Happy Birthday Clara!!

Today is Clara's 6th birthday! Can you believe it? I'm having a hard time accepting it myself!

To celebrate Clara's birthday we spent the day at Navy Pier. We started out at Build-A-Bear workshop where Clara got the new winter bear and Alex got the turtle. Then we ventured outside to ride some rides. First we all rode the big giant ferris wheel. It was so much nicer than I expected... the cars are enclosed so the wind wasn't a factor like I thought it would be. After that the kids rode the lighthouse ride....
Then Alex rode the swings (Clara wasn't tall enough)....
(oh... notice the item in the swing behind him? It's a skeleton... Navy Pier is Navy "Fear" during Halloween.)

He was pretty cold by this point...
And Clara finished up on the carousel (see another picture here)....
After the rides we walked up to Amazing Chicago. The kids both insisted that they wanted to go last time we were at Navy Pier. So, since it was Clara's birthday we decided to give it a go. Well... thank goodness my mother-in-law was with us because Clara freaked out about 10 feet into the place. So, Clara and grandma turned around and waited for Alex and I to make it through the maze. Jeff met us there about the time Alex and I came out so we grabbed lunch. We were going to go to the Children's Museum but we were all pretty chilly from our morning outside so we took a cab home to hang out instead. Clara was thrilled to relax a bit and open gifts. She had gymnastics this afternoon and afterwards we walked up to the bakery and bought a little cake to have after dinner. The birthday festivities are FINALLY coming to a close.... whew!

Okay... I'm going to go!

'nite!