Halloween is Coming

We were able to talk Clara into coloring the pumpkin instead of carving it.  We let her decorate it all by herself and we let Joe think he was helping.

 The finished project:

First Steps

Joseph recently took his first few steps.  He's still only taking steps when being coerced by his parents, but he is willing to walk behind a box all day.

Update

For this week's blog post, I wanted to give a brief update of my sister Rachael.  She starts her chemotherapy tomorrow.  She'll have 6 treatments that she will receive every 3 weeks.  They were able to catch the cancer as early as possible, so she is expected to make a full recovery!

Clara's Birthday Week

Clara started her week by being spotlighted in school.  She got to bring in a poster that was all about her.  She wanted to do the poster completely by herself - insisting that it didn't need any words.  So here is her poster along with my explanations of each picture.

Top left picture: Clara loves to design clothes, so those are some of her creations.
Middle left picture: Her family
Bottom Left Picture: Her favorite picture (of her and Jeremy at the temple.)
Top Middle: Herself
Top Right: She loves to draw
Middle Right: She loves to pick flowers
Bottom Right: Her and her best friend Keely (just after they dressed Joe up to be a princess.)

Friday was her actual birthday and the first snow fall of the year!  Clara wasn't too excited that winter came on her birthday this year.  She said that she hopes spring comes quickly. 

Friday was also the very first friend party I've ever let her have.  She was so excited to pass out invitations and have people come.  This is all her friends who came.

Addilyn, Camrie, Addison, Melissa, Melanie, Keely, and Clara

The party's theme was Pinkalicious.  We started it by coloring - one of Clara's favorite activities.  While the girls were coloring, I read them a Pinkalicous book so those girls who hadn't heard of her would know who the party was all about.  We then got to have a Pinkalicious pinata. I loved that it was the kind of pinata you could pull strings to open so we didn't have any mishaps with a bat.....

We then had presents and chocolate chip cookies.  Clara only recently discovered that she likes chocolate chip cookies, so that's what she wanted at a dessert.  It was interesting putting candles into cookies!
We ended the party by having all the girls make bracelets.  It was fun and I was glad we didn't invite too many kids to the party.  I'm also grateful that Jeremy left work early to help out with taking care of Joseph while I tried to keep 7 girls on task.  He also did great at taking pictures for me!

We ended her birthday week by having a family birthday party for her on Sunday.  She once again chose chocolate chip cookies and added in some chocolate ice cream.  Happy 6th Birthday Clara.  Hope you had a wonderful week!