Pictures of Clara at School

When certain people in our lives talk about daycare, I think they picture some scandalous place that's really dirty, where the kids are thrown in a big room and everyone is crying.  Well not Bright Horizons.  Bright Horizons is an answer to my prayers when it comes to Clara's development and my piece of mind while I can't be with her.  Clara is always excited to go to school and learns so much while she is there.  The teachers communicate both in person, through daily reports, and online through a website where they can post pictures and document her development.  Here are a couple of the pictures I've gotten recently:

Clara dancing with Charlotte (Charlotte is only a couple of months older than Clara--she is big!)

Clara reading

Clara playing outside.

Clara telling her teachers what a DOG says.

It's a great place for childhood and a great place for families!

Clara got to bring the class pet, Pup, home with her a couple of weekends ago.  Pup teaches the children about friendship and sharing.  Each child gets to bring him home, play with him and write in his journal.  Then all of the children read the journal at circle time.  Here they are having a good time:

Climbing into the big chair!

Eating breakfast together!

Picking flowers (Clara's favorite activity).

Riding on her favorite riding toy (that I trash picked from a neighbor in my parent's neighborhood).

Playing on the deck!

Playing in the monkey grass.

Thanks for coming, Pup!  I hope you had as good of a time as we did!

Mondays are the Worst!

How could you not miss this sweet face?!?

Picking Flowers

Clara spends a lot of time in the front yard picking flowers.  I have two beds in which I plant annuals, usually just mums in the fall and begonias in the spring.  This year I did put in some vinkas, and I might even plant pansies after the frost so that we'll have something all year. 

Clara's favorite thing to do is to pick the flowers and hand them to me.  I am hoping she will know that the little seedlings I plant in the spring are more fragile than the overgrown vinkas, but I'm not optimistic. 

Here she is in action.

Her second favorite activity is to steal my keys (see picture immediately above).  Every toddler seems to love keys.  My mom got her a special set of toddler keys, but no, she wants mine. 

I feel like I should explain the pearls.  My mom found that strand of fake pearls that I've had since--I don't know--1991? in my desk at home.  Clara loves to pull at my jewelry, so I thought maybe some jewelry of her own would distract her.  And even though those pearls are fake, they are individually knotted so they are toddler safe-ish.  She loves to wear them, even though they do look a little ridiculous!  I do get her to take them off before we go anywhere.

A Baby and a Spigot

I just love this little bathing suit from Carleigh Wofford.

Big Steve

Stephen Margolis LOVES a baby.  All babies, but especially his granddaughter.  We were all in a sad mood on the day of Clara's birthday pics, so he came over to watch the action.  I just love this picture, what a keeper!

Clara's First Birthday Pics

Photography by Beth Tilley Green:

The picture package was honestly the best money I have ever spent.  A year in pictures:

Newborn

1 Month

3 Months

6 Months

6 Months

9 Months

One Year

Photo Editing

I don't know much about photo editing or taking pictures.  Last night I messed around with Picnik, which is built into Picasa.  I'm going to post both pictures here for comparison sake:

I think I better get Photoshop if I really want to see results.

Clara is 1!

Clara turned one on July 22.  Her birthday was a tough day.  My cousin's funeral was July 23, so after taking some pictures with Beth on Thursday night (pictures by Beth to come) and a little bit of celebrating on Friday, we left her with her Granny Mac to travel to Knoxville, TN.  Here's a picture of her opening her presents with Ms. Alex on her actual birthday:

And her final sticker picture:

After much deliberation and a good talk with Abby, we decided to move the party to this past Saturday.  I am so glad we did!  I have to admit, though, before John's sudden death I was very much into the party planning.  I had an excel spreadsheet with menu ideas, decorating ideas and instructions, details for her outfit, the guest list, etc.  I stored all of the materials together and I had planned on spending the weekend of 7/15 getting ready.  After John's passing, it seemed a little ridiculous.  I took a few pictures of the details so that I could remember, but I tried to focus the pictures on what matters most--the family and friends that came out to celebrate our little girl.  Clara had 5 friends come for her party, which is a ton for a 1 year old.  She also had her friends' parents and her grandparents, she is a very blessed little girl to have so many people that love her.  So with that said, here are the pics!

Friends with Granny Mac in the playroom

The guest of honor with her favorite toy, the piggy bank.  The mayhem is just beginning.

Balloons!

Clara and her Nana playing with balloons--they were a big hit!

More of that.



Dads in the kitchen.

My dad holding tiny Lizzie with Adelaide in the foreground.

Back to the balloons:

Abby with tiny Lizzie.



And here's what you wanted to see, the cupcake. 

She was very inquisitive.  She tasted it.

And then went to town!

 Her friends enjoyed the cupcakes too:

Twins.

Annalise.

Clara opening presents.

Clara after she had enough.

Family picture.

And just because I want to remember, here are a few pics of the details.  The party had a strawberry theme.  The invitations matched the cupcake pics, which matched the Happy Birthday banner, which matched the tags on the party favors.  You can see the banner in the picture of Abby and Lizzie.  The runner in the picture above matched the color scheme and the paper goods were all pink, green and red.  I even tied the silverware up with strawberry ribbons.  Clara wore a strawberry tutu and a strawberry onesie that said her name and had a big 1 in the middle of the strawberry. 

Here is a picture of the goody table:

The white bowl is filled with strawberry shaped cookies with red royal icing.  The goody bags had a strawberry bow from Blue Monster Bows along with a pair of strawberry shaped sunglasses and one of the cookies.  Dys got a little people car.  I made the strawberry cupcakes myself using Janet's old fashioned strawberry-pecan cake recipe and the same frosting I used on Quincy's cake.  They were delicious.

I made adult and kid versions of strawberry lemonade and put them in big beverage dispensers, I didn't even take a picture of that, because who really cares about a picture of my lemonade.  But it was cute, take my word for it.

I took the 12 pictures from each of Clara's 12 monthly shots and put them in little buckets filled with play sand. 

Months 1-3

Months 4-6

Months 7-12.

There was quite a spread of food:

And flowers and balloons in bright colors:

We really had a great day.  Thank you to everyone for making Clara's birthday so special!