Ice Cream Party

The week of Claire`s birthday, her daycare was doing a `Kids in the Kitchen` theme and invited parents to volunteer to come in and cook with the kids. So I decided to have an ice-cream sundae making session with her class to celebrate her birthday with her daycare friends.

Here are the toppings I brought in - smarties, cookies, and marshmallows. The marshmallows were a HUGE hit. I also got waffle bowls for extra fun.

Here she is in her party hat and taking a big bite of her sundae.

Look at the joy on her face.

Even her brother couldn`t help but smile. Again, I love seeing him at the little kids table.

A family shot.

Her friends also made her this lovely card.

She`s had an exciting past couple of days! But even though her birthday is over, she is still singing `happy birthday to me`. I know she is already counting down the days until her next year.

24 Month Milestone

Today Claire is 2 years old!! It's been a great 2 years and we look forward to each and every day. She's a great combination of sweet and sassy all wrapped up in cute and cuddly. She continues to amaze us by the level of her speech and understanding. She's an avid reader and loves to sing songs...especially Happy Birthday to herself. She has no problems telling her big brother what to do. One might say she's even a little bossy. It's as they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, haha. We love her so very much! Here is her latest monthly photo:

We decided to keep her hair nice and short as she won't let us do anything with it. Suri Cruise has nothing on Claire Clemente's bob cut!

And here are the many faces of Claire.

Let's begin with a thoughtful Claire. You can just see her brain processing her thoughts and thinking of how to ariticulate her words. A-MAZE-ING I tell you.

A squirmy Claire. It's very hard to keep her still for photos.

An on-the-verge upset Claire. Now that I`ve read the `Happiest Toddler on the Block`, I can usually prevent this Claire 90% of the time.

A happy-go-lucky Claire. She's a joy and will bring a smile to any stranger's face.

And the slideshow of months past:

One Last Gift

So we were going to hold off on giving Claire her present until her actual birthday but I couldn't wait any longer! She already got all the kitchen items, so this was the icing on the cake!

We bought this kitchen from Toys R Us and all the reviews said that it took 3 days to put together. Note: 3 days for the dads to put together alone. In other words, they don't read directions. I told Anthony we were going to prove them wrong. How? Well, ofcourse I was going to look at the directions and tell him what to do!

So Claire went down for nap and we went to work! Here are all the pieces laid out...there were lots and over 40 steps to put it together.

Daddy working hard as I dictate the steps and handed him the peices. Teamwork!

Overall, there was only 1 tricky part - adding on the counter - where the alignment was off a bit with the pre-drilled plugs, so we decided to skip putting in all the plugs and it was fine. And the finished product:

It took us almost 4 hours to do. I love this kitchen because its a lot sleaker than the plastic kitchens. It also goes nicely with the other wooden items she already has.

And now it was time to get Claire. At first she walked right by it. But when it finally caught her attention, she went right over and started playing. Here she is holding up the iron in excitment.

Unpacking her pots and pans getting ready to make us a meal.

I would of loved something like this when I was little. Let`s say Claire and I will have lots of fun with this over the next few years.

The After-Party

Once everyone was gone and we had cleaned up, Claire got to play with some of her new toys before bed. We slept over at Anthony's parents.

Here she is cutting some apple pie. She then served it to us.

Checking out the cutting food.

This continued the next day when we went home. The cupcake set was really cute. It had icing markers so you could decorate your cupcakes yourself. Claire liked this a lot. Here are her decorated cupcakes.

You just wipe off with a cloth and you can decorate as many times as you like.

Isaac helping Claire open up the cookie set.

Claire decorating her cookies.

Then it was time for nap. Little does Claire know, she'll have 1 last surprise when she wakes up!

Birthday Party - Part 7 - Pinata Fun

Yes, there was more! We got a strawberry pinata too!

A before shot of the strawberry.

Claire getting ready to swing.

She`s got it!

Look at the level on concentration on her face.

Then all the kids got a shot. We went from youngest to oldest (except Adam).

Ben.

Ryan.

Mya.

Thaiana.

Isaac.

After each kid had 2 turns, the stawberry pinata still held up, but the hook did not. Since it was no longer a moving target, Adam got a swing too.

And then Isaac just ended up ripping it open.

Everyone grabbing their share.

And the after shot of the strawberry.

After this we gave out the loot bags which consisted of an ice cream bowl and spoon and gift certificate to Dairy Queen.

We thank everyone for making Claire`s 2nd birthday party a special one!

Birthday Party - Part 6 - Birthday Cake

Finally!!! Cake time!

Here is Claire looking on in anticipatin as her candles get loaded onto her cake.

She practiced blowing out candles with Daddy all week so she is super excited.

Before we got to singing happy birthday, we took some photos.

Claire with Mommy, Daddy, Isaac and baby bump.

Claire with Grandma and Grandpa.

Claire with Muncle Marc, Auntie Joanne, Ryan and Adam. Don’t they look good with 3 kids?

Claire with the Kongmany girls - Grandma, Auntie Soupy, Mya and Thaiana.

Claire with Auntie Jessica, Uncle Anthony and Ben.

Alright, getting down to business. The candles have been lit.

Happy Birthday has been sung, and it`s time to blow out these candles. There goes 1.

There goes 2.

And there goes 3 for good luck.

Look how proud of herself she is!

And now she is rewarded with a piece of cake and ice cream cupcake...ofcourse she had to have both.

She has forgotten her manners by now and has stuffed whatever she can into her mouth.

Ryan enjoying the dessert.

Mya and Thaiana approve too.

Isaac inhaling his second cup cake. He`s a growing boy...

Grandma and Ben enjoying their cup cake.

Dido for Adam.

Everything was a hit!