Friday night, Claire and I went painting with some friends at the pottery place where she had her birthday. She made a Christmas tree and a candy cane ornament and had a blast. Even five year olds greatly appreciate a change in routine.
Saturday, while the teenaged babysitter stayed with the twins (and Kyle worked, of course), Claire and I went to Lawrence for a college graduation party and to walk around downtown for a little while. The graduation party was for the girl I babysat while growing up, so it had special importance to me and I was determined to attend (hence the babysitter for the twins). I was able to see old neighbors and meet a friend of a beloved high school teacher in addition to seeing a family I adore, so I had a fantastic time. Claire had an equally great time and didn't want to leave the party - she followed a 12-year-old Claire around like a little puppy, asking "what do you want to do now?" every 10 minutes. I am so glad we attended the party and it did much for my spirits.
Today Claire and I followed our "try something new in greater Kansas City" theme of the last month and visited a place called "Paradise Park" in Lee's Summit, Missouri for the first time. What an amazing place! Yes, it has hints of the disgusting Chuck E Cheese mentality with the arcade games, but it's also got indoor bumper cars, a ball shooting room, and an entire educational play area dedicated to kids aged 2-9. I was super impressed and had as good a time as Claire. My personal favorite was the foam ball room where I became the target of some 8-year-old boy. We engaged in battle, but I admit defeat. He hammered me. Claire loved all of it, though I think she liked the bumper cars the best. I found myself beaming with pride watching Claire duke it out with all boys on the bumper cars. Her technique was much more advanced than boys twice her age. While the boys always ended up stuck in a corner, locking themselves in, Claire mostly kept away from the pack while enjoying some fun time driving the bumper car, and then she'd choose some targeted bumps to make. It was a very enlightened position for a little girl to take. She also, I noted, seemed to take it personally when boys bumped her car ... oh dear!
So I have a ton of photos to share from this weekend, but with bad indoor lighting they are awful snapshots and don't nearly capture how much fun we had this weekend.
Here's Claire at her favorite Lawrence store, the "antique" market, with all sorts of used junk ...
... and here's the foam ball room at Paradise park (the guns on the second level are what got me hammered today) ...
... and here are scenes from the "little town" area, where there's a HyVee store, a pizza parlor, and a bank (Claire was being my pizza parlor waitress here) ...
... and now my check-out clerk at the HyVee store ...
... and here are the bumper cars ...
... and here's Claire's first bowling attempt ...
... and it's back to work tomorrow, and my only regret is in not seeing the twins enough this weekend.
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