Claire is 5!!

We curled her hair for school on Friday.
Since her birthday was on a Saturday,
they celebrated her birthday at school
on Friday!

Today is my sweet, precious Claire's 5th birthday!  We celebrated a little last night as Kelly, Ava, Claire, and I went to Brunswick.  Our annual tradition is to take the girls out to eat on their actual birthday.  Since Claire's birthday was on Saturday, and we were going to have her party that day also, we decided to go ahead and take her last night.  We ate at Outback and went to see "Wreck it Ralph" at the movies.  Maybe next year Julianna can join us; however, after viewing the video Aunt Quincy sent, I don't think she was missing us too much!

This morning we sang "Happy Birthday" to Claire and piled on lots of hugs and kisses.  I retold her the story about the day she was born!  She loves to hear that story!  Kelly and I then decided to go ahead and give her her present from us.  She was excited to see she had received a television with a built in DVD player to go in her room.  We did not hook up our dish network to her TV.  She is only allowed to watch movies in her room and only when we approve it.  ** I wonder if this was more for Claire or Kelly.  He's been looking for a way to get the living room TV back**  We then got up and started getting everything ready for her party.  She decided she wanted a small family party so that we could do something big as a family.  As it turns out, we will probably do a lot of little things that she's been wanting to do.

One thing she was for sure about was what kind of cake she wanted.  She wanted a "Brave" cake, and I, fresh off my cake decorating class, was happy to oblige.  I was so happy at the way the cake turned out and I think Claire was too!  She had a wonderful party surrounded by so many people that love her!

We started tradition with Ava that once the girls turned five, they had the option of getting their ears pierced. Claire assured us that she indeed wanted hers pierce, so after the party, we all loaded up and headed to Claire's.  After filling out forms and going over proper care, it was go time.  Claire was doing great and I thought, "wow, she's so calm."  Shouldn't have thought that!  The lady put the ear gun up to her ear and told her to hold still.  That's when Claire lost it!

Now picture this scene:  The mall is packed with people, it being Christmas and all, and we were right next to where Santa pictures were being took.  One of our children is screaming, the older one is going around the store trying on every thing she likes and trying to show us at the same time the baby is squirming to get down.  Kelly is trying to keep tabs on the baby but doesn't want to stray too far so he can see the screaming daughter get her ears pierced...maybe?  I am trying to keep one eye on the older daughter and trying to calm down the screaming daughter.  Meanwhile everyone is looking at us!  I tried to calm Claire down, and offered to hold her in my lap while she got her ears pierced, but she wasn't having that!  Kelly tried to calm her down but to no avail!  Finally, after a few minutes with no success, I hugged her and told her that she didn't have to get her ears pierced and that we could try again next year.  She liked that idea!  So did we!