Tag Archives: 3

Charlotte’s Birthday Party

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12.16.08 Charlotte's party (9)After being invited to several birthday parties for three-year-olds this year, I decided to bite the bullet and try hosting one for Charlotte.  This is the first birthday party I’ve thrown and after all the time I spent planning it, I know why many parents decide to wait a few years!  We had three 2 1/2 year olds, two 3 year olds, a 4 year old and a one year old for a total of 7 children, but it went really well. 

I had activities to fill the entire time, so it went by fast and we didn’t have to get out toys to entertain the kids.  Here is the list of activities:

1. Stories and songs (I read "Happy Birthday Moon" and "Snow Day")

2. Fishing snack (cream cheese with blue food coloring in a bowl and goldfish crackers around the side, the kids dipped celery sticks in the cream cheese then "caught fish" with the cream cheese coated celery)

3.  Watermelon caterpillar snack (I set the timer for 3 minutes to see  who could build the fastest watermelon caterpillar with toothpicks and watermelon balls, then they ate them)

4.  Picture treasure hunt (They raced around to find envelops with clues.  The clues were a few lines of rhyming text and a picture of where they’d find the next clue, at the end of the treasure hunt were birthday cupcakes)

5.  Sing Happy Birthday, Blow out candles, Eat cupcakes, Open presents

6.  Ice cream game (I checked out a game from PERC where they had to find matching ice cream pictures)

7.  Dancing to Christmas Music and playing with balloons while moms arrived and children left.

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Charlotte

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11.16.08 Charlotte (2)Charlotte was born at 2:16 in the afternoon on Wednesday December 14, 2004.  She  was about a month old on the day we blessed her (January 15th) and on that day I remember having a distinct feeling that I was holding a very special daughter of God and I had a sense of the strength of her spirit.  

Charlotte is a treasure and a joy to me.  I love her more than I can say.  I feel a special connection to her at times that is beyond what words can describe.  There are times that her tender hugs lift my spirit and give me strength.

 

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Turning 3: an in Depth Look

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(written on his birthday, posted a few days later)

So today was finally the big day and he was so excited. When he saw the happy birthday decorations he got very excited. He pretended to read them and then started naming all the letters in happy Birthday.

Just before sacrament me eting started at church he said alou d “Isaac getting big, big, big” and he reached his arms up high. It was also father’s day so when I told him the kids were going to sing, he said “sing happy birthday to Isaac?”

Charlotte was officially old enough for Nursery as of Thursday so we also let her take the sacrament for the first time (we decided as a couple that it seemed like a good age to start). Isaac was very kind and picked out a piece of bread and then offered it to her before taking his own.

After church we had lunch and then Isaac helped me decorate his cake. We had chocolate frosting so I got some construction cone candles and I bought some small trucks to go on the cake. He was so enthralled with all the trucks on the cake that I had to take off the forklift and clean off the frosting so that he could play with it. He drove it around the living room an d used it to transport his presents across the room.

He told me that his presents were all full of trucks. At one point he told me one of the presents was a cement truck and another present was cement for the truck. He thought the big cylindrical present (Lincoln logs) was a car seat.

He had been practicing the happy birthday song and he was very excited to have it sung to him, however he was afraid of the fire on the candles so he blew them out from a distance with a series of short puffs that made us all laugh!

After cake we opened presents and he did much better this year. Although he wanted to play with each toy after opening it, he also allowed us to provoke him to open other presents.

It was also father’s day so we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for dinner. He rode his new bicycle. Most of the way I steered while he watched his feet and made comments about the mechanics of his bike. It was neat to see how mechanically minded he is. He didn’t eat much dinner before he decided that he missed his new toys and wanted to go home. He rode his bike home and as he rode he told me that mommys were good at keeping Isaacs safe.

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