Everett's Birthday

so our little buddy is now 5 years old! unfortunately his special day was on a tuesday of a very busy week, but we hope we made it a fun week for him to remember. we started the fun week with father's blessings on sunday. on monday was the big solar eclipse so we got some glasses to check that whole thing out (a little blah but interesting). after checking that out, i headed off to my first day of school while amber and the kids went to claire's open house to meet her teacher. for fhe we headed up to scheels to ride the ferris wheel, which has become a tradition that everett looks forward to every birthday. unfortunately, the ferris wheel was closed for maintenance. saddened, but still determined to have some fun, we stopped for ice cream with the promise we'd come back soon.

the next day everett was officially 5! we started the day off with some birthday donuts before claire had to take off for school and i for work. amber took the boys to the park before coming home for lunch. amber then got to work making one amazing dragon cake. we got pizza for dinner, then opened presents. keeping in theme, we got him a bunch of dragon figurines, which was a big winner. we then carved that dragon cake up and ate him with a side of ice cream. :)

on friday, which was actually seth's birthday, we headed up to oregon for my sister's wedding. along the way north, we stopped at scheels again with the hopes that the ferris wheel was running once more. it was, so we got in a ride to cap off everett's fun week of turning 5.

First Day of School

Claire started 2nd grade! She decided she didn't want to continue in the dual immersion program and we were okay with that decision. I think it's a wonderful program for some, but it wasn't a right fit for us. She loves school and she was super excited to start again. She already loves her teacher, Mrs. Bergeson and is doing great. She's growing up so quickly and showing so much confidence. We love it. :)

Hang Time

To celebrate some August birthdays we went to Hang Time with cousins. It was so much fun! :)

Our Seven Year Old

1. Claire is seven years old!

2. She weighs 48 pounds and is in the 43rd percentile.

3. She is 46 inches tall and is in the 19th percentile for height.

4. Claire is in the second grade and is reading more and more. She is reading the Harry Potter books with her dad. She likes getting the Never Girls books from the library and reads them herself. She most recently has been getting into the Magic Tree House books. She gets them from her school library and likes to read before going to sleep.

5. Claire is in the process of learning how to ride a bike. She's almost got it, but still struggles a little with the balancing part. Scott has been trying a new method by wrapping a large beach towel around her waist and while she rides, he holds onto the ends of the towel so he can correct her balance slightly without actually touching her. I think it's helping.

6. Her most recent accomplishment is being able to swing on the swings herself and not have to be pushed. She was so happy and excited to show us how high she could swing herself. :)

7. Claire is a very caring sister. She has an obvious affection for her brothers. Everett and her get along really well and play together most of the time. And she's always acting like a second mommy to Seth. She's super patient with him and helps him whenever she can. She's excited for another baby brother to come soon and keeps talking about getting to hold him. I love seeing her excitement.

8. I think she's a little OCD like her daddy. She loves to make charts and lists to keep herself organized and to organize their pretend playing. She also went through a phase when she was writing in a journal just like her mommy almost every night. She chose to write on her own, and I'm sure would still be doing it if school and other interests didn't get in the way. :)

9. Claire loves art. It's her favorite subject at school. She's always loved coloring and drawing pictures, but she also loves making things and being crafty. We've gotten her beads that she's enjoyed making necklaces and bracelets out of and she loves decorating things with glitter and stickers. And we very often find piles of scrap pieces of paper around the house because she loves cutting up little snowflakes and hearts and the such. :)

10. Some of Claire's favorites this year include- song: Gethsemane, show/movie: Moana, food: spaghetti, dessert: cake, activity: coloring, color: aqua, holiday: Christmas, day of the week: Saturday, animal: draco lizard, book: Harry Potter, drink: root beer, game: Harry Potter trivia board game, toy: Rainbow (stuffed elephant)

Claire's 7th Birthday

Claire turned 7! She chose cinnamon rolls for breakfast and her favorite - spaghetti, bread sticks, and watermelon for dinner. For her birthday "activity" we had gone swimming at the Provo Rec Center the day before. Some of her cousins were able to come and swim with her and we all had a blast. She's been reading the Harry Potter books with daddy and wanted to watch the first movie that evening. She opened presents which included a flip sequin shirt she asked for (that we went through great lengths to find) and a little pet hedgehog that she really wanted. Since we were having family come over the next day, we were waiting to have her birthday cake til then. But we still sang to her and celebrated with small birthday milkshakes the day of. I think she was pretty happy with her special day.

The next day we made Claire's birthday cake. She wanted a "sky" cake. And since we were making two for all the family coming to celebrate with her, one was the sky and one was the sun. She had fun decorating them though with clouds, birds, and a rainbow. Claire was invited to multiple birthday parties over the school year and asked to have her own birthday party this year. I'm not great at planning parties, but we did invite both our families over and she had a lot of fun playing with cousins, eating cake and opening presents. Scott even set up the projector so the kids could watch a movie while the adults talked. It was a fun evening.

Pioneer Day

We didn't really celebrate Pioneer Day like we normally do every year. It was a pretty normal day until the Dawes showed up. Kids played upstairs with them most of the day. Then that evening we heard they were shooting fireworks at the mall just a few blocks away from us, so we invited cousins and left early to get a spot. We hung out outside and ate cookies for FHE dessert, we played with cousins, music played, and then we watched the fireworks. It didn't start as late as our usual firework show in Spanish Fork and traffic wasn't nearly as bad, it was a pretty good experience that we'd love to repeat in the future. :)

Claire's Teeth

Claire started losing teeth during her Kindergarten year. She had lost her two front teeth for quite a while, but the adult teeth weren't growing in, so she had an adorable gap for quite awhile. At her latest dentist appointment they told us we needed to make that gap larger so that the adult teeth could come in. They ended up extracting two on top and also two on bottom to make room for adult teeth. They told us they'll probably need to extract more next visit. She did very well with the procedure and we had to feed her a lot of yogurt and applesauce and ice cream for a little while which she did not mind at all. :)