August 10, 2012

Today we celebrated Charlotte's 3rd birthday! She has been looking forward to her birthday ever since attending a friend's birthday a couple of weeks ago, and she had loads of fun today. When she woke up she discovered a doll house had appeared in her toy area:

 This is the doll house my parents made me when I was a little girl and it is fun to give it to Charlotte. She was a bit thrown off by the door that doesn't actually open..."pretend" can be a difficult concept.

This lucky little girl had 2 gifts that arrived before her birthday to open. Here she is opening a game from the Morrell's, she was more than a little excited. 

Check out this book, Dad! What a cute bag from Aunt Jocelyn, it even says Charlotte on it. 

Charlotte went to school today while Patrick and I worked in the morning. In the afternoon she celebrated her birthday with her school friends while we prepped for her party. Her school did a great job of making her feel special. When we arrived this morning she was greeted with a big round of "Happy Birthdays" and she got to wear a special birthday vest. In the afternoon all the kids had popsicles to celebrate and the kids made Charlotte a "birthday book" of drawings and messages. Then, it was time for the party...

Charlotte's birthday cake! This is the first cake I have ever made from scratch and frosted. I'm quite proud of this attempt and I now understand why I often hear people wish they could open a bakery. I don't want to get up at 3 a.m. everyday, but cake decorating would be fun!

Charlotte's party all ready at Van Cleve Park in Minneapolis, just waiting for the guests. The park is great with 2 playgrounds and a wading pool.

She had fun playing with the kids and seeing family and friends. Here she is posing with her cake, which she patiently waited to eat. 

Leading up to Charlotte's birthday anytime I asked her what she wanted for her birthday she said candles. Here she is basking in the glory of her birthday candles with this fantastic candle-blowing-out face. 

Patrick helped her get a better angle and she blew her candles out all by herself! At bedtime tonight I asked her what the best part of her birthday was and she said "my candles" - aww. :)

Not sure how many more years we'll do this, but here she is in September, 2009, less than one month old.

And here is our happy, healthy, growing 3-year-old. So much to be grateful for.

Speaking of 3-year-old, how does that whole fingers thing work? Mom, Dad, a little help please?

That's it, got it.

It's fun to post some patch-free photos. Charlotte is still patching, but we gave her a little extra time off for her birthday. She wore it all day at school. She had an eye appointment yesterday and we learned that her eyes haven't changed since her last appointment. We go in every three months and if there is no change for three appointments we may be done patching. While I'd like to be done patching, it will mean her eyes are as good as they'll get and I'd love to see some more improvement. Time will tell!