Sweet Charlotte might have had the happiest birthday yet with the best gift being to celebrate with Uncle Steve, Aunt Jenny, Karis, Isaac & Olivia. On top of that, Gigi spent the night with us AND Gaga & Pawpaw were in town! What a hustle & bustle kind of day it was!
24 hours prior she asked if she could make her own cake. Talk about independent! She did awesome & was happy with the results. She chose a strawberry cake because that is Aunt Jenny's favorite.
As tradition requires here at the Nest, on birthday eve, the special boy or girl is banned from the downstairs & decorating commences. Owen & Anson used to be excluded but are now part of the festivities. This year they were fantastic at attempting to blow up balloons and succeeding in covering them with saliva leaving me to be the one to complete the task. YUCK! Germ sharing & all, it went well & bedtime was calling our name. Her smile was big & bright when the sun came up & we headed downstairs.
My mom passed along her old camera & Charlotte took one of her first pictures of these delicious sugary treats in the shape of a number 8. I have been her mama for eight very special years. As far as the photo goes, I think she might have some talent with the flash turned off, candle in focus & the rest of the photo fading behind. She has certainly taken more selfies of silly faces than anything else but what do you expect from an eight year old little girl?
After breakfast she got down to business opening her gifts. Eloise convinced us to let her give Charlotte a stuffed cat which is certainly better than a real cat but just adds to the stuffed animal insanity. I will admit that it is really cute & snuggly & has been given the coveted spot on the bed.
A week before Charlotte's birthday, Robby was outside when a delivery person with an absurd amount of balloons (like at least 20) asked if she could leave them at our house for the next door neighbor. Charlotte was a little sad that they weren't for her and was super surprised on her big day to see her own little balloon bouquet on our front porch with a sweet note from Kate & Travis.
Another fun gift she received was from Uncle Scott & Uncle Kyle who got her an HP Sprocket printer so she could print pics on the go. They had her upcoming Colorado trip in mind & boy was it fun to have!
Earlier that morning I had been in touch with Jenny & Jeannine about an overnight delayed flight for Uncle Steve who was returning from Poland & a middle of the night trip to Urgent Care for Jenny. I prepared Charlotte for not having anyone up here to celebrate at lunchtime as we had planned. Inside I was heartbroken & praying that someone could come. We were shocked to hear that all were en route to our casa by mid morning! Charlotte could not have smiled any bigger when Robby relayed the message Uncle Steve sent. He told the airline desk attendant that he HAD to get to Dallas because he would not miss celebrating his niece's birthday. He must have looked serious because he got on the plane ; )
This was our first reunion two years after they moved away. I was a puddle of tears seeing Charlotte & Karis hug each other.
We took on a few boxes of pizza.....
My favorite picture of all....
Cake was yummy enough to dab on everyone's nose. Oh Livi-Lou with all the big girls, she is a cutie!
Just a smattering of pictures of the party-goers starting off with the perfectly coordinated great grandmothers & grandparents.
oh my....first clue we were in for it. They looked like this for much of the following 2 weeks!
What a fun coloring book she got!
We attempted a family photo. Attempt is the key word. It was the only picture that Grammy & Papa were a part of & they were compliant but others were not. Weird faces, back of heads, grumpy child glaring from the chair, etc. They were there though...promise.
