Viva Espana!

Last week Andy had a conference in Barcelona, so Claire and I decided to tag along. We had a lot of fun seeing the sights of the city and we were lucky to see Andy's friend from college Siko, who was also attending the conference. Sadly, at some point, our camera was lost or stolen, so we lost a lot of great pictures. These are all pictures from Siko. We ordered a new camera, so hopefully it will come soon.
Claire and I spent the first couple of days sightseeing on our own while Andy was at the conference. Claire really liked the zoo and the aquarium, especially the "daddy fishies", the hippo, and the wallabees. Our hotel was also across the street from a very cool plaza with about a zillion pigeons. Claire loved chasing them around and feeding them food we bought from one of the vendors. Our hotel was also right along the pedestrian walkway called "La Rambla" which was a great spot for people watching. I had a lot of cute pictures from those adventures, but sadly, they were lost with the camera.

Here is a picture of Claire and Siko on La Rambla, posing with one of the many painted characters along the walkway. This one was Edward Scissorhands. Claire was just fascinated by all of them and she called them monsters.

On Friday, Andy, Siko, Claire and I did the hop on hop off bus around the city and saw several of the very cool sites around the city. We visited a church designed by Gaudi called La Sagrada Familia.
We didn't really have time to go inside, but the exterior was very cool. The next stop on the bus was another site by Gaudi, which was a park called Park Guell. It was a very cool, expansive park that had amazing rock and mosaic tile work.

Then we went to yet another Gaudi creation, La Pedrera which is a very cool apartment building that designed and built in the early 1900's. It had very interesting architecture and an amazing rooftop, which is were we were in the following picture.

The next day we met up with Siko again to do more sightseeing. We visited the site of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, which was very cool.


The most interesting venue had to be the diving pools which had amazing views of the city.

Later we went to the beach, which was beautiful. Claire and I stuck our toes in, but it was pretty cold. She had a blast playing in the sand. It was hard to tear he away.

We were scheduled to leave Barcelona on Sunday, but because of the volcanic ash that was disrupting flights all over Europe, the closed the Barcelona airport about 20 minutes after we got there, just as we were getting to the ticket counter. We ended up just going back to our hotel to hang out for another day. We were pretty tired, so we didn't do much that last day and luckily, our flight took off the next day and we were able to fly into Naples without any problem. It was a fantastic trip!

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.