Today was the big day - Marc and I managed to get our firstborn to her 5th birthday! I think our stats are pretty good:
Emergency room hospital visits: 1
Broken bones: 0
Stitches: 0
Loss of child in a public space: 1 (on Mom's watch of course)
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Clara's 5th birthday was all about her of course. She woke up to find a BIG box at her place on the dining room table. She ripped it open with shining eyes and positively grinned from ear to ear to see all the pink and plastic inside! Our gift to her was a mini Barbie princess and a castle! With the princess came a lovely little tiara for the birthday girl which she then wore all day long.


At 10am I dropped Clara off at Emmanuelle's for her weekly French session. They decided to bake a birthday cake and came home with a warm strawberry and chocolate cake at noon. In the afternoon we played a game of pin the party hat on Chirp and decided to go swimming at the indoor pool since it was rainy out. Swimming was excellent - Clara did not want to wear her water wings so I had to pay special attention to her antics; she's super confident and forgets that she can't swim for as long as she wants to just yet. Leo was also very confident, he skipped the usual first 15 minutes of holding on like a chimpanzee, I had to hold onto him for a change!

Dinner was the birthday girl's request - chicken on the bone, I tried a new recipe which I thought was delicious but only got a so-so review from Clara B. She prefers the grocery store marinated (super salty) chicken drumsticks, I've promised to try again (with more salt) sometime soon :)

All in all Clara's 5th birthday was a beautiful day filled with smiles, giggles, and many, many precious moments. Our girl is growing up and with each year I feel like I've been blessed to get to know her a little bit better. As always, I am looking forward to all this next year will bring!