The Golden Birthday

Someone told me that the 5th birthday is called the "Golden Birthday".  I wasn't aware of that, but I am going with it!  Regardless of what it is called, it certainly has been a fun few days of celebrating our Charlotte Grace!!!

On Saturday, she had her birthday party at Sportset (the same place she had it last year)…there were about 20 kids, and lots of adults, and everyone had a blast. We were missing a few of our close family members, which was sad, but thank goodness, Charlotte just expects her birthday to continue for the entire month of April, so there is plenty of time for make-ups haha.

Here are some pictures of the party…the lighting on the field and court are always pretty awful, so there aren't very good pictures, but you will get the idea :)

Just slightly excited for her party

Posing with Mamie

On the field and ready to play!

Henry is on the move

Charlotte & Abby…it was cute, she was running saying, "my cousins are here! My cousins are here!"

The coaches attempting to organize the kids into teams

My sweet, sweet birthday girl…so big

Henry kept on getting tackled by the big kids haha

That's quite a crowd! :)

I think I need to sign him up for some soccer lessons, because clearly he doesn't understand the rules of the game!

In "jail" while waiting for the other teams to finish playing

My little honey badger, he was winded haha

Some dangerous game they had the kids play…I was just thinking that it wasn't going to end well!

On line for the obstacle course

Charlotte trying to keep her brother in line!

Henry surrounded by girls…oh boy

Here are the kids playing "freeze dance".  Love listening to Charlotte's giggles, and seeing Henry's wiggles haha

Silly girl

Attempting a group picture…always funny to see this, because without fail, one child starts melting down, another starts running away, etc. etc.  This actually isn't too bad! :)

Abigail joined the group!

This was supposed to be the funny face picture…Henry just looks like a thug haha

Everyone was famished and ready for pizza after all of that running around

Charlotte checking out the desserts!

Her request this year was a Hello Kitty cake, which is kind of funny to me being that she has never seen Hello Kitty, or read Hello Kitty, or anything, but she told me it is her favorite character!  So her wish is my command :)  I don't think it is my finest creation, but I think it is sufficient haha

Sweets

Family picture before we sing to the birthday girl!

Too bad she doesn't look good in this one because Henry is looking at the camera for once! :)

A shot of proud mommy & daddy

One of my favorites

And finally, everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to Charlotte.  Sorry you have to turn sideways, but my mom took the video haha

I loved how they sat right next to each other…my loves

Charlotte had cake and 2 mini cupcakes, she kept saying, "just one more because its my birthday" haha

Mmmmm

We realized when we were packing up and getting ready to leave that she never wore the birthday hat that she had picked out for the occasion.  So of course she had to model it for me :)

 

After the party, we went back to the house with Mamie, Grandma, Ray, Liz, Uncle Ginny and Uncle Joe, and Charlotte opened all of her gifts.  I didn't get a lot of pictures unfortunately, but Charlotte was very happy with her presents.  Here is a pic of the kids playing a fishing game with Uncle Ray…guess who was the weak link here? Sorry Ray. Haha

Finally

The night after her party, we took Charlotte out to dinner to celebrate because Jon had a work dinner tonight.  She chose Cabo, which ended up being really fun…here are the kids devouring the chips and salsa and being silly.  Such a typical Henry face!

Is this normal behavior in a restaurant?!  Henry kept picking up his shirt…showing us where his burger was going haha.  I think we will avoid any fancy establishments for the next 16 years :)

Jon asked for a candle in Charlotte's dessert, and this is what she got haha.  This could've ended in tears, but thank goodness she liked it :)

And we all had a lot of fun with the hat afterwards!

Don't mind her scary eyes!

Even mommy got a turn!

I love my family.  Good times :)

Monday we didn't have any birthday celebrations (horrible of us, huh?!), but today was her actual birthday and we had lots of fun.  Here was her birthday loot!  The balloons were from her party, but I think they made it more festive :)

Here she is coming downstairs…there are two separate videos because my mom called in the middle of the first haha.

 

Opening the leotards that she picked out herself, haha.  I told her to act surprised…is she too young for that? :)

The aftermath...

All before 8am…quite a scene!

