Cara Bean's 1st Birthday

Cara sure loved her cake.

Beautiful Family

Darren is such a natural

Birthday Girl

Big Sister Brynn helped out.

Pete had to work, but Claire and I headed to Farmington for Cara's 1st Birthday Party. We had a blast playing and chatting with everyone. It is so crazy to think that Cara is already one years old. She definitely enjoyed her birthday cake to its fullest.

Strawberry Fest

My girl

Claire and Scott

Claire and her buddy Henry waiting for the parade.

Getting ready for the parade

Scott and Jen

We partook in our first Cottage Grove Strawberry Fest this weekend. On Friday night Scott, Jen, and Henry came down and we spent some time walking around and enjoying the beer garden. Unfortunately Jen and the kids had to drink lemonade instead, but they seemed to enjoy it. On Saturday we had a couple families come over for the parade. We are lucky enough to have our backyard fence open up onto the parade route so Pete set up blankets before he left for work in the morning. We had a great time at the parade and the kids did wonderful. This will have to become a tradition. Hopefully Pete won't work next year.

Fun in Duluth

Fun Aunt Megan

Claire giving her cousin Austin a kiss.

Coke wanted a picture of Claire to show to her co-workers.

Claire was all about the kisses this weekend.

Pool time

I got so many great pictures in Duluth I have to share them.

Grandma's Wedding

The whole family headed to Duluth this weekend for Robyn and Bob's wedding. I was able to sneak out a little early on Friday so we could beat the traffic. We had a nice time visiting family and meeting Bob's family. Claire thought the wedding was for her and put a show on for the guests. She really enjoyed all the attention.

Modeling Career

Resting after their long photo shoot.

I love my brother so much.

I wanted to try some different settings on my camera so who better to be my models than Claire and Riley. I might be a little biased, but I don't think you can get much cuter than them.

Everyone Wins!

Riley getting his head start.

Our future athlete

Recently Claire learned that she can throw Riley's ball down the stairs and Riley will fetch it. It was the cutest thing watching the two of them play. If you know Riley, playing ball is his absolute favorite thing in the world. This is perfect for everyone involved because nothing keeps Claire's attention longer than 2 minutes and they played together for 15 minutes. I was able to get a lot done in that amount of time. I think this will need to be a regular occurrence.

Girlfriends

Claire just lights up when she sees Angela and Samantha. It is so cute. She will go right to Samantha's car seat and try to find her. Claire is learning personal space and sometimes Samantha didn't appreciate her lack of it, but overall they were stinkin' cute together.

Baby Jackson

Bethany and Claire

Claire loved him.

So sweet

Pete, Claire, and I were able to visit Bethany and her new baby Jackson last week. Bethany is one of Claire's day care ladies. Claire absolutely loves Bethany so she was very excited to see her. Jackson is adorable and we had a wonderful visit.