Claire's birthday celebration, part 1: the feast

Claire had her third taste of her own birthday cake (or cupcake, as was the case tonight) today and finally had a chance to really get into it as you can see from the second picture. It was just us celebrating her birthday tonight - a very quiet night ... until Claire got her sugar buzz. She was so silly and hyper! We had a lot of fun watching her.

Sappy alert: the next paragraph may be overly sappy to some (i.e. Stu) so discretion is recommended.

You can hardly see it but the little barrette in her hair is probably about 28 years old. My dad was never a big shopper and gift-giver so when he did buy something for me, I held on to it. He gave me a set of little gold barrettes - nothing expensive, probably just bought at the drugstore or grocery store - when I was four or five. I had pretty thick, unruly hair at that age (go figure) so they were already a little small for my hair. I came across the one remaining barrette a few weeks ago and realized it would probably be perfect for Claire, which it is. Dad died just over a year ago; although he knew our adoption plans, he never got to meet Claire. Having her wear this little barrette that I'm sure he'd never remember buying is just one way we can remember him and make him a part of our daily lives.



Our little family













Digging in and loving it!