Last Hurrah

School starts for the big girls next Tuesday, and I work tomorrow and Friday is meet the teacher, so today was our last totally free day of the summer.  We had Kaitlin's 5 year appointment at 9 am, but then hit the road to Ft. Worth to use our Children's Museum membership one last time.  We hit some traffic so didn't get there til a little after 11, but we stayed until 4!  The girls all had a great time and we had the entire place to ourselves.  Literally I think there were less than 50 visitors today.  We started in the hands on area where Claire shopped for a while at the grocery store while Kaitlin played doctor with the babies and built some Lincoln Log castles, and Bryn checked out the little baby crawling area.  We went outside for some water play next, and then Claire came and told me "I'm STARVING Mommy" so we headed to lunch, where she proceeded to chow down.  Build your own tacos and nachos - hit all around.  Then we went to the science-y part where they had several instrument experiments that we played with, hula hoops and then of course the air park, where you can use coffee filters, paper cups, and paper to make airplanes or just random things that will fly in the big air tubes they have.  We had that whole room completely to ourselves and thankfully Bryn fell asleep, so I got to spend some nice, relaxed one on one time with the girls.  Claire was of course in heaven with the scissors and tape they had out, and Kaitlin was very interested in perfecting her paper airplane making skills.

Then we tricked Claire into going up to their "Grossology" exhibit.  The last time we went she fa-reaked out b/c it has several big talking robot things and she is not a fan of all that nonsense.  I taught her today to plug her ears and close her eyes and once we got past the first scary lady she was fine.  Especially once I showed her the toot machine, and the big slide where they end up coming out the rectum.  Yes, it is gross, hence the name.  It's all about bodily functions and my girls never tire of those jokes, so really a win-win.  Bryn was very helpful and continued to sleep during all of this.

We rounded out the day outside where we dug up some dinosaur bones.  It wasn't too hot and once again we had the whole area to ourselves, so Bryn got to have her lunch while the big girls dug.  It was just such a nice, pleasant, relaxed day and the girls were so good for me, I wanted to etch it in my brain.  When we were walking back to the car I was carrying Bryn and I turned around and looked and saw those two girls slowly walking, kind of shuffling their feet, talking about how much fun it was.  I just want to burn that image in my brain - the light already seems like fall to me and the way they were just casually walking down the street talking to each other.  I can't describe it really, but it brings tears to my eyes.  I love these girls so much, and I am so thankful that I get to do these things with them.

We came home and Scott is working late for his year-end, so we all swam for a bit and then they continued while Bryn and I came in and made dinner.  We ate on the patio and they enjoyed the meal so much that Kaitlin wrote me a note on the chalkboard "We Love R Meal," and Claire came running over to me several times with both thumbs up saying "You made good food Mommy!"  Then they went in and took a shower while I cleaned up the kitchen and gave Bryn a bath.  They even got themselves totally ready for bed and went and started their dance party while I put Bryn down.  Kaitlin got a ribbon wand at the museum today, so that was a huge hit during dance party tonight.   Kaitlin kept talking right before bed about how today was "the best day ever" and how she just had so much fun, and I'd have to agree with her.  Which is why I'm writing such a detailed post about it - I can never remember specific days when I think back to their younger years, so wanted one down for the history books.  I am not good at taking pics when we are out and about, but here are a few from my phone:

Happy Birthday Kaitlin!

We are so proud of you and all that you have become in five short years!  Some highlights:

• You are so tender-hearted.  If anyone else in the vicinity is crying, you will tear up too.  Especially if you ever catch me teary-eyed over something, you immediately start crying, even though you have no idea if I'm teary out of sadness or happiness.  You can't really watch most movies b/c they will make you cry - out of both happiness and sadness.  I don't remember if I posted this on the blog, but last Christmas we watched Santa Paws and there was one part that was happy and you were just BAWLING and almost yelling "I"M JUST SO HAPPY!!!"
• On a similar note, you are quite the drama queen.  There is no luke warm with you - it is either TERRIBLE or THE BEST DAY EVER (or you ALWAYS do this, or you NEVER let me do that).  I'm still learning to not get my feelings hurt either way.
• You love your sisters with all your heart, and are such a great big sister.  You have to carry a big burden b/c I am always drilling into you that "You are the example", but you take it in stride and do a great job.
• You are still the pickiest of all the girls.  Won't touch a veggie unless forced, and really only stick to the four main food groups - pizza, beans/rice, quesadilla and fruit.  At least there is fruit in there!  Making lunches for you for school is difficult though b/c you won't do sandwiches!  Coming from the two most sandwich loving parents in the world, I don't know how that happened!
• You still love music and love to dance.  That is still a daily activity for us.  You know how to work spotify and itunes and come in here to the computer and turn it on all the time.  You love to hear new music, but Taylor Swift is still No 1 for you.
• We've done soccer, gymnastics, dance, Kindermusik, tball, Gymboree, cheer.  You tend to favor the cheer/gymnastics over everything else, even dance.  While you love to dance yourself, I don't think you like the regimentation of a dance class.
• You are our social butterfly.  You make quick friends with everyone and love school and playgroup b/c of that.  So funny after what we went thru your whole first 2 years - hated to leave your momma!  But now you don't even look back and are always asking for playdates and love to go to school.  (Claire on the other hand is the complete opposite - she would rather be home with just her family at all times).
• You are our little fish.  I think next summer we will see if you want to try swim team.  You are an excellent swimmer and would do it all day, every day if you could.  You aren't as confident as you should be with your skill level though - you say you are too scared to do swim team, but I think if you try it and get over the initial hurdle you would love it!
• You love to read, and spend every night after we tuck you in with a stack of books and your flashlight.  You are reading wonderfully - you can read almost every book we own.  You do great picking words up from the context of the pictures, and surprise me with all the words you know!
• You are a good writer and spent a good portion of the summer writing letters to your classmates and to me and Daddy and the rest of the family.  You sound everything out and make up some unique spellings!  You also love to draw and color - I think you and Claire both love the craft table equally.
• You love to play games and I wish we had more time to do that with you.  It's hard with two little sissys who just mess everything up while we play!

We love you so much and are so thankful that you are ours!

Claire's 3rd Birthday Party

We had Claire's third birthday party in conjunction with her friend Trevor at the Ark (a big indoor playground at a local church - a Godsend for kids with summer bdays in Texas!)  She was very adamant that she wanted a "kitty" themed birthday bash, Hello Kitty that is.  That's what she got and I think she has the most HK stuff in the world after she opened all her gifts!  It was a great time.

All the friends ready for some cake

She had a blast!

Goofy girl

Contemplating all it means to be 3 years old

Some of us partied too hard...

Can't hang with the big girls

Getting a bit shy during the song, but at least no tears this year!

Enjoying sissy's singing

Check out my loot!

What is very peculiar to me is that both Claire and Kaitlin INSISTED on wearing the same dress for their 3rd bday parties.  With Kaitlin, it was much more dramatic (as all things are with your first kid when you haven't quite realized you can't force them to do anything) since I had purchased an entire frilly birthday outfit that she refused to wear and I can remember vividly the fit she threw and how she demanded to wear the green dress, and I was of course horrified b/c that dress was just not what I had in mind for her party.  And then the morning of Claire's party I gave her a couple of options for her attire, green dress NOT being one of them, but she went in and pulled that puppy out and put it on so that's what we got!  I've learned to pick my battles and this was not one of them this time.  But Aunt Amanda pointed out that they both had small braids in their hair too, which both of them specifically requested.  Guess they are related!  Here are some pics from Kaitlin's party just for kicks:

Claire - Pictorial Year in Review