Beach Birthday

They say you can’t stop time and truer words have never been spoken. Yesterday my best girl turned 11!!!!

I woke up to these two turkeys giggling and hanging out in Claire’s room. Then we all laid in bed I told Claire the story of the day she was born (like I do every year) and we looked at her baby book.  I swear I blinked and 11 years flew by!

This year we celebrated Claire's birthday at one of her favorite places, THE BEACH!

A HUGE thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for making Claire's day so special!

Claire loved sun bathing on the beach (because she is 11).

And playing with her cousins!

Liam loved relaxing on his raft.

Cousin Love!!!!

Even though it was ridiculously hot everyone enjoyed the summer weather!

Camden and Claire and BFFS

These turkeys couldn't just smile at me!  But they were having a blast!

There we go!

Claire's birthday cake this year!  Thanks Aunt Tiffany for the cheesecake!

My beautiful 11 year old!!!

Love her.

Papa making a wish and pulling the knife out of the cake.

Claire opening her presents!

Her audience.

My favorites.

After all of the food we headed back down to the beach for the bon fires and fireworks.

Claire and Oliver did some night swimming!!

Then it was time for the fireworks up and down the beach!

Everyone cleans up the beach from the winter and builds gigantic bon fires up and down the beach!

The kids loved the amazing firework show!  These were seriously the BEST fireworks that I have ever seen!  Our friend Russ went above and beyond and single handedly beat ANY firework display that I have EVER seen!  It was amazing to have our feet in the water and watch the show!  There was also a bag piper on the beach playing patriotic songs and that just sealed the magic.  It was a great way to celebrate our country and our independence!

When Claire was born I nursed her late at night on July 3rd and we were all alone in the quiet hospital room.  I could see the fireworks out my window and I whispered to her, "Every year for your birthday I promise that there will be fireworks for you across the land."  It was such a special night and seeing these fireworks with my whole family around us at one of my favorite places in the world was just perfection.  

Moving Up Day

So it really happened.  My baby girl is really moving up to the middle school!!!

I love this gorgeous little lady so much!  I am so ridiculously proud of the amazing person that she has grown into and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for her!

Here is my baby girl on her first day of Kindergarten.  I felt exactly the same way on that day that I do now.  I was so excited for her and so proud of her.  I watched my little mama climb on that bus and I couldn't wait for everyone at her new school to meet her because to know her is to love her.  I remember staring at the clock all day long just dying to hear about how her day went.  She nailed that first day in the way that she does everything, with a quiet confidence and grace.  I just know that she will do the same thing in September on her first day of middle school.

She even posed for a quick picture with her brother before the bus came.  As I have mentioned before, I have this weird love of getting the kids on the bus.  But this was it, this was the last day.  Now Claire will catch and earlier bus than Oliver.  And I am not going to lie, that stings.

 My baby getting her "diploma".  She also won the principal's award!  This girl never ceases to amaze me!!

 My middle schooler with her awards.

And here she is with her Kindergarten diploma.

 Claire and Mrs. Digesare.

 Claire and Maya.

 Mia, Kathleen, Claire, and Mrs. Powell

 Mia, Kathleen, and Claire

 Claire and Mrs. Shemerhorn.

 Anna, Kathleen, and Claire

 Alexis, Maya, Anna, Mia, Kathleen, and Claire

 Love our graduate.

 Claire and Principal Johnson

 It is the end of an era.  Papa has been getting Claire on the bus every day since Kindergarten. And now it will just be him and Oliver.

 Mark and I had to go back to work so Nana and Papa took Claire out to a special fancy lunch at the Olive Garden!

 Then after work we all down to canalside for dinner!!

 We loved checking out all of the cool stuff down there.

 It was a beautiful night to sit outside!

 Love my girl!

 Goofballs!

 All I wanted was one nice picture on the big blue chair!!!

And we wrapped the evening up with some ice cream!  It was a great way to end a wonderful day!

Lacrosse Tournament

This morning we woke up bright and early and headed to Syracuse for Claire’s lacrosse tournament!!!

Her team is so sweet! They are such a nice group of girls!

It was a busy day but we all had a blast!

Claire and Kathleen both played so well! I am so proud of these ladies! 

I had fun with my friends too!

We played against some of the best teams in the state and our girls held their own. In a tournament where we were the underdogs we actually won one of the games!!! I am so proud of our girls and I really think they learned a lot today! And Claire scored an awesome goal 😍

After the tournament we ended up at Arnold’s! We had gone here a few years ago and loved it and then we stumbled upon again today!!!

While we waited for our food Claire and Mark tried to teach me some of the rules of girls lacrosse. I am getting there...slowly...but I am getting there.

Overall, it was a super fun day! I am so proud of Claire!!! She played so hard and did so well! Did I mention she had a beautiful goal 😜