Happy Birthday Charlotte!

 Charlotte turned 2 today! She really likes Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so we had a pirate theme birthday party. I made a birthday cake in the shape of a treasure chest with gold coin cookies. Just add some snacks of cheese, fruit and juice boxes and it was toddler heaven. (The picture above is another example of Charlotte's new picture face.)

Trixie was very into the present opening. Charlotte's friends were too though. Toddlers love opening presents. Of course, everyone wanted to play with the newest toy at the same time, so we had to do a lot of distracting.

 

These last two pictures are Charlotte opening her last present. Notice how excited she is in the first one and the look of terror in the second one when she saw the toy buffalo. She threw it across the couch as soon as she saw it. Apparently buffaloes are scary. :)

 

Jolly Trolley

We went to Callaway Gardens the other day for a ride on the Jolly Trolley. It was a light display with music and lights. It was pretty impressive. We're getting some ideas on how to decorate our yard, when we get one.  Here's a video of the snowflake forest.

 

Alex's Graduation

We went up to Athens for Alex's graduation. We spent the night in a hotel so that we could be at the commencement and convocation. This picture is pretty classic Alex/Charlotte interaction, especially since she just woke up. She's getting more used to all her uncles the longer she's here. When we went to pick Andrew up from the airport she was surrounded by Andrew and Ian and kept shouting "No uncle uncle!"

 Charlotte slept through the whole commencement celebration, which we really appreciated.

Backyard Soccer

Charlotte loves spending  time outside here in Georgia. She played soccer outside in the backyard for a while. She really wanted to jump in the pool, but it's been a little too cold.

Charlotte in Georgia

Charlotte is preparing to turn two this week. This is her having a meltdown on Trixie's dog bed. Silly girl. She does love playing with "Trixie doggie" though. She calls her and then runs away in excitement or wants to be held. I'm sure she'll get braver the longer she's here.  

Sugar Cookies

Charlotte helped me make sugar cookies the other day. She's getting really good at smiling for pictures these days too. She did a pretty good job and didn't even eat any dough. She did eat plenty of cookies once they had frosting on them though. A girl after my own heart... 

 

Ian's Back

Ian came back from his mission to Scotland this week. It was great to see him again. He hadn't seen Charlotte since she was 5 days old, so they've been bonding and making up for lost time. We had a good group there to meet Ian at the airport. Here's a video of him walking in.

 

 

Putting Charlotte to Bed

Charlotte has been having a lot of trouble with going to bed lately. She screams unless someone is in there. We've let her scream it out until she just goes back to her bed a few times. Including last night. We were pretty surprised when she actually stopped crying after only a few minutes. That was at 9pm. Brad and I went to bed at 10:30 and were almost asleep at 10:45 when we heard some piano playing from Charlotte's room next door. Weird, since she was supposed to be asleep. Then we kept hearing it. THIS is what we found...

Let's just say that there are at least 30 books and 15 blankets piled on her bed as well as diapers (clean and dirty), wipes, her changing pad, the cover for that and everything else from her shelf. The funny part is that she looked like she somehow did fall asleep somewhere and woke up and then decided to play the piano.