My Little Party Planner

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Charlotte was very excited about her birthday and very into planning for the event. 

It began earlier in the summer when I found some cute candy themed invitations on sale. I knew since Charlotte LOVES candy, we could design any party around that. I was planning on having her party at the house until we went to a party at ASI gymnastics.... She loved the place and continued talking about it days later. So, we decided that we'd have her party there and still continue with our candy theme.

The only problem we faced is adhering to ASI's request of 20 invites.... But, Charlotte got to invite her friends from both of her schools, dance, and some church friends. And, we were thankful to have such a great turn out. Each time and new friend came in, she ran up to them and gave them a big hug. It was so precious watching her excitement.

Below are pictures of the planning and the day.

The cute party favors that Charlotte helped me make -- We found the little containers at The Container Store and filled them with jelly beans. Completed them with a sucker tied to the side. 

Then, my favorite new tool to make quick and cute labels!! I bought printer ready sheets of white name tags and had Justin help me align the wording correctly. After that all we had to do was print them, punch them out with our new tool and put cute candy stickers on them.
I LOVE how they turned out!

. 

Gum Drop Topiaries

After making the party favors, Charlotte was feeling very crafty and told me she wanted to make "something else". We looked on-line at images of candy themed parties and came across candy topiaries. We rushed to Michael's that evening and came home ready to create! After making a 3rd trip the next day to get more gum drops, we had 2 gum drop topiaries and a dum-dum sucker one.
Cute and Yummy!

Busy at work on her birthday making the cupcakes. Please excuse our messy hair, no make-up, and still in p.j.'s..... it was early!

Best friends ~ oxox

After the party, we headed out for Mexican food, yummy margaritas and one Shirley Temple.

She's 3

It's hard to explain my feelings about my baby turning three. We have experienced so much joy in these last 3 years. And have learned so much from this tiny person. December 12, 2007 marked the day that changed us forever. We will forever be grateful that God chose us to be Charlotte's parents. Each day with her is an adventure that I will always treasure.

I went to the hospital the other day to visit a friend who just had a baby. Walking through the halls and seeing the new families made me remember that was us not too long ago. Oh, how scared we were! I remembered being nervous to change her diaper. Nervous to bathe her. Nervous I was holding her incorrectly. Nervous I'd break her. 

She was so little. She seemed so fragile. 

But, like every new parent, I got over the nervousness and into a routine.

AND.... now she's 3! 

She is 50% in height and weight 

Been potty trained since this summer

Can dress herself

Says too many words to count

Likes to tell "Knock Knock" jokes

LOVES to laugh, sing, and dance her heart out!

Favorite colors are PINK and PURPLE

Best Friends are: Mommy, Daddy, Callie (our sweet dog), and Spencer Carter

Learning Spanish

Our Charlotte Rose

1st Birthday -- Began walking

2nd Birthday -- Mom and Charlotte sick. 

We had to cancel our birthday plans to Borger and Daddy quickly put together a small party at home for the 3 of us.

3rd Birthday -- TOTAL excitement! Charlotte LOVED preparing for her birthday. She loved helping me with the invitations and all the party decorations. She's quiet the party planner!

Little Ballerina

Last Saturday, we had Charlotte's 1st ballet recital. She was very excited for the performance and practiced her 45 second "Jingle Bells" routine until it was perfect. She got very confident in her skills!

Until she saw the room full of people....

But, she pulled it together and got through it! 

Daddy had a rose waiting for her when she was finished.

oxox

Children's Medical Center Holiday Parade

This was our 1st year to experience "Breakfast with Santa" at the Adolphus Hotel downtown. We met our friends, the Campbells, and had such a good time, we're already making plans for next year!

The breakfast was a super fun way to start off the day. Santa was there, but didn't have glasses on, so he's wasn't the "real" Santa (explanation to follow in another post) and, therefore, skipped out on the picture taking.

But, there were lots of other activities for the kids to participate in, including: face painting, listening to Carolers, meeting Frosty, a clown show, and a yummy breakfast.....ALL before the parade began!

You can read about the history of the parade here.

Enjoying the clown show

FROSTY!

In our seats, just before the parade began

We LOVE the huge balloons!

Parade Highlights:

• 350,000 parade attendees
• Dallas' largest one-day event
• PR and print media value of $1.2 million, with over 95 million impressions
• Broadcast live on ABC affiliate WFAA, Channel 8
• Syndicated coast-to-coast to more than 90 million households throughout December
• Broadcast on the Armed Forces Network
• Opportunity to create themed promotional campaigns in connection with the parade to drive sales

Information courtesy of Children's website.

Late Thanksgiving Recap

We drove to Borger for Thanksgiving and, before I get too behind in postings, I wanted to post some fun pics of the weekend.  We got to see lots of family and had lots of fun. We made a point this November to slow down and be thankful for what God had given to us. Thanksgiving day was a celebration of all those wonderful gifts. 

During the drive, we pulled over on the highway to let Charlotte see and pick real cotton. She thought it was great. She picked some for everyone waiting for us in Borger. 

Our packed car......