She was excited for school today…we brought in ice cream cups (only thing they allow…no homemade goods) and juice (special occasion!), and they sing to the birthday child and let them be the class leader on their birthday.  It was a big day for her, and she picked out her outfit, of course.  Think this is the first time she hasn't insisted on a big fancy dress for her birthday, but she did sport the zebra stripe shoes and necklace/ring :)

Meanwhile, when Charlotte was at school, mommy and Henry were taking advantage of the 80 degree weather!  Yes, he is still in his PJs after drop-off…he rarely wants to take them off these days, and frankly, I need to pick my battles!  But I digress…there was dirt on the patio from Henry's truck, and so he needed to clean it immediately. Cheap labor :)

After nap, I asked Charlotte if I could take a picture with my birthday girl, but of course she was being a silly goose

Crazy 5 year old haha

Think mommy probably should have put on some make-up first anyway :)

Yes, this is my 5 year old…still tired after taking a 1.5 hour nap.

But soon she had gotten a second wind!

We were playing outside, and we got a special delivery from her "fairy godmother" Kathleen, all the way from Bermuda!!! So exciting :)

Charlotte loves her new stuffed animal :)

I loved this…Henry wearing Charlotte's boots, the Hello Kitty bag on the top of the car, Henry blowing the whistle when she was going too fast or too slow.  Very entertaining :)

I asked Charlotte what she wanted for dinner tonight, and her request was "macaroni and broccoli".  Being that I was out of broccoli, she got asparagus and chicken pasta.  She picked farfale pasta ("butterflies" to her), but if I had my way I was going to attempt to sneak my gluten free brown rice pasta in there.  Next time.  Anyway, Henry didn't feel like eating tonight, and Jon had a work dinner, so it was only "the two girls" for dessert…apparently she thought it was hysterical that I was singing "Happy Birthday" to her all by myself.

But she thoroughly enjoyed her cupcakes!

Such a goose

So we've certainly had a fun-packed few days of Charlotte's birthday celebrations.  I am still in complete shock that we have a five-year old.  I feel like it was just yesterday that we had her, and now she is such a big girl.

It's funny, because in a lot of ways, I feel like 4 was a tough age for her, relatively speaking.  We never went through the "terrible 2s" or 3s with Charlotte, but I think 4 was a little challenging.  Don't get me wrong, she was always our sweet, loving, hysterically funny little girl.  But she felt VERY strongly about a lot of things, and was difficult in a lot of ways…the clothes/accessories thing was a killer, food was still an issue for part of the year, and she was generally testing her boundaries with a lot of things.  I do have to say that in the last few months, however, she has kind of turned a corner (knocking on wood as I write this). I never in a million years would've believed this would happen, but she is actually a good eater now!!!  I mean, she still has things she doesn't want to touch, but it isn't the daily battle it once was…the battle that consumed our lives for so long.  She actually eats--FOOD!  And without a fight.  These days we can actually sit down for a meal, talk…EAT…and there is no crying (from her…her brother is sometimes a different story haha).  The clothes thing is still an issue sometimes…she is very particular, and knows what she wants and doesn't want…so it can be a bit of a challenge, but she knows now that she has to choose her clothes the night before and if she doesn't want to wear it in the morning, mommy chooses.  At the beginning of the year, every morning ended in her hysterically crying as I tried frantically to throw something on her and get out the door (one day she refused to wear pants or leggings or tights, and I told her I was going to take her to school in her panties, haha), but mornings are a bit more peaceful these days*.

*Except for the fact that Henry only wants to wear his PJs constantly. With her pink cowboy boots. But thats a whole different issue!

She is quite possibly the sweetest child I've ever known (not that I am biased or anything).   But she is so sensitive and caring, and just pure goodness.  She is such a wonderful big sister (*90% of the time), and one of life's greatest joys is watching Charlotte and Henry together.  There is literally nothing better than watching them love each other, and play so nicely together, laughing and talking.  As Henry is speaking more, it just gets better and better. The other day after the party they were sitting on the couch together, only inches apart, and Henry looked at his big sister with a smile on his face and said, "I had so much fun at your party, Shadi" (he can say "Chardotte" now--that's how he pronounces it--but Shadi has been sticking, haha), and she just kissed him.  So affectionate, so sweet, so much love...as always.

*The other 10% of the time, when she is mad at him, she will tell him "I'm not your best friend anymore Henry, and I'm not playing with you anymore", but we need not dwell on that haha.

Anyway, we feel so blessed to be Charlotte's parents…we love our little goose so much.  She gave our lives so much more meaning, gave us an unimaginable love, and we just can't imagine life without her.

Here are some of her "favorites" right now, just for the record…actually, I don't think that much has changed from last year at this time haha.

Happy Birthday baby girl!!!

Xoxoxo