Six!

We are now the proud parents of a six year old. This definitely makes Brian and I feel old. We're already noticing that with six comes a ton of opinions, ideas, arguments, and bargaining. (If you let me do ____, then I will clean my room.) It's quite fun to see all the critical thinking going on in that adorable head. Somehow all of our shared silly faces, hugs, and hand-holding feel even more special now. It's like we earn these affections -- like she is graciously choosing to share them with us. I'm feeling really appreciated! Yay!

Claire had her party at the local conservancy, which has a nice nature center. She picked a fossil theme, then mulled over the idea of having Frozen princesses mixed in, then opted not to. Whew. As she does every year, Claire declared "this was the best party ever!" As we do every year, we hoped she would say that.

There was fossil digging, fossil making, and even a walk to see a 200 million year-old fossilized fern out in the barn. Sorry, I did not get a great photo of the fern trunk. Literally, the trunk was at least 12 inches in diameter. It was wild.

Why yes, those are paleontologist hats with girly stickers all over them. What else would you expect at a fossil party?  : )

Even though Claire threatened on a daily basis that she was not going to let Tyler come to her party, in the end she was ok with it. Ah, sisterly love. I have to say, Tyler was very well behaved too. Maybe all the threats paid off?