Claire's 6th Birthday

Claire turned 6 years old. Logically and mathematically I obviously know how this is possible, but still....how is this possible?! I can't believe we have been her parents for 6 years now.

We got her the new Lola Dutch book (her favorite!), an Elsa sweatshirt (fitting as she requested a frozen party), and a wardrobe and bed for her Willa Wellie Wisher doll.

We threw her very first friend party this year.  Past years we have only invited family, but since she is now in kindergarten and has a few close friends we thought a friend party was finally in order.  She wanted an Oreo cheesecake for her birthday cake and we also made cupcakes for her party.

We kept things very simple and easy.  After the party guests arrived Bryce took Peter to the library so Claire could have girl time with her friends.  The girls decorated snowflake wands and crowns with stick on jewels, had cupcakes and ice cream, played a few games, and then Claire opened presents.  It was fun to have her friends there to celebrate and have a house full of little girls for a couple hours.  After her party was finished Peter had his first soccer game we all went.  It was so fun to watch him, and Claire got to play with her new Frozen sticker book she received as a gift during his game.  After the soccer game Claire chose to eat at Jake's Over the Top for her bday dinner.  We had burgers, fries, and ice cream.  We went home for a little bit after eating and then took the kids to an Ogden Mustangs Hockey Game.  Claire was exhausted and actually fell asleep at the hockey game.  We were a little worried she was getting sick or something, but I think she was just worn out because she seemed fine the next day.  Sunday on her actual birthday we had grandparents over that night for cupcakes and ice cream.  She combined her money from grandparents and ordered a caboodle for her make up and nail polish, and a new doll carriage for her bitty baby.Happy 6th Birthday Claire!  

Resurrecting the Blog

After a two and a half year hiatus I'm back! I decided to start blogging again.  I stopped blogging in the middle of a busy transitional year for our family.  I went back to work shortly after Peter turned one.  I was offered  a part-time position at the office I had worked at before I had Claire, and I gratefully accepted the offer.  About a month after I went back to work we moved to a new rental.  A new job plus a new house and neighborhood created a busy couple of months.  Bryce and I were able to work opposite schedules. Bryce worked early mornings until 2 pm and I worked from 2pm-7pm 4 evenings a week.  It worked out really well for our kids, but meant single parenting most of the time since one of us was almost always at work if the other parent was at home.  This schedule and the ages of our kids left little time for blogging. I was just not interested in allotting any of the limited free time I had to blogging.  I wasn't sure if I was done forever, but decided to not worry about it for a while.

We've had mostly the same type of schedule ever since although Bryce did get a different job in the Fall of 2018 so we've swapped and I now work 4 mornings a week from 6 am-12 pm and Bryce works evenings from 1 pm- around 10 pm.  Claire started kindergarten this past Fall, Peter started preschool, and I started grad school!  Even though more has been added to our schedules, I actually have more free time than I used to.  Parenting a 6 and 3  year old is very different and in most ways much less demanding than parenting a 1 and 3 year old.  My kids are older now and require less hands on, undivided attention as they did when they were younger.  They play together as well as independently for long stretches of time.  They are involved in more activities that I just drop them off at (extracurricular activities, birthday parties, play dates, etc.).  I started to miss blogging and from time to time would revisit old posts.  I missed having a space to share my thoughts and our day to day activities.  I decided to go back and blog the past 2 1/2 years worth of activities and events.  The posts aren't super detailed but I did at least post pictures from the bigger events and activities we've done.  Text is sparse but it's sill documented.  I'm not sure how often I'll blog or if it will be in spurts, but I do plan to make more of an effort at keeping the blog up to date from now on!