I am so tired right now I could cry. Actually, I might have before leaving for work at 10:30pm. These Friday night shifts are killing me! But lucky for me, I had a friend stop by the house to drop off somethings and she brought me coffee. Exactly what I needed to get through the morning!
Charlotte's birthday last year was super last minute, and this year wasn't much different. I was originally planning on having her party Friday evening, but then I heard cousins Casey and Dylan wouldn't be there so I moved the party to Thursday. Then I heard Aunt Kile was going to come, but she thought it was on Friday. I moved it back to Friday, after I agreed to work the overnight shift. Some serious poor planning right there. You know, thankgoodness it wasn't on Thursday though. At one point there was 11 kids at my house ranging from 8 months old to 7 1/2 years old. It was chaos. I was just glad my mom and neighbor were there too! I would have never gotten anything ready for her party while watching Charlotte + Kady + 3 babies during the day.
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| Aunt Bobbi occupied some of the kids by playing baseball in backyard. |
After baking and carving the cake Thursday, I woke up semi-ready to tackle Friday the 13th. Charlotte was so excited when she woke up and ate her last jelly bean on her countdown to her birthday! Ridiculously cute! Just as I imagined, she requested Cream of Wheat for breakfast, her favorite.
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| Charlotte and Aunt Kim in the hammock. |
I spent the morning tidying up the house knowing that by the afternoon, you wouldn't be able to tell it was tidy. I powered through just so I wouldn't have to work on decorating the cake. I keep putting it off until the last minute. I think I'm burning out on the caking... At one point I had two babies at my feet, and two very curious girls watching me frost the cake. I can't tell you how frustrating all the questions can be when I'm concentrating! But I got it done with time to spare.
My parents showed up just in time to help make the burger patties and prep the toppings. Perry arrived home to a house FULL of people, and just in time to grill. Unless I miscounted, there was 20 adults and 12 kids. I don't think we've ever had this many people at our house at once. Especially for a 3 year old's party! I loved it!
Hunter enjoyed his time with cousin Casey, but also had a friend over to play with as well. (He just shows up at our house pretty frequently so instead of sending him home, I said he could stay for dinner. Then he set his plate down and the vulture-dog of ours ran off with his hot dog.) JP didn't care for all the people, which didn't surprise me. I found him in our spare room watching a movie "having some Jimmy time." Charlotte was later found in Hunter's room crying because of all the people. Poor little thing!
We quickly cleaned up dinner and moved on to cake and presents to perk up her spirits. She loved the cake, but she wasn't into pictures today. Go figure. This is the best of them. Booties helped her to at least look at the camera.
She wouldn't even cheer up for Daddy!
She did perk up a bit when her bestie came around though! Just a little.
After I took all the pictures I needed of the cake, we sang her the birthday song, and wasn't overly impressed about it. She did request mom and dad to sing it again to her at bedtime and her face was all smiles!
I'm pretty sure Hunter adores Casey as much as Casey adores Hunter. I sense some trouble coming on with these two in a few years...
Once she ate her cake, Charlotte made a mad dash for the presents. All the kids did. She had been waiting all day to open up the present JP gave her. He had me pick up a box of Whoppers for her and he wrapped them with the message, "To Charli Love Jimmy" on the box. If that doesn't melt your heart....
The other night at dinner we asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she was quick to spell it out for everyone. A bike from JP, a pink flower from Hunter, her "purple-red" blanket (it's actually teal) from Dad that's been sitting high on a shelf for several months (only Santa can reach it, her words not mine!), and a light saber from mom that looks like Hunter's. She later changed my present to puzzles thankfully. Other than her blanket which is already hers, she received everything she asked for!
Perry rode her bike in from the garage. I had bought a few bows to put on it, but they didn't make it to the bike. The pedals didn't make it on the bike either. I found it posted online from a church friend and immediately spoke for it. It has princesses on it too! Perry helped her ride it down the hall after Casey helped her put her new helmet on.
Once all her presents were opened, we all got a really nice thank you out of her. She opened them all so fast that she didn't process everything she was opening. After all the guest left, she dug through her box of stuff excitedly!
Casey enjoyed her new pom-poms :)
Before the nephews left, we attempted to get a cousins picture. #1 I can't see Dylan! Sit Dylan up!
#2 Stay there Dylan! JP look at the camera! Hunter put the bat down.
#3 JP look here! Casey!
I think we should have stopped after the 1st picture.
Much to our surprise, Aunt Erin and cousin Stevie were in the area and were able to join us for the party! Such a fun surprise! I'm excited to hopefully see them again before they head home next week!
Happy birthday sweet Charlotte! Where have these last 3 years gone?!
