Clare is 4!

I know I'm a bit late but I wasn't going to let the fact that Clare turned four last week pass.  FOUR!!!  And for a little girl, that is a huge deal.  So big in fact that on her birthday she informed me that she was now too old to use her booster seat and would also no longer need assistance getting onto the toilet seat.  I didn't realize turning four also met a huge leap in stature but you know...mom's can be clueless about that stuff.  Since her birthday was on a Tuesday we were going to wait until Saturday to have a party which I loved because it was just our little family surrounding her with love on that special day.  As the birthday girl she got to pick the menu for breakfast, dinner and a special treat after that.  That meant plain pancakes in the morning and macaroni and cheese (or as we call it "cheesy noodles") for dinner and for dessert, vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and sprinkles.  Sage had picked out a present for her containing several craft projects for Clare to work on so she got to open that present in the morning.  She was so thrilled about with it and had all the crafts finished by the time Sage got home from school.  It was so cute how she showed Sage all she had done and to see Sage so happy that Clare really enjoyed her gift.  She had to wait until after dinner to get her gifts from us and the first one she opened was one Brent had found for her and something we thought for sure she was going to be so excited for.  She had been asking for a kite since last fall so he found this really sweet butterfly kite for her.  She looked at for all of two seconds with barely an expression before moving on to the next gift.  Turned out that this was the same amount of excitement she gave to all her guest's gifts at her party but the good news was that once everyone was gone she was pouring over every gift, showing us how coolthey were and saying things like "isn't that a great gift?"  The other gift we gave her was her own Leapster.  She and Sage have always been okay with sharing Sage's leapster but we figured she would enjoy her own and it would help on road trips if they both had one.  It's been a pretty big deal for her to have her own leapster and I guess it's been a reminder to me to make sure Clare has opportunities to have her own identity rather than running around in Sage's shadow all the time.  She's so good about always getting the hand-me-downs from Sage and, at least at this age, to her those things are brand new and just for her which is such a blessing that she has that sweet attitude, but I don't want to take it for granted either.
Anyway, Saturday was the party.  Up until the week of her party she was changing her mind on what the theme would be.  First she wanted a Tangled party, then a Hello Kitty party, then just a cat theme, then back to Hello Kitty, then Dora...etc.  Finally I said, "Clare, how about not having a theme and instead we'll just have a really fun party with lots of games and a yummy cake?"  She was all for that and told us that she wanted a white cake with strawberries in the middle and the only game she insisted on was limbo.  Oh, and she wanted the butterfly pinata we had seen at Target.  Done.  So we invited her nearest cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents over on a beautiful Saturday morning for what we hoped would be a super fun day.  We started out with a limbo contest that Clare ended up winning (she's a smart one, that kid!) then moved onto the pinata and finally a fishing game in which the kids had a fishing pole with a big hook that they sent over a sheet where Brent and I would send back either a great catch (toys and candy) or a not so good one (stinky socks, boots, etc.).  After lunch was eaten, the candles on the cake blown and all the pretty presents had been torn open, we sat around and visited while the kids played.  The park next to us was having a winter fun weekend in which there was cross-country skiing, skating and of course, sledding down the big dike across the street.  We watched a competition they had from our front window of homemade box sleds--some very impressively decorated I might add--racing down the hill.  Then we all put on our winter gear and took to the hill ourselves--even the grandparents!  Other than Clare and her cousin Kason both suffering from being run over by out of control sledders (both recovered fine I'm pleased to say) it was a really fun time.  I don't think I will ever forget the sight of Grandma Jane, Grandpa Buck, Papa and Nana all having their turns sledding down the hill.  To be honest, that made me more nervous than watching my own kids go down!  If you head over to my sister-in-law Ester's blog at lifeisbeautiful-esse.blogspot.com, you can see more pictures and some videos too. 
So now my youngest is four and reminds me that she is older everyday--not just in words but in personality too.  She is such a fun kid to get to be a mom to and makes each day interesting and with laughter sprinkled throughout.  Her name, Clare Ilisa, means "clear" and "illuminating" and she has remained true to those words.  Thoughts, words and actions are done with purpose and intention and though she is little, her big personality lights up the darkest days.  We are so proud of our Clare Bear and very thankful that God chose us to be her parents.