Fairy artist

Fall update

We took in a Twins game with fousin (favorite cousin) Hazel. Claire ran into her friend Lexi at the Science Museum. Holly introduced Claire to Underdog and he was a big hit. So Pete made a costume and Claire has been running around the house saving her stuffed animals from danger. What a hoot.

Look out Olympics

Claire will be starting gymnastics on 9/11 for the school year. She is very excited as she will be taking this will her good friend Alyssa.

Busy Summer

Claire has had a very busy summer.
- many trips to beaches
- safari camp at Como Zoo
- birthday parties
- a puppet show in a park with friends
- a day at Mall of America (best photo ever of Claire in a car)
- tennis lessons with Hazel
- boating with Grandma and Papa
- kindergarten testing (rocked)

Whew! And we're about to start two week-long vacations.

Long Overdue Post

Claire's class took a trip to Hugo Animal Farm. They saw a lot of animals, took a hay ride, ate lunch, jumped in a hay loft and pet a few of the cute animals. They rode school buses to and from the farm too (big hit).

 Here is Claire with her preschool teacher, Ms. Susan, showing off her graduation certificate.

 We went to the Minnesota Zoo to see the dinosaur exhibit. Claire was scared of the roaring beasts at first, but she got over the noise in a hurry. It was a rainy day, but that didn't stop us from going through the tour twice.

 To continue with Claire's dinosaur obsession, this is Claire's birthday cake.

Claire had been begging for a pinata for a year and we kept telling her she had to wait until her birthday. Of course, it had to be a dinosaur. Better yet - a T-rex!

 A shot with all the Pichners and Dufrenes at the double party. Claire and Ryan share the same birthday.

 Claire took her first plane ride and she was very excited. She was a little anxious, but didn't get too scared. We flew into San Jose.

 Our first stop on vacation was to the beach in San Fransisco. Running from big waves in the soft sand was a huge hit after a long plane ride. We stayed at Pat and Trudy's house the first night.

 Then we drove to Yosemite park. We couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity to splash in this beautiful river on the way in. It was another nice break after a long car ride.

 This was one of three short hikes to various waterfalls. Claire was a trooper and walked much of the time. Claire also attended her first wedding. She didn't know what to think of the whole ceremony (Jewish wedding), but she really like the dancing afterwards.

This was a long hike, but it was worth it to see the giant Sequoias. Claire was impressed. She's still talking about and drawing pictures of the trip.

New haircut

Before and after

Play date pals

This group has been getting together since they were babes. They met at their first ECFE class and have continued getting together ever since, even after the group moved onto different preschool programs and families moved to different parts of the NE metro.

I truly hope they can stay connected as they enter different schools. At least the girls will all be in the same school district (even if they are at different elementary schools). It will be interesting to see how things work when they get to junior high (which is a long ways off).

As someone who is still friends with two of her classmates from preschool I firmly believe in the power of long-lasting friendships!

Happy May Day!

Baskets for our neighbors!

Playing at the park with her favorite cousin.

Easter

Palm Sunday with Pichners and Dufresnes (sorry, no pics), egg hunt with friends and a late Easter at Grandma and Papa's house. There was a lot of time outdoors all three days. We played on bikes and hit some balls in Faribault. In Amery, we explored gardens and found newborn kittens.

Making the dinos huge in the light

Digging for dinosaurs

Claire asked if she could do some digging in the gardens today - a rarity since we usually have flowers or veggies planted.

She explained that she was looking for fossils and so we decided to go on an adventure. Nearly every rock we found was some kind of fossil.

Soon we had a pile of gastoliths, teeth from a sauropod and perhaps some bones from a velaciraptor.

Then she came in to show her dad who suggested she wash them like a palentologist would to help identify their type.

I imagine we will be back in the "dig site" again soon - and that one of the gardens will go unplanted this year.

Science Museum

Our trip to the museum was pure bliss for our little dinosaur enthusiast. Claire has big plans to be a paleontologist. Apparently that happens when she turns nine. Claire also enjoyed many other exhibits and shows. Lunch up on the sixth floor was a hit and we watched two trains roll by - another passion of hers. It was a good day and she's already talking about going back soon.

Dentist

Claire was a rock star for a cleaning and checkup at the dentist. She told her life story to the hygienist. However, she did not like the spit sucker.

Our little swimmer

Lately Claire has wanted to spend as much time as possible in the pool. She loves going to swim class and whenever we have house showing she asks if we can go to the community center. It's been a trip to see how far she has progressed in the last 8 weeks, from a kid skeptical of going into the water without Mom to one who is swimming to her instructors without any doubt. 

I look forward to seeing how far she takes this, perhaps she will find swimming as her passion in sports. Right now I will be happy if she learns how to swim well so she is safer in the water.  

We have a swimmer!

Today we went to the Community Center for a couple hours. Claire had asked if she could go to practice for her Monday eve swimming lessons. We ran into a friend who has a daughter 6 months older than Claire who really likes to go under water.

Whether it was because of that or just that she was getting comfortable in the pool she went full board today and decided to submerge herself in the water. Once she did it the first time she was all over trying to actually swim, jumping off the side of the pool (and going under) and floating on her belly. We're still working on floating on her back.

She is very excited to go to swimming on Monday to show her teachers what she can do now.

She's a skater!

Claire and I went skating again this afternoon and we were both very excited when she learned she is comfy enough to skate on her own. We spent the next 60 mins skating around the rink. She had a few spills but didn't seem to mind one bit.

Skating

How do you know? I'm magic.

Claire continues to be amazed that I can tell when she is *insert habit here* and asks me, "how do you know, mom?".

My typical response has been, "I'm your mother, I just know".

I switched it up last night and responded with, "I'm magic".

She looked at me with a very funny face and said, "You're not a fairy, or a princess, or a queen. You can't be magic".

This evening, I responded with, "I am a witch".

To which she replied, "You're not a witch, mom".

I'm posting this so when she is *insert tough pre-teen/teen here* I can go back and say, at least at one point in her life she didn't think I was a witch.

Masterpiece

Claire is just finishing up a mural to be unveiled in honor of The Dinosaur Train. This required much whispering and planning for all these characters to fit in the allotted space. Nice work. Time to wash up now.