Wonderful to see those that we hadn't seen in a while.

Had fun playing games

Beautiful Panhandle sunset

Played with sweet cousins

"My Little Tiniest Blankets"

Getting Charlotte to sleep has ALWAYS been a process.

I'm convinced that whoever made up the expression "sleeping like a baby," never had a baby!! 

Charlotte LOVES having things around her. She'll go to sleep only to wake up a few moments later because she needs Doggy or Piggy. A few days ago she found the fabric swatches from when we were having her crib bedding made and has now added those to her nightly loot. 

Tonight, after putting her to bed, she called for Daddy to go back up there because she needed her "little tiniest blankets"; meaning those swatches (see below in the baggy). After he gave her those, she saw a couple more items that she also needed. 

When she was a newborn, we were told not to add anything extra to her crib......

Well, that's changed a bit now!

  

Metamorphosis

At Charlotte's school, they had the "Butterfly Guy" come visit recently.  He visited last year too, and though I'm sure she thought it was interesting then, we did not participate in the "home" hatching. 

We did, however, participate this year and had so much fun doing it. 

They presented this tiny chrysalis in such beautiful packaging: a tiny clay pot with moss covering the top, decorative sticks for the chrysalis to hang from and a little added touch from the grosgrain ribbon and card with projected birthday of the Monarch hatching.

Here is the chrysalis within a few days from hatching. Note the gold markings on the chrysalis; those are natural from the caterpillar in making her cocoon. (Notice: I say "her" because Charlotte was convinced it was a female butterfly)

 Just a day away from hatching...

 Within an hour of hatching....

Voila! 

She's here!

 I left home to pick Charlotte up from school and we came home to this!

When I asked Charlotte what she wanted to name her butterfly, she answered, "Charlotte the Butterfly". Of course, what other name would she name her. I was pulling for Marty the Monarch, or even Molly the Monarch, but we settled on Charlotte the Butterfly. 

 Here, both Charlottes are, getting to know each other. 

Charlotte was so very proud of her butterfly and was so gentle with her. 

We got a really sweet video of the 2 right after the butterfly's wings were hard enough to hold. 

Here, Charlotte the Butterfly, has been set free in our Japanese Red Maple in the front yard. 

We like to think now that she is well on her way to Mexico for her migration. I ended up telling Charlotte that Charlotte the Butterfly's mom and dad came to pick her up and was taking her to Mexico for the big butterfly party. She seemed to understand that logic but then quickly stated that she was going to get her butterfly wings so that she could go to the party too. 

Got to love how smart and quick she is!!

Justin and I totally enjoyed this process as much as Charlotte did. We're looking forward to more butterfly hatching in our future. 

It's also very appropriate for the presenting of the new blog design. I went back and forth trying to decide what to do and finally found a great company through my cousin that assisted me with the entire process. They were super great to work with and would HIGHLY recommend them to anyone that would like a "redo".

Special Moments

We create a lot of special moments in our little family. Unfortunately, I don't have my camera by my side at all times to capture all of them, but I have captured some really good ones. And I hope Charlotte can look back on this blog one day and know not only that we love her a ton, but that we think she's a really cool kid (or "big girl" as she would preferred to be called).

I took a photography class a month or so ago and though it has helped, it has also caused me to mess up more and added frustration. I love it, but like everything, it takes lots of time and practice. I wish it were easy! I wish that the 3-hour class I took instantly transformed me into a fabulous photographer! I wish that I didn't have to take 101 pics just to get a few good ones.

AND, I wish that my brain would understand it all!

I hope to take another class soon, but for now, I'm trying to stay off "auto" mode and pray I get lucky every now and then with a good shot.

One of Charlotte's favorite pastimes.

We met friends at the park and, as always, had a super time.

We got to go to San Antonio for the KFGCMF 3rd annual golf tournament this year. We stayed with Gram and Pater and had a wonderful time. LOVE this picture of them!

Char and I tagging along with sweet Ainslee and Taylor

our beautiful girl, she's got her daddy's eyes

Last month, Jason stayed with us for a couple nights while the Ranger's were HOT in the playoffs. We had a great time with him! Charlotte had a "to-do" list for him upon his arrival and didn't care that he had tickets to PLAYOFF GAME. She wanted him to: dance, sing, cook, dress-up, color and play hide-and-seek. Thankfully, he scheduled her list around his game and that made her VERY happy. We LOVE uncle Jason!!

Char had been wanting a robe....

She sees her daddy in his every morning and wants to be cozy like him. A couple weekends ago, we went to the mall and found her one at Macy's. She loves it so much that most nights she ask if she can sleep with it on.

I am thankful the weekends when the 3 of us can hang out in the mornings in our cozy robes!

OK.....this is one of the pics that brings frustration! How adorable would this be if it wasn't blurry? UGH! Shutter speeds and f-stops sound simple when you're learning about them, but when you're trying to take a cute picture of an almost 3 year old playing in the rain, with an adorable expression on her face, IT'S HARD!

So, I switched back to auto trying to catch a cute (non-blurry) action pic of her.

{practice.....practice.....practice}