Family, Friends and Food :]

Sunday was the big day- Claire's Open house! It was at Bay Court Park in Clarkston. As all you readers can tell- this summer is very Claire focused. I don't mind but my parents sure do lol. As the time line gets closer and closer to bye-bye day, their mental health deteriorates. Oh dear.... Mom seemed to pull through okay, or at least she pretended to because Grandma was here. 

Lots of food preparation and primping. Although the weather claimed it was going to thunderstorm all day- somehow I knew that it wouldn't actually happen. Thank God I was right! I got gas early in the morning and stopped at TJ Max to grab a sweater. I made friends with a happy old lady while waiting for the store to open. I love that kind of thing :) Note-to-self and world; must go back to that store! Nifty things in there. Back home I packed up my car with what I could and drove to Bay Court to help set up. Poor Araena and Claire must have been freaking out because the tornado sirens started going off! No tornado though, phew!

Besides the humidity, everything turned out pretty nice. I was worried that no one would show up because of the predicted weather so I was going to round up the best friends and force them to endure the weather with me- luckily I didn't have to ask any of them- they just showed up anyway :D To you girls that came, I appreciate it more than you know!

Another awesome thing was seeing my cousins from my mom's side of the fam. I won't go into detail, but my mom is super odd and does not keep in touch with them. Luckily Gram invited everyone and I got to see my older cousins that I adored growing up, that I have not seen in years! 

My oldest cousin Russel (on the right) is married to his highschool sweetheart Jenny, and they have the cutest son Kyle! It is so weird because I remember looking at their Prom pictures as a kid and playing "Prom" with my barbies every day after that. Hahaha. It is odd to go back into a setting where you are the younger one again

Anyway-  I will stop talking so much. Here are more pics:

The girls with their cake

  Kaitlin and her mum

My Grandmothers (a picture of them together is a big deal because I see them both very rarely!)

Some nature pics-

My favorite part of the day was watching the kids play. I wish I could've gotten a picture of Araena's little brother Luke and Grace playing together. I think Grace had a little baby crush lol. But the kids were sooo entertained my the hill on the side of the pavillion and the center peices from the tables. Too cute!

These ones are all mine :)

The day was an overall success I would say. I think Claire and Araena were happy and all their hard work paid off :)  

Remember the mental health I mentioned above? Well a tear filled argument with the father landed me at Karla's apartment for the night. It turned out fun though because the girls were at their gma's for the night and Karla and I watched 500 Days of Summer which I love!! Plus I got to sleep in her big comfy bed :)