Four

Claire turned four yesterday. Four. That's like a legit big kid age. No more pretending she's in the 2-3 "toddler" range, no more daytime naps, no more "Biscuit" or "Clairebear." She's Claire and she's a big little girl and she is freaking awesome.

Of course, at only 7:15 in the morning when blowing out the tiny candle in her tiny ceramic pig seems totally overwhelming, she is still just a little bit three.

Actually at 7:15 a.m., she was still 3. As part of a brand new tradition, JP woke her up a few minutes early to go get donuts, just the two of them, at our favorite place. She was so excited and I hope it's something he can keep doing with all the kids every year. I love to think of a newly turned 18-year-old Bear getting a donut with her dad before high school one day. They brought the donuts back and I had her birthday table decorated, fresh fruit cut, and fauxmosas poured. The birthday pig was also ready to go.

It took her 6 tries to blow out that tiny candle. Birthday pig is wily.

She went to school, shared donut holes with her friends, and then I picked her and Cora up at 4:30 and said we could do whatever she wanted until dinner. And what did she want? To swim while listening to Frozen songs.

Cora watched intently- she REALLY wanted to go in the water like her big sister.

I love how much Cora loves them and they love Cora. It's so visible every time they're in the same room, which is always, because the three of them are rarely more than three feet from each other.

But back to the birthday- the kids get to pick whatever they want for dinner on their birthday and unsurprisingly, Claire requested pasta. What kind of pasta I asked, "pasta pasta!" exclaimed Claire. "What kind of sauce would you like?" I persisted. "Sauce on my pasta!" Claire responded cheerfully, "Sauce on my pasta with cheese on top!" And so spaghetti with red sauce and sprinkled parm on top it was. Except I started it later than I meant to, so we did presents first.

Inspired by her love of the Frozen soundtrack, my parents sent Claire a sing-a-long CD player. Right when she opened it Landon groaned, "she's just going to play Frozen ALL THE TIME."

Our present was next. This picture would be a throw-away, but I love how it captures my inability to stop kissing Cora's fuzzy bald head and Landon's hand haphazardly thrown across his baby Cora in a semi-hug. I really don't think he even thinks about it, it's just- Cora is near; must touch her.

After learning that all the Disney Elsa dresses in existence were sold out and trading for thousands of dollars on eBay, we got Claire a Queen Elsa dress from an etsy shop. It was declared VERY BEAUTIFUL and JUST LIKE Queen Elsa's in the ice castle.

With the powers of both gifts immediately combined, Claire was an unstoppable force of performance art.

Let it go... Let it goooooooo.

She changed back into her regular clothes while I checked on dinner and I came back to find Landon sheepishly singing a Frozen duet with her. The allure of real microphones combined with Claire's persuasive powers and next thing he knows he's singing about how love is an open door.

Dinner was presented, the birthday pig was blown out again (only two tries this time!), and pasta was inhaled so we could move on to cookie cake.

Cake time! With a Landon photo-bomb.

This series of photos just makes me happy. It so captures our birthday dinner table,, and it really captures the joy of the Bear.

She's funny and spunky; independent and super snuggly; crazy smart and very brave; sweet and loving and fierce and IN CHARGE. Lover of books, coloring, pasta, plastic princess shoes, having all of her family in the same space, and all things Frozen. She's our bear and she's four.