Give Hope to Benson and Claire: Claire's bday

Okay. So I recognize that I am super, uber, duper behind here. It's true. This is just a busy 2 weeks! Planning, shopping, preparing, wrapping, crafting, cooking, cleaning, and celebrating 2 birthdays within 6 days of each other is no small task! But it's been a great few weeks. The kiddos have had so much fun; whether it was their "big" day or not, everyone loves happy birthday celebration!!

To be honest, the only thing both Benson and Claire asked for for their birthdays was a plane ticket to Minnesota to see their friends! Sweet. Sad. We still miss you Rochester-ites! But when they realized that wasn't going to happen, they each made some great plans otherwise.

Claire. Our beautiful, miracle princess Claire. She was so excited to be SIX! She truly thinks in her little mind that birthdays are the only day you actually grow bigger. She was thrilled to have that annual growth-spurt on Sept 8! Claire decided she wanted to go camping for her birthday celebration. How great is that!! So great. And we had a blast ~ a party of mountainous proportions. It was a baby party! That's what she loves. She loves loves her baby. And she even said it herself: It was just as much a party for Annie {her baby} as it was for her.

So I went shopping for baby shower decorations! We had "It's a girl" cups, napkins, and plates, a darling baby banner, baby games for entertainment, and pink polka-doted baby cupcakes! Here are a few glimpses of our birthday baby shower in the mountains!

Getting Annie prepared for the crisp mountain air!

We played "fill the bottle with milk." It was a relay race between the pink camping chair team (girls) vs. the blue camping chair team (boys). There was a bowl of milk (white cotton balls) in the middle of the chairs and each team had a plastic spoon and an empty baby bottle to fill up with their milk. Walk steadily...don't spill the milk on the way to the bottle or you have to go back to the middle bowl and start again! First team to fill their bottle with milk and put the lid on the bottle wins! (pink team won...that's why the picture shows our bottle lid ON!)

Then we played "pin the bottle / binkie on the baby" Classic fun.

Our baby ended up with a binkie nose, binkie ear ring, and a binkie rear end! Lots of laughs out of that one!

Pink cup cakes and ice cream were a must, although we couldn't get the candle to stay lit. Blowing out the match works :) And there was even room in the truck for a present or two.

Annie got her very own pack-n-play with a mobile. And that was a BIG deal! I think Annie had one of the best seats in the tent for sleeping that night!

Jared did what he does best. yUm Yum!

And so did Mabel...and Benson.

Claire simply loved her baby birthday shower in the mountains. It was exactly perfect. No one fell in the fire (hint hint: Mabel came close), the food (thanks to my preparation and Jared's cooking) was scrumptious. It didn't rain. The bears or robbers didn't get us. The smiles were unanimous. And we made a beautiful memory for us all to cherish!