Turning six

Claire turned the big SIX last week!  She had been planning her 'girls only Lego party' since her fifth birthday, so the stakes were rather high.  ;)

The day of her actual birthday was a lot of fun!  It started with opening presents, donuts, and chocolate milk.

Claire got a new bike (thank you Craigslist)!  Too bad she won't get to try it out for another four months!  Stupid winter.

She had to get some Lego building in before school!

Her sweet teacher made her day at school extra special.  She had asked us to write special letters to Claire and send them to school.  On her birthday, her teacher read the letters to her in front of the class.  She also got to wear this special birthday crown all day.  Justin was working from home that day so over his lunch break, he went to school and had lunch with her.  Then he read a story to the class.  I think that might have been the second happiest day of Claire's life (second only to the day her baby brother was born).  ;)

After school, Claire and I got to go on a special birthday date.  I took her to get her very first manicure and it was so much fun!

I love special time like this with this sweet girl.

We decided to have her birthday party the following day, on Friday, right after school.  She invited three friends and they all walked home from school with us for the party.  Like I mentioned, it was a Lego party.  We had a lot of fun planning it!

I thought a Lego cake would be sooo easy to make. Umm, no.  Not easy.  This was way hard to frost. 

Claire came up with this cool idea on her own!  

The girls designed their own Lego person because no party of Claire's is complete without art involved.

You can't have a Lego party without a little 'guess how many Legos'!

The party was great for the first hour!  The girls were sweet and had fun.  We ate snacks, played games, decorated Lego people, had cake, and opened presents.

Such sweet friends!

Claire even insisted that everyone share their picture and describe it to the group.  Future teacher, perhaps??  :)

About a half hour before everyone was going to get picked up, Claire said she was tired and laid down on the couch.  Umm, so NOT like Claire.  A few minutes later, as I was going to encourage her to go play with her friends, I realized she had FALLEN ASLEEP.  So weird.  I could not wake her up.  It was so embarrassing when all the moms came to pick up their daughter and the birthday girl is asleep on the couch.  Yeah, weird.  So everyone left and I finally got Claire to get up.  She told me she didn't feel well so I suggested we go get her pajamas on and go lay down, even though it was only 4:15.  We got to her room, she sat down on the bed, and started puking everywhere!!  I could not believe it!  Poor girl had come down with the stomach flu.  She told me later that she didn't fell well at school but was too excited about her party to go to the nurse.  :(  How sad is that?  I felt terrible that her friends had been there and probably are all puking now.  I had no idea she was sick.. what a nightmare!

After all was said and done, I think she still had fun... although she wanted nothing to do with the leftover cake.  Poor child.

We are so thankful for these six years.  Claire has made every day brighter and more exciting because she is in it.  I am a proud mama!