Celebrating the 4th!

I love the 4th of July.  Not because of the fireworks, but because it means spending time at the lake with family - boating, swimming, riding on the golf cart, and playing outdoor games.  Love it!  And this year was no different.  In between Tony's hectic work schedule and the tough times we were having with our family, we were able to take a break and enjoy wonderful Lake Wabaunsee.  Over the 4th, Clare got to meet her Great Uncle Billy for the first time.  Billy lives in Connecticut and comes out to visit once a year.  She really enjoyed time playing and having fun with him as well as daddy, grandpa, and Tammy.  In addition to the fireworks themselves, there were a lot of firsts for Clare Bear during our time at the lake and she seemed to love all of them. 

We started out with her first time riding on the pontoon boat.  She loved the boat.  She could crawl around, pull herself up, and feel the wind blowing in her hair.  Her favorite thing, though, was driving the boat.  It wasn't good enough to have her hands on the wheel, she liked to lick the steering wheel and have one hand on the gear shift.  I didn't get any pics of it, but it was pretty funny!

There was her first time swimming in the lake.  I wasn't sure how she would like this one because it meant getting in the very restrictive life jacket and dipping into the chilly (even with the hot temperatures) water.  But she was like a little fish...so cute!

Clare also had her first ride on the golf cart as well as the paddle boat. 



And last but certainly not least, Clare participated in her first 4th of July Boat parade.  This is a tradition at the lake.  Every year, we dress up in silly hats and other red, white, and blue items, decorate the boat and head out for a cruise with many other boats that do the same thing. 

As you can see, we had so much fun over the 4th of July.  I know there are plenty of pics on this post, but I will leave you with a couple more that are too cute.  Clare had two different outfits for the occasion.  One was a little romper with stars and stripes (check out how cute the back of it is), and the other was this adorable t-shirt that says "Red, White, and Cute"...yes she is!

We hope that you had a great 4th of July like we did!  Have a great week!



   

In Loving Memory

The last month has been a bit tough for us.  Within two weeks of each other, both Tony and I lost our beloved grandfathers.  Both of them had been sick for a while, but it doesn't make it any easier when they're gone.  The part that makes me the most sad about it is that Clare will never get to know them.  However, as I think back to the last nine months since Clare was born, I have to smile.  Clare may not remember the time she spent with them, but they sure enjoyed the getting to spend time with her.  And Clare loved to snuggle and play with them.  When she gets older, we will tell her the stories about what great men they were and how much they loved her.  We love you grandpa, and you will be truly missed! 

Movin' Out West

On Father's Day weekend, Tony and I finally got moved to Wamego.  It was so nice for us to finally be living full-time in the same city again.  Some of you may not know this, but when Tony took his new job he was in Manhattan during the week and home on the weekends.  It was a pretty big challenge, but it made it even better once we all moved back together.  The whole move happened pretty quickly.  Luckily we already had a lot of things packed up so it made it a bit easier.  And I had a lot of help from Clare.  She helped get the boxes organized at our old house, inspected boxes at the new place and made sure we had enough hangars there too.  

The best thing about moving to Wamego has been getting closer to both of our families.  We're only 15 minutes from Sara & Nate, Payton, Casey and Aubrey.  Clare has had so much fun playing with her cousins, and we've had a great time getting together regularly.  I've even been subbing on Sara's sand volleyball team, which I LOVE!  They have all been so helpful in getting us settled.  The first week, everyone came over to help us unpack.  The interest in unpacking lasted only a few minutes for the kids, so we had to find something for them to do for entertainment.  That's when Sara came up with idea to give the little girls a pot and a wooden spoon, which led to the boys wanting to take part, which was a very cute thing to see (and loud to hear) them all playing in the band of pots and spoons.  Here's our very own rock band. 

Clare seems to really like our new place.  Her favorite thing about her new room is the floor to ceiling mirrors on the closet doors.  She also likes that the carpet throughout the whole house gives her a lot more footing to standing and moving around than our wood floors.  She thinks she's big now and likes to pull up and stand anywhere she can. 

Hope you are all having a great week - I will continue to catch you up on the weeks that we are behind as quickly as I can!  

Visiting the Park

In the month of June, Clare and I were able to spend a lot of time with Nana because I was done with school and we weren't moved yet...it was great!  So, on one of our visits, we decided to take a little trip to Gage Park.  I can't believe it took until Clare was 8 months old (clearly I am delayed in posting this because she is now a little more than 9 months old) to visit the park for the first time, but we sure did have fun when we went.   We played on the animal statues and played in the swings.  Clare wasn't sure what to think of the swings at first, but she really enjoyed it once she got used to the motion.  Check it out...

