The Plight of the Second Child

We're rewinding all the way to the day after Christmas.

...Because that's when we had Penny's birthday party.

...And I haven't blogged about Penny's birthday yet.

...Because she's the second child.

...AND she was born right after Christmas.


Ok, I think that's enough poor grammar and fragment sentences. On to the photos!

We had close friends and family over. It was a jungle animal themed party with giraffes, elephants and hippos.
No, I did NOT take down Christmas. Penny is just gonna have to get used to it.

The other guests were noticeably neater eaters. 

They also "helped" Penny open her presents. This is what happens when your friends are older.

In any case, Penny had tons of fun at her first birthday! 

I have to admit, it's tough to do a birthday party right after Christmas. It was a challenge to even find a day when most of our friends and family could come! On the other hand, it was really nice to have a simple party with family and just a few really close friends. The truth is that Penny had a blast and we had a blast celebrating her.

Even if we did get the photos up a little late. :-)

A Letter & A Confession

Whenever Norah sees a notepad she insists on "writing a letter". She wrote this one on resort stationary while we were on vacation in Phoenix. Here is what this letter says, according her strict dictation to me as she was writing:

Ahhhhem (she actually made the throught clearing sound as she was writing)...
Dear Claire,
You left your toy doggy at my house when you came to visit us. My parents will know how to send it to you as soon as they remember. Until then, don't worry, I'm taking really good care of him.
Love,
Norah

Also, Claire, do you remember me?



So there you have it. For those of you who worry that writing letters is a dying art, not only does my three-year-old know how to "write a letter" she also knows that the purpose of written communication is just as much about guilting a third party into doing their job as it is about sending a message to the intended reciepient.

So here's my confession... There are lots of things I have forgotten or haven't made time for since we rolled on over to 2012. I'm sad to admit that I haven't even posted about Penny's first birthday! For shame!!

So, I'll be playing catch up over the next few weeks with some rewind posts and stuff. I figure since it's almost the end of January, it's about time I got back to communicating with my tens of readers.

See ya soon!!

Kisses

I have some stuff to share from our recent vacation, but first, a thank you to Grandma (and her good friend Ann) for Penny's new hat.

Happy New Year!

Here's a brief review in pictures of a few of the things I meant to post.