with "How well do you know Claire?" If they got the question right, they got to dump ice water on Claire's head, if wrong, Claire got to get them with ice water. Claire requested this game and ended up getting iced many times!



 Then we played a game where you had to push a beach ball to the other end of the pool and back by only using your head. The girls liked this challenge and they all did really well with it!

 Next was dumping ice water over your head to your teammate, go down the line and the last person has to be the first to fill up the bucket at the end. This was super fun, but super cold! I had to step in the make the teams even and I sure am glad I put on my suit!



 Another game we played involved the person to put on a very large wet t-shirt, swim to the other end of the pool and back with it on. Then get out and take it off, and the next person had to repeat this. The kids all said this was a very hard game and didn't want to play it for a second time!
 Finally we played a game where Jeff would give a topic or a specific word and each team would have to go one at a time to find each letter on a ping pong ball and run it back so their teammate could go to find another letter. The first team to complete the word and spell it correctly won. The girls had lots of fun with this and we played it many times!
 You can't have a party without a water balloon fight when it is 100 degrees outside. So much fun!

 Since we are in the Coronavirus pandemic right now, we had to get a picture of the girls all wearing masks!
 We ended the evening with an outdoor movie in the pool. The girls made it through about half of it before wanting to get out of the pool. It was a super busy, exhausting day but they managed to stay awake until after 2am! We sent some tired kids home to their families this morning!

Friday, July 17, 2020

I want to mow the lawn!

When it was time to mow lawn, Claire was quick to voice her desire to learn how to do this chore. Jeff took her outside and gave her many instructions before allowing her to try it out. She managed to do the entire lawn with Jeff at her side! We are super proud of how hard she worked to finish and not give up in the heat. Guess I will have to fight her to get to mow lawn again (all three of us enjoy mowing!)




Happy birthday Claire-once you finally came home!

Claire got to open even more presents when she arrived home. She got a key chain and pen from our travels while she was away...
 a huge unicorn float since hers got a hole in it and she loved it...
 a big flamingo beach towel (her party here is flamingo theme per her request!)...
 a huge shell from the beach (we told her we found it on the beach and her eyes got huge...we did go on to tell her the truth that we bought it at a store and she loved it anyway)...
 and a string of clip lights for her to hang her poloroids on in her room.
 She was quick to find a spot for her pictures!

 Of course we had to get in some pool time with our girl! As grateful as we are that she was able to have 5 weeks with her cousins and the rest of our family, we are so thankful to have Claire back home. It just isn't the same without her silly personality around!

A summer to remember!

Claire had such a blast this summer with her cousins in Minnesota. She was excited to see me but had many mixed emotions about going home. So thankful for our amazing family who took our daughter in and loved on her so much for 5 weeks! The memories made will last a lifetime. I was only there for 1.5 days and was able to make lots of fun memories so I know Claire has too many to count! 
My family surprised me by waiting for me inside the airport! Was so wonderful to see them when I arrived!




 Claire got to put her fishing skills to practice with live bait! She loved catching sunfish off the dock!





 Meet Captain Claire!





 We got to celebrate Auntie Annie's 40th birthday while I was in Minnesota! The kids worked hard to decorate the driveway for her!







 Can you tell where Claire spent most of her time this summer?! The kids could all live in the lake I think!