Mulberry-Cherry Crisp

Okay, so I know this blog is normally more about Clare than anything else, but for this post I thought I would switch it up a bit.  So a few weeks ago I came home to find this on my counter:

I wasn't even sure what they were at first, and I was super confused where they came from.  Apparently they were mulberries that Tony shook from the tree in our backyard.  It was news to me that we had a mulberry tree, but since they were there I wanted to try to make a dessert with them.  I found a recipe for blueberry-cherry crisp and decided that I would swap out the blueberries for mulberries and give it a shot.  So first pitted the cherries, cut them up, and tried to pull the stems out of all of the mulberries (not an easy task, and I wasn't successful at getting all of them).  I covered the bottom of the pan and prepared the crisp topping. 

One thing I didn't know about mulberries is just how bad they stain your fingers.  Even days after I made the crisp I still had purple fingernails.  So after the dessert was all done we had our friends over to enjoy it with us.  I fully intended on taking a picture of it once it came out of the oven, but we dug into it so quick I totally forgot.  But it must have been good because as you can see, we cleaned our bowls!  :)

Here's the recipe from http://www.cooks.com/ if you want to try it for yourself.  Good luck!

1/4 c. lowfat sour cream
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. brown sugar
2 c. fresh blueberries
2 c. pitted fresh sweet cherries
1/2 c. flour
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. butter

Combine sour cream and brown sugar in bowl. Stir well. Cover and chill 30 minutes. Combine blueberries and cherries in 8 inch square baking pan.
Combine flour, sugar, brown sugar and butter. Mix until crumbly. Sprinkle over blueberries and cherries. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Top with sour cream mixture and serve.

Here Comes Trouble...

Clare is now crawling (for real, not just army crawling) like a champ and is always going full speed.  At this stage in her life, there are three words that come to mind to describe Clare...curious, determined, and ornery.  It's so much fun to watch her explore, but sometimes her curiousity gets her into a mess.  Here are some of her most recent explorations...

For some reason, Clare loves to play with the trash can and she has been known to knock it over now and then.  I don't like to clean up the mess, so I tell her no.  Clearly, she listens so well...she just laughs and goes about her business.  But with a cute face like that, it's hard to be too upset! 

Something else she is really into right now is pulling the towel off the oven door.  Then she chews on it a bit, swings it around for a minute, and she is off to the next adventure!



I LOVE this picture of Clare.  If you can't tell, the thing she is crawling under is her walker.  She's into anything right now that she can make into a tunnel of some sort.  She does the same thing with Nana's coffee table and end tables.  I can just picture her building forts in a few short years - love it!

And I couldn't pass up the opportunity to add a messy pic of Clare bear eating.  She is now into grabbing for the spoon and splattering food all over (awesome!).  Most of the time this leads to food on her hands, then into her hair and all over her face.  It should be pretty interesting when she starts to feed herself.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the latest update on our little sweetie.  Have a great week!  



Kicking off June!

The first weekend in June started off as a busy one here in our house.  As I just finished typing that sentence, I had to laugh.  If you follow this blog regularly, you know that that's just how our life is - always on the go - and most of the time we wouldn't want it any other way. 

The first part of the weekend was spent in Marysville, Kansas at a BBQ contest with our good friends Jess and Tracy.  They are regulars in the BBQ world so we thought we might tag along for the fun.   Clare Bear hung out with us under the tent a bit during the day, but most of her time was spent with Mema and Papa.  Our friends' team is called Lazy Bacon BBQ and I must say they make some amazing food.  Check out some of these pics...they will make your mouth water just looking at them. 

And here's a couple pics of us hanging out awaiting the results of the turn-ins.  You can't see it very well, but Clare is an honorary member of the team with her little yellow LBB t-shirt...so cute!

Later in the weekend we headed to Topeka for Papa Sam's retirement party.  He has spent his entire career in the Auburn Washburn School District as a PE teacher, a coach, and finally an assistant principal - and after 35 years he's finally retiring.  There was a huge party in his honor, so we went to have some fun.  I think he really enjoyed showing Clare off to everyone who was there.  She was a real trooper and was her typical smiley self. 

We had a wonderful time celebrating a great dad and grandpa who had a great career!