I wrote a slew of things I loved about Claire yesterday on the big day, but here’s what we did.
Let’s back up to the day before when Lucy was on her game with the bday prep. That girl is a party planner extraordinaire. We finished up the grocery shopping and some extra odds and ends and got the table all set up.
Lu decided to do a little “treasure hunt” for Claire to find the “birthday bucket” (with Claire’s fav. food stuff…a new tradition started with Lucy’s birthday back in October). Loved this first clue she set carefully on Claire’s plate, ready for breakfast the next morning:
Out of all those gifts waiting for Claire on the table, these were my favorites:
I love that those big sisters of hers took the time out to write the sweetest notes, and to mail them in time to arrive on Claire’s birthday, and also that they both wrote “claire hazel” with a heart. They are in sync I tell you!
The day started out with breakfast, complete with Lu’s candy bar poster, and Claire loved the treasure hunt to find the bday bucket:
We unwrapped gifts and Lucy was so excited to give Claire her note written in Braille (love that), and her other well-thought-out gifts:
Claire didn’t have school
We are in hybrid school, you see, and Claire had to change the days she goes to school so she and Lucy go on opposite days. Weird, I know, but it is working for us. So I got to have Claire home with me.
Although she wasn’t really “with” me…she was out walking in the bird riparian with friends and also playing some pickleball:
Oh, and getting free food of course, because you have to take advantage of that with your friends, right?
I did get her for long enough to take some 17-year-old birthday pictures so we can remember how she looks right here, right now:
We ate a huge pot of Japanese curry for dinner and had cake and ice cream:
(Dang it, I’m just realizing we forgot our traditional birthday-cheek-kissing pictures…we’ll have to get those soon.)
***Post edit addition…here’s the picture we took a few days later:
She somehow finagled to get all these kids over here for a pizookie night:
And after that I stayed up sitting on the counter with that girl of mine looking through all the kind birthday messages she got, and my heart wrapped around that girl of mine right along with all those thoughtful messages. Thankful for the village who helps to raise my children. The friends who are such lights. The kindness that spills out. People are so good. And so is Claire.
Anyway, it was a good day to turn seventeen.
Lovies, Claire!
My grace turned 17 a couple months back and it was a good and hard day. Hard because I think it hit me that her next birthday she’ll be 18. An adult.. wahhh but so exciting too. We are still on restrictions where we can’t see even family so I love that you guys can. Seeing her smile is so awesome . Does she know what she wants to do yet after grad ( she’s a Jr right now , is that right)?
She doesn’t know yet. She loves volleyball enough that she would love to play in college, but I don’t know that she has truly thought through where that could take her (small colleges, etc). At one point she wanted to go to NYU, but I think that has faded. At one point she also wanted to study to be an orthodontist.
We’ll see what she does!
Have you ever posted the recipe for Japanese curry? Since it seems to pop up in your posts, it must be good.
Yes, it’s at the end of this post here…it’s just on the box: https://71toes.com/2012/09/international-nights/
Thank you for the link to your original post. After reading it I realized that I had that exact same box of curry in my pantry just waiting to be cooked! I guess that I just needed some encouragement. We enjoyed it.
Love that Claire and I’m so glad she had such a nice birthday. Lucy is a champ at celebrating birthdays. So proud of the darling girl!