We’d been attempting to come up with a cool place to have Claire’s birthday party, and we also wanted a place where we’ve not really been to a party. When Claire joined Karate recently, they offered her a free birthday party and we jumped on it. They have a two hour block on a weekend, and we chose today since my schedule isn’t great on Saturday’s this month. Donna set everything up from the cake and balloons to being in charge of RSVPs for Claire’s friends. This morning I ran around to get everything Donna had ordered and we got to Sandoval’s Freestyle Karate at around 1:30PM.

Her friends came at 2PM and Mr Garrett, her regular teacher, had cool activities for the kids while the parents were able to just sit and enjoy ourselves. I ran around shooting photos while they had a mini-lesson including board breaking. Later we all ate pizza and birthday cake before Claire opened her presents (with the help of Raegan!)

While her actual birthday isn’t until Wednesday, she had a wonderful day with her friends today. Next up is making cupcakes for her school party Wednesday, opening family presents Wednesday night, and playing with everything all week with Mimi.

Last summer Claire graduated from survival II swim lessons and entered Bronze Jr level where she began her final training to graduate from survival swim school. She started out really well and excelled by Halloween, but then she began to regress. Her teacher, Miss Maribel, and we were concerned about how she was doing, as she’d have some weeks when she was really on and then weeks where she was a nightmare. Eventually she switched teachers, lesson times, and pools to see if the change would “jump start” whatever was going on. I also stopped sitting in on her lessons. Now I’d go out by the reception area and read, grade or watch TV. Because her lessons were after the regular work day, Donna could come sometimes and would sit in the pool area. She said Claire was doing better in the large pool with Miss Elena at a later time when there weren’t so many students.

Last week Claire was told to wear her shirt, and she did very well going back and forth down the pool. After class Miss Elena told me to have Claire wear pants this week and maybe she could test again. I’d heard this story about half a dozen times since early November but I was still eager because I’d seen her really grow over the last month.

Mama was able to come tonight and we brought the camera and video camera. Claire did the length pretty well for Mr James, the deck manager but she still needed to prove herself a little more. Mr James asked Miss Elena to work with her on some of the basic Silver Jr things (which she’d need to do in the next level), and Claire did very well there. Miss Elena said Claire’s balance in the pool with the new techniques was better than some of her regular students! Eventually Claire convinced Mr James she was ready to move on, and a huge weight was off my shoulders when he finally nodded in agreement that she was safe in the water, could get to the side in a panic situation full dressed, and she was ready to move up to the Silver Jr level where they begin to teach the student proper swimming form, which will eventually lead to the swim team! Donna and I shot several pics on Flickr here, and we also have video to edit and upload later.

Claire and Miss Elena are going to continue on this journey together as Miss Elena agreed to teach Claire Silver Jr as well, at least until summer.