Claire is 7!

 Claire

She has loved the attention her birthday has given her! She helped Chris make special waffles with lots of chocolate and butterscotch chips in them for her breakfast. After swim class, I let them stay extra extra long to play in the water, and then she picked what we ate for our meals, and got to play computer games forever. Usually, she is limited to an hour, and this is a new thing anyway that they barely know how to play because someone at the library was playing and they wanted to try a couple weeks ago. Shay was acting extra sensitive because Claire got special attention and I hope I taught her to be happy for other people instead, but I'm not sure how well it will stick. Claire even chose to wait for the party to open all the presents. She has been using them a lot since the party ended now though and she said her favorite is the scooter from Shay. 

Party

Way too early in the morning, I couldn't sleep so I started rearranging the house, filling up a room with 500 balloons, and setting up the present and activity tables. We rented a bouncy house with a water slide, played "pass the parcel" and another game with candy, opened presents, and then had snacks and cupcakes during the party. It was enough to keep them busy for a couple hours and Claire loved going from one thing to the next having fun. We even had two neighborhood boys tell us it was the best party ever the next day when we saw them. I'm glad we could make it a big fun day and we had enough people show up to make me feel like I could actually throw a party. She had some great gifts and did her best to say thank you with only a little reminder from me.

Shay

Kindergarten! She was so excited to meet her teacher on Monday and sleep with the 'jitter glitter' under her pillow so she wouldn't be nervous. I know I felt nervous because I wanted them to do amazing, but I wouldn't be there to help her. Luckily Claire is there to help while they ride the bus and find the teacher in the morning. Unfortunately, she has already had a bad time and I got a call on Friday about how she bit Claire on the bus and wouldn't sit down. Claire also explained she licked the window? I don't know how to make her understand that she needs to act better, but we will see how the next week goes. I like seeing the school work that gets sent home is activities she knows how to do easily because we've done them at home.

Adrian

The long quiet days of being at home are strange for me but I'm not sure if Adrian can tell the difference. Buttercup is more clingy and follows me with her eyes when she is too lazy or until I go upstairs out of her sight. She sits between Adrian and me and usually gets kicked as he wiggles around. She understands when it is time to go outside to walk to the school bus and is very excited, but also pretty patient surprisingly. Adrian is so calm for our walks and has only fallen asleep once when waiting for his sisters. As long as I keep him fed, he runs errands and hangs out until her gets tired and becomes ad at me for trying to put him to bed.