If you know me well, you know that I had no greater aspiration in life than to have a daughter. We hoped/planned to have two children, so after my son Henry was born, we knew we had but one last chance for a girl (although I think there’s a good chance our family would be larger had we not gotten the girl with number two). At that first ultrasound, we were told that baby number two was another boy. Yes, I admit, I cried. A dream was gone, but soon I embraced my sweet new baby boy and grew excited knowing that this was the perfect plan for our family. We named him Holt. Henry & Holt….the combo had a nice ring to it. But towards the end of the pregnancy we had quite a surprise. Holt wasn’t a boy after all. And I do believe the moment I learned this was the giddiest moment of my life. That very day I went out a purchased the first of many (I mean MANY) pink outfits for my GIRL.
I had always told my beloved grandmother that I would name my daughter after her. Her name was Sarah Lucille Callaway. We would name this baby Sarah Callaway. But my grandmother didn’t live to meet the great grand daughter she would have adored. And by the time our girl came along I had pored through our family genealogy even further and discovered the name Clara. I fell in love with the name instantly and decided my grandmother would surely give her blessing no matter what we named our daughter (and the Clara in question was her favorite aunt), so we combined the two names…and named our baby girl Clara Callaway. In my mind, the most precious girl on earth.
Clara’s first birthday was Easter weekend and deliciously frilly and fussy. Nana came for her party as well as brand new friends from our neighborhood (we had only lived in Knoxville for about 6 months.)
Funny enough, I actually flew out that afternoon to Los Angeles to meet with folks about what was to become my t-shirt line!
She had a little polka dotted punch cake from Magpies, and butterfly shaped cookies…
And then before we could blink she was 2…
It may have been pushing it a bit to have a formal tea party for a two year old, but miss clara was the picture of perfect etiquette and decorum! We had a Spring lunch of fruit, chicken salad and cheese straws…
We used great grandmother sarah callaway’s rosebud china, and great grandma Gage’s lace tablecloth. This is a bad picture, but I painted a tea set too, just for miss priss which they are using (needless to say, that teaset now contains lots of glue).
Miss Priss had a big piece of pink cake. Her guests had petit fores and drank iced pink lemonaid!
This is the birthday duck. He comes out every year for Clara’s bday. The little rosebud place card holders were also great grandmothers. We even brought out the sterling and crystal!
Guests took home little bunny baskets filled with old fashioned candies.
It was a memorable day indeed.
Then another year passed…
And she was 3.
Maggie the mannequin greeted guests at the door.
The cake was much cuter before the long car ride home from the bakers home who lived in the middle of timbuktu, then sliding out of the box and
into my lap, and melting.
The whole fairy shebang was planned for outside and it
turned out to be FREEZING cold so the fairy costumes were stuffed full with turtlenecks and thicks tights.
But guess what? We still had a wonderful day!
We made cookie “wands”, planted flowers. painted faces and sprinkled fairy dust!
Yes, I realize it looks more like torture! Ha
fairy dust…
The fave gift…her first pair of crocs!
Four came much too soon…
Determined she would be a dancer, we gave it our all…
Poor baby…woke up feeling a little under the weather…not the way the birthday princess ought to feel. But she rallied (just barely) and took it all in. She could still end up thinking it was pretty cool to have a real true live ballerina dancing just for her.
(I CANNOT FIGURE OUT why the type is blue and underlined…sorry.)
This is Caitie, our lovely ballerina who danced for Clara.
She was so beautiful to watch and danced to the music from Enchanted.
We made ballerina paper dolls…
and ate chocolate cake. YUM.
After cake, we played “pin the tutu on the ballerina”
and our newly minted four-year old had a happy, happy day.
Wow. Now, here we are..the eve of FIVE. Mommy must admit, it is bittersweet. My baby is no longer a baby. Every day I wish to freeze her in place, to hold her on my hip again, to feel her downy soft baby hair…but then I can’t wait to see her grow into a young girl either…she is precious, now and forever. I love my girl more than I can express with words.
We’ll be going to the zoo (the same thing big brother did for his 5th, and his 1st here in Knoxville. In fact, this was his invite, except we pinked it up for Clara…
Clara is more excited than I’ve ever seen her. We have been talking birthday for MONTHS…Nana is coming of course…and it will be a three-day celebration. One at school, one at the zoo, and the “real” birthday will be spent at home with family.
She has another special outfit for her school party on Friday, but she’ll wear this to the zoo…and of course, I’ll post the whole whirlwind affair right here for posterity!
