A Non-food Friday birthday post

If you will forgive me I am going to skip Food Friday this week. There just hasn't been anything that interesting going on in the kitchen around here. Last night we had a favorite dinner around here, Black Bean Soup and Pao de Queijo. Both of those have been previously posted on my food blog and aren't anything new. They are both simple and delicious but not novel, at least not to us.

But I digress, this post is about a birthday. Clara has been counting down to her birthday for months! To say she was excited was an understatement. I had been pinning ideas for a party for awhile and was probably about as excited as she was. Then we moved. Don't get me wrong, we were thrilled to get a job offer in Boise and move closer to family but the party plans quickly changed. It is hard to throw a party in a tiny apartment. So we went to plan B and had an awesome party at the park. In fact, she probably preferred it that way with just her cousins and adult relatives and a park all to themselves. As long as Olive was there and there was cupcakes she was happy! She was lucky to have not only Olive and Harrison, but Andi, Spencer, Nana, Papa, Great Grandma, Great Grandpa, and Uncle Kerry along with Mom, Dad, and Gracie, of course.

We had the party at her favorite park, the "ladder" park.

She got lots of cute clothes for her birthday, but what did she choose to wear? Her Boise State shirt. Her father was so proud.

Gracie and Nana had fun playing as well.

These two really are such great buddies. I hope they are best friends for life.

Thanks to the wind it took us awhile to get the candles lit. By the time we were lit she was "tired". She blew out her candles while laying down.

But she magically got her energy back when it was time to eat the cupcakes!

She was spoiled rotten with lots of great toys and clothes and books.

I love the look on her face in the one above.

After the party we went over to the pool by Andi and Spencer's house. She and Olive truly can't get enough of each other!

We LOVE having Clara in our family. She just livens things up. She is really smart (sometimes too smart for her own good.) She is fairly persistent at getting what she wants. She loves to dance and is pretty good at it. She knows all the letters and the numbers to 10. She can write her name and loves to color. If she puts her mind to it she can draw a pretty good silly face, but most of the time it is a lot of scribbles. She loves other kids and always asks what friends are going to be there when we go to the park. Even if they are strangers, any kid is a "friend." (Thankfully she is more leery around strange adults.) Once she gets warmed up she will talk your ear off. She always has lots to say and has lots of questions. I swear that she will run the world someday because she is determined to know how everything works. She is newly potty trained. Her nonchalant attitude about it drives me a little nuts, but she is doing pretty well. She is very passionate about life and I think that will take her far. Overall she lights up our lives and our home and we are so lucky to have this spunky three-year-old around!