Claire's Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated Claire's second birthday with a party at our house. I decided to use one of Claire's favorite books, Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, as inspiration for the theme. All the activities, decorations, and food were inspired by the book. I had a ton of fun planning the party and everyone had a great time. We had about twenty little ones running around and their various parental units. The weather cooperated, thankfully, and we were able to have the party inside and outside. Claire had an awesome time and was completely excited by all the people and activity.


My caterpillar balloons were inspired by an idea I found online, as were the invitations, goody bags and the banner decoration.


Various elements of the party were labeled with the corresponding quote from the book. I tried to re-create the story throughout the party.


At the door, each guest got to pick up an egg with a gummy worm inside,marking the start of the party and the caterpillar's journey.


Throughout the caterpillar's journey, he eats various foods, all of which we had at the party. Yum!

My friend Kristy made this amazing cake!

Claire had a ton of fun playing with all of her friends.

The first craft that the kids did was to color in a paper caterpillar, which they then folded up, accordion-style and threaded a pencil through the holes to hold the body together.

I think Claire enjoyed playing with the markers more than she enjoyed drawing on her caterpillar.

The second craft the kids did was to make tissue paper butterflies. They each got a foam butterfly that was sticky on one side. They then crumpled up small bits of tissue paper to make a colorful butterfly.

Claire spent a lot of time running around the garden, having fun. Here she is with her friend Cole.

Claire was all decked out like a caterpillar herself, with a caterpillar t-shirt, green tutu and caterpillar hair bows. She certainly matched the theme!

Then, all the kids went outside to play the cocoon game. Some of the big kids knew that in order for a caterpillar to become a butterfly, they make a cocoon and sit in it for a little while, then they come out a butterfly. In this game, each kid had a partner. Each team had a roll of toilet paper. One kid was the caterpillar and the other made the cocoon. Even though they all didn't "get it" they all had a great time. After they broke out of their cocoons, they ran around, flapping their wings like butterflies... well, some of them did.

Claire and her mommy both had a fun time!

Here we are, getting ready to do the cake.


Claire certainly loved all the attention she was getting from the big kids, including Chrysta and Kyle, who spent a lot of time holding her hand and walking around.


Ice cream and cake were the only things Claire would eat all day. She was too busy and excited to sit down and eat anything else.

The party ended with a butterfly pinata, which was packed full of candy, and difficult to break. Everyone certainly got their fill of hitting the pinata. After some help from Claire's Daddy, the pinata finally broke.
Thank you to all of you who came and made this a great party. To those of you who couldn't be here with us, we missed you!

The Final Hunt

On Easter Sunday, we had a little egg hunt for Claire at our house. Because the Easter Bunny had been so generous with the candy at the previous two hunts, he brought Claire some toys and play dough this time around. She had a lot of fun. Certainly by the third egg hunt, she knew the drill.

Claire is Two Today!

Today is Claire's second birthday. She had a great day and she loved her new pink bike from mommy and daddy. It's amazing how two years have flown by!

The Big Hunt!

This morning we went to the big Easter event at Carney Park. It was a great event with multiple egg hunts divided by age, arts and crafts, balloon animals, music, and of course, the Easter bunny. Claire had a great time, even though she's struggling with a stuffy nose.

Claire enjoyed the Easter bunny again, but not quite as much as last weekend.

Claire and Daddy had some fun in the arts and crafts tent, making an Easter bracelet.

Mommy and Claire had a great time riding the Easter train.


The main highlight, of course, was the Easter egg hunt. The field set aside for the two and under crowd was covered with candy and each kid easily was able to gather a ton. Here is Claire and her friend Sadie picking up some sweets. Sadie certainly wins the prize for candy collection, though. That girl can move!
Claire surveying her stash of candy... most of which I'm sure will go to Mommy and Daddy.

Claire loved unwrapping the candy, but she didn't want to eat any of it. Most of it she just fed to Daddy.

Early Easter Fun

Yesterday we went to the support site for an Easter event hosted by Andy's division. There was an Easter bunny, to whom Claire took an immediate liking, an Easter egg hunt and Easter egg decorating. The weather was awesome and I was able to keep Claire looking cute. Thankfully she kept her "bunny ears" (pigtails) in for the whole morning. What a great day!

Claire hugged the Easter bunny right when she met him. She also spent some time trying to figure him out.

The egg hunt itself was over in less than five minutes. Claire was able to snag three eggs herself, but there were a bunch of older kids who were faster and a bit more egg savvy. Next year, I do hope to see a little more hustle. We'll be sure to run some drills before hand.

Although, she did have fun opening her eggs and to find candy inside!

Claire and her Daddy enjoyed decorating Easter eggs for the first time (for both of them)! Even Daddy was having fun.

Fun around the house.

The month of March hasn't been terribly eventful, but we have had some fun around the house. Claire absolutely loves swings, so we got her a little toddler swing for the back yard. Even though we have a number of trees, none are particularly good for attaching a swing to. Andy first tried to rig up the swing with this crazy ladder/metal bed frame contraption, but that didn't seem to work too well. Finally we attached the swing to a tree with some bungee cords, which works much better.

Claire also loves her new Mrs. Potato Head. She spends a lot of time putting it together and taking it apart. She certainly does find some creative ways to use each of the parts.... including the glasses!

We've also had a lot of fun at Carney Park and now that the weather is getting nicer, it's even nicer to go there. Recently, they had a family sports and activities day, where we hiked up to the rim of the park. Claire had a lot of fun riding in the backpack on Daddy's back and the views from the top were great. We definitely plan on going on a longer hike perhaps when I'm not pregnant...

After the hike Claire had fun checking out the booths and she even got some balloon animals from the clowns. As always, she and her friend Sadie, had a great time playing together!



Claire also loved helping Daddy put together a new bookshelf from Ikea. I bet she'll have a lot of fun helping to put together her big girl bed when we get her one in April.

Stuttgart, Germany

Andy had to go to Stuttgart last week for work, so Claire and I tagged along. We had a great time doing fun activities during the day and then at night, we all went out to enjoy some non-Italian food! During the week we went to the zoo. It was kind of rainy, but there were a number of indoor exhibits. Claire especially enjoyed the fish, the lizards, the monkeys and the tigers, all of which we got great views of. We also got to go to some very cool, indoor mineral pools. The complex that we went to had a great children's pool with all kinds of water features, toys and little slides. On another day, we went to an indoor play space with huge blow up bouncy castle type things, a mini indoor train, a fun slide and all kinds of other toys to crawl around on. Claire had a great time! I was also able to visit a beloved Starbucks and enjoy a venti vanilla latte... HOORAY!