Happy Third Birthday!!

Opening presents ( blurry. Ugh.)

Cake time

Blew out all her candles

So I posted that mac and cheese recipe and didn't even realize that it was Claire's birthday. We were all sick. Claire and Alex both had colds and coughs and Alann and I woke up feeling pretty awful. We stayed home from church too.
Anyway, Claire is the big three years old now. It's hard to believe at times that she is really that old. We spent the week leading up to her birthday rehearsing what to say when people ask how old she is and talking about what a birthday is. She seems to have figured it out pretty well. The day after her birthday I told her that she wasn't big enough to do something, and she said "Yes I am Mom, I'm three years old!" We opened a few presents. She got a very cool clock from Nana. It changes colors when it's okay to get up, and she actually abides by it. She hasn't gotten up before 7:30 since she got it. (I only wish we could train Alex too!) I made her a super-hero cape too. She loved it for a few days and has since forgotten it. She was quite excited for her small presents. I'm glad that she is still young enough to just be glad to get something. We also went to Toys-R-Us the day before her birthday and she got to pick out a present from us there. She picked a big easel with a chalkboard on one side and a dry erase board on the other. I kind of wish it had two chalkboards, but that's okay. None of the options were double chalkboards. The kids LOVE it. Claire has been very nice about sharing it with Alex.
After presents, Alann and Claire shared a birthday cake. Their birthdays are only a few days apart, but this is the first time they have shared a cake. Claire blew out the candles first then we relit them for Alann and he blew them out. Then Claire wanted Alex to have a turn. We told her no, it wasn't his birthday yet. Overall, it was a fun day. Now she keeps asking about Alex's birthday. For a few days, she kept saying Alex's birthday is on Sunday (since hers was on a Sunday). Now she seems to have forgotten about it.
Overnight and the next day, we finally got a decent amount of snow. Claire was SO excited. She just loves the snow. She definitely remembers last winter when we had tons of snow. In the two days that the snow really stuck around, she wanted to be out in it constantly. We sledded several times and built snowmen. The kids actually wore the snow pants I bought last winter and was starting to think they would not even wear.  I've decided this year to only buy one pair of snow pants in a larger size (probably a 5T or smallest kid size). I've got 2T and 3T (I thought I bought a 4T but didn't). They also got to wear the snow boots Aunt Jen sent us. Alex is not so sure about the snow. He pretty much hated sledding. He went once and wouldn't go again, with us, with Claire, by himself. I can't say I blame him. I hate going down a hill at a fast speed too. I went skiing once and had a really hard time with it. He didn't want to play in the snow or do anything else. He hated it last winter too. I thought maybe he would grow out of it. Maybe next year.
For Alann's birthday, we managed to find a sitter and get everything worked out. We had such a hard time finding a sitter. It's so hard to find someone who isn't busy and is old enough and confident enough to watch two kids. I feel better about leaving them with one young woman now instead of trying to find two. Now that Alex is older and not a baby anymore, they seem less...fragile? I don't know. I guess maybe I am more confident about leaving them since I know they are less demanding. I'm always worried that my kids will overwhelm the sitter. We will come home and find the sitter totally frazzled or tied up in a chair or something. Anyway, we went out. We got Alann's tires fixed finally. They've been leaking forever. Then we found a cool painting at a thrift store (while waiting for the tires) and Alann bought some movies at a Blockbuster that was closing. After that we had dinner. We wanted to go to the movies, but the dollar theater was sold out of both shows we wanted to see. So we did some other small errands and just wasted enough time that the kids would be in bed before we got home. It's too crazy to come home in the middle of bedtime. It was a fun enough date. Any time we can be together away from the kids is good enough for us.