Clara's 5th Birthday

Today we celebrated Clara turning 5! It is hard for me to believe that my "baby" is five. We have done several fun things over the past few days to celebrate her birthday. We knew the weather was going to be cold and rainy this past weekend, so we asked Clara if we could do some special things as a family instead of having a birthday party with friends and she agreed.



The birthday girl with her balloon and birthday trophy.

On Saturday we took the girls to see the new Disney movie "Moana." We all really liked the movie. For an extra special treat they got to have popcorn and lemonade.



At the movie (with popcorn!)

On Sunday we went to the Walton Arts Center to see The Northwest Arkansas Symphony and The Snowman. We went to this show last year too. It is a fun event with good Christmas music by the Symphony, Christmas carol sing-along, The Snowman film, and (fake) snow coming down from the ceiling.


With the Symphony Orchestra behind them.

On Monday evening we went out to eat with all four grandparents. We let Clara choose what type of food/restaurant she wanted and she chose "sushi"! We went to a Japanese restaurant where the girls used chop sticks and had California rolls, rice, and noodles. Josh and I love Japanese food, so we thought it was great that she chose this.

She requested chicken and dumplings for her birthday dinner at home. So I made homemade chicken and dumplings. She also requested a chocolate cake, with white frosting, with strawberries on top, with Sofia on it.


Birthday girl with her cake.

Some updates on the birthday girl:

• She loves to sing. She knows lyrics to lots of songs that come on the radio or that we play at home. Almost every song she hears is "her favorite song." If she's not singing real songs, she is making up songs.
• She is still very much into art projects. Glue, tape, yarn, stickers, markers, little bits of paper--she loves it. She comes home daily from school with some sort of creation. 
• She is in the stage of wanting to know how to spell everything and write out things. We just started working through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We did this same book with Esther. Clara is very anxious to start reading.
• She is a total farm girl. She loves to be outside. She always wants to help Josh. She is good and opening/closing gates, going to get a tool, helping haul wood, etc. 
• She is still our funny, crazy girl. She is always making faces, talking in funny voices, and saying funny things. 
• She goes for her 5 year old doctor check-up in a few weeks. We will see how tall she is then. I know she is the tallest kid in her class. She can wear Esther's clothes, and her feet are bigger than Esther's . She will also be getting her physical/shots for kindergarten at that doctor's appointment!