Medievable Times

Here are some pictures from Claire's birthday!

Her birthday presents some difficulties, since she is so limited in what she can eat without throwing up. Cakey, doughy things are absolutely out, so I had some trouble trying to figure out what to make her for her cake, and what to do about breakfast. Some traditions have sort of evolved here, especially involving breakfast. The girls like to wake up to a kitchen decorated for the birthday girl, and have some sort of "big treat" for breakfast. Usually they request cinnamon rolls, but if Claire eats them at all, she usually throws them back up. Coffee cake is out for the same reason, as are pancakes. So what to do? The plan ended up being piling the girls into the car at 6:30am and making a run to Dunkin Donuts. Claire can usually handle the donuts, so that's what we got. Plus I got them some hot chocolate; they see Chris and I getting coffee all the time, so it makes the hot chocolate extra good to them if they can drink it from the styrofoam cups like we do. Plus, they thought it was really cool to go out in their PJs. :)

For her cake, I made a giant chocolate chip cookie. She had requested a Raggedy Ann cake for her birthday, and I was worried that the cookie wouldn't turn out well in the pan, but it ended up just fine and she loved it! Then for dinner we took her to Medieval Times ("Medievable Times," if you ask Beth). Chris and I went to the one outside Chicago back when we were dating, and we just loved it! We had watched a family walking around with several little girls all dressed up as princesses and we, almost admittedly falling in love and both secretly dreaming of what it would be like to start a family together, were just enchanted. I've been dreaming about leading my own troup of little princesses through there ever since. I was so excited, then, when they opened one up here, but when we found out what the ticket prices were (and let's just say, there is not much of a discount for children) we despaired of ever being able to go. However, wonder of wonders, they had a special deal in January where kids could go for free! Ha ha ha! A dream come true for me, and something I knew the girls would just love.

Well, naturally, they just went nuts once we got there! Claire was actually standing on her chair, jumping up and down and yelling at the top of her lungs is support of our knight. Incidentally, our knight was the black-and-white Warrior-Priest, the same knight Chris and I had all those years ago when we were dating. And he won both times!

So Claire had a very happy day, and she was dead asleep in the car before we got home. The 3rd birthday always seems sort of magical to me -- it is the real transition from babyhood to being a "big girl," and Claire had this adorable mix of the un-self-conscous happiness of babyhood, and the sweet, proud excitment of childhood. So cute. Happy Birthday Claire!