Woo Hoo! Claudia is Two!

Last week was sweet girl's birthday.
She loves owls so we did an owl themed party last weekend.

The bouncy castle was a hit with all the kids.
Even the little ones loved the slide.

They don't sell cupcakes here, so we rolled up our sleeves and made them.
Claudia smashed hers up pretty good.

The bubbles and bouncy house made her day.

Here she is concentrating on her birthday wish.

Cake demolition.

Wish fulfilled.

Family photo.

I would have pulled that icing covered finger out of her mouth,

but this how the next half hour went.

And that's what needs to be documented.

Here is Claudia watching Sleeping Beauty with Daddy after the party.
For her birthday dinner, we took her to her favorite restaurant for pasta.

Mama Kate & Grandaddy... Claudia loved her b-day dress.

She even wanted to sleep in it. =)

Here's some of Claudia and her favorite gifts.

Claudia loves to cook in her pretend kitchen.

Now she can cook in her personalized chef hat and apron.

Ripping off the wrappings.

She loved her musical instruments!

Beautiful shakers... wooden... thoroughly entertaining... slightly dangerous.

And her favorite... the tricycle!She even loved her helmet!

It's a ladybug.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CLAUDIA!!

Claudia, it's hard to imagine that you're already two. You are our very special girl and we are thankful for all the joy you bring into this world. You are healthy, happy and you love everyone.

Here are some fun & funny facts about ya:

• You laugh so hard that strangers often approach me and ask if you are ok.
• You love to read. Your favorite books are anything Seuss and Rolie Polie Olie by Bill Joyce (Shreveport author!)
  
• You can say anything and often speak in full sentences. Yesterday you asked a stranger in the elevator "Remember me? I didn't think so. I'm Daddy's favorite." No clue where this came from.
  
• Your favorite song is "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder. You ask for it by name and sing it around the house.
• You talk in your sleep. At school you often sleep in your own room because sleep talking wakes up the rest of your class. =)
  
• Your favorite cartoon is Olivia. It's about a little pig who loves everything red.
• You love to travel - cars, planes, trains, airplanes. You are Mommy's perfect little travel companion.
  
• You are happiest when you are outside. You like to slide, swing, play chase and hide and seek.
  
• You love your kitchen and to cook pretend food. We're still working on getting you to like real food.
  
• We don't brush your hair! It is super curly and grows up and out. It is beautiful and we love to curl your hair around our fingers.
• You are beautiful on the inside and out.
  
• You mean the world to us and we are thankful to God for blessing us with you.
  

xoxo, Mommy & Daddy

Easter Program & Egg Redistribution

Claudia learned a very important lesson last Friday, which, coincidentally was tax day in the U.S. Claudia's Easter Program at school involved a performance by all the classes, including the Happy Hippos. It was the first time the Happy Hippos weren't relegated to the task of "sitting quietly and observing."

Things started out great.

Claudia's class filed into the auditorium and waited in quiet anticipation.

Then the Happy Hippos took the stage.
Then they all started screaming. And crying. And running.
After a few minutes of screaming, the Happy Hippos returned to their seats.
There they sat quietly and observed the remainder of the program.

The mood lightened considerably when the Easter Egg hunt began.
Claudia's class hunted eggs at a used tire shop behind the school.
Just kidding. They hunted eggs on the school's kiddy go-cart track.
Claudia, being the eager little American she is,
gathered every egg she could find. She was like a machine.

Here's the interesting part...
In five minutes she had collected nearly every egg. See this picture? Most of the other children picked up one or two eggs and ate them while Claudia worked her little tail off. And then all the eggs were collected from the children. Claudia's teacher redistributed all the eggs to the children in equal amounts. Claudia got M.A.D. Very socialist, huh? I told her we felt the same way when we paid our U.S. taxes.

The Easter petting zoo cheered her up though.

She liked the bunny the best.
She disliked the goose the worst.

We went home and ate her allotment candy.

And a little tinfoil.

Sweet thing can't wait for Easter Sunday.
No egg redistribution will be going down at this house.

Oh Baby, Baby!

Maybe it was the Houston heat making them drowsy,
but the girls didn't seem to notice...

...Baby Emerson Hayes McGraw!

It's been a while since I've held a newborn.
I'm not sure who looks more uncomfortable, me or Hayes.
I wish I could jump back in the picture and prop his little head up better.

The girls glanced in Hayes direction for a moment.
Then they resumed eating an entire cantaloupe.
Busy.

Getting a Hop on Things

The Easter Bunny treated us to an early egg hunt while we were in Houston! Last year Claudia didn't really hunt eggs. She rode around on Daddy's shoulders, chewed up a Cadbury Egg and spit it out on top of Daddy's head. This time went much better! She ran around Gram and Pawpaw's yard like a madwoman, snatching up eggs left and right. I think she'll be ready for round two come Easter!

The Easter Bunny left us this sweet guy.

The biggest egg I'd ever seen.

Paydirt!

The hunt begins.

A lot of my pics wound up a little blurry. She was moving too fast!

Best discovery ever... the confetti egg.

She smashed them all over herself.

Gram helps Claudia sort through her goodies.

We didn't expect this one...she loved that Easter grass!

Bop cracked open every egg in search of treasures.

Some eggs didn't have treasures.

This didn't go over so great.

Gram and Bop had a blast opening the eggs.

Claudia also took breaks to help Pawpaw weed the flower beds.

Stomping through the yard, eggs in hand.

Claudia dyed these hard boiled beauties.

A good deal of the eggs got cracked.

Bop really put the mustard on it when dropping the eggs into the dye cups.

This was my favorite colored egg.

Gram mixed up some really pretty colors.

Gram's chicken egg plate were perfect for displaying our eggs.

Here's just some pics of the beautiful flowers growing at Gram and Pawpaw's.

Spring is here. Or there.
It's just about here too. =)