Claire's birthday and our week in Kansas

Since we were going to be travelling on Claire's birthday, we decided to simplify things this year and just have a "family birthday" for her in Kansas with our Viets cousins.

 

Claire was super-excited that it was going to be a pool party. I'm not exaggerating when I say she was in her swimsuit from 8 in the morning till 8pm that night.

Right after dinner she was in the pool again. The only way to get her out was to tell her we were going to have cake & ice cream and open presents!

 

 

Claire got her own "American Girl" doll. The Dillard's version :) She loves it!

We had a fun week in Independence. For such a small small town there was plenty to do. We took the kids to the waterpark, the zoo, the mini-golf course, the playgrounds, the carousel, and the train ride.

 

When they restored the carousel a few years ago, they asked local artists to come decorate the horses. Our Grandma Sharon did two of them - Faerie Cyan and Rough Rider.

 

We spent the 4th of July at a neighborhood party, setting off cheap fireworks...that aren't cheap. Kids loved them though. The smoke bombs and the parachute men were their favs.


We spent a day in Tulsa at the Tulsa Zoo (great bargain btw!).

We also did some shopping in Tulsa, took the kids to Despicable Me 2, and took our party of 12 to the Cheesecake Factory.

It was a wonderful week, made all the more special by all the Viets family that is together in Kansas.