Charlotte's 1st Birthday!

Charlotte is ONE! She had her 12 month checkup on her birthday, May 10. She weighs 21 lbs (55%) and is 28.3 inches tall (35%). She was such a happy girl while her doctor looked her over, and I was able to say "yes" to all of the questions he asked about her development except for one...Is she standing up? Yes! Is she holding onto and walking around things? Yes! Is she babbling or saying one or two words? Yes! She says "Hi" and babbles all the time. Is she a good eater? YES! Does she sleep through the night? Ummmm, yes...if she's in my bed. This is the one thing that we keep struggling with. Dr. Guetersloh told me I HAVE to get her sleeping through the night. She's getting over an ear infection right now, so as soon as that is cleared up, we're going to have to do some tough love...that is so much easier said than done! Other than that, everything is perfect with her.

On the 14th, we had Charlotte's party. It was a Garden themed party, and it turned out great! Mama, Papa, Grandmother, Auntie Carrie, along with our friends and their children were all there. Her party was a little bit more tricky to plan than Nathan's first birthday because she doesn't have a lot of baby friends her age, so I had to make it "girly" but also fun for Nathan and his friends.

I decorated with lots of flowers, flower pots, and butterflies. The kids had sandwiches cut out in the shape of flowers, Worm Dirt pudding, Little Debbie tulip cakes (I just happened to find these at Target) and ice cream cone cupcakes decorated as flowers. I also found these cute little shovels at Hobby Lobby that I used as serving pieces. And I made the centerpiece...a big flower pot that had 12 flowers with each of Charlotte's monthly pictures on them. It was so cute, but it took me FOREVER to make it!

We really lucked out on the weather too. We were hoping that it would be hot enough to swim, but it rained the week before so the water was still a bit chilly (although I'm sure the kids wouldn't have minded!) So they mainly just played outside on the swingset and in the yard.































Our big activity of the day was the insect scavenger hunt. We got each of the kids a bug catcher as their party favor. It came with a plastic container to hold the bugs, tweezers, and a net. While Carrie and Wayne were getting these passed out to the kids, I scattered plastic insects in the yard. And the hunt was on! It was so cute to see all of them "catching" as many bugs as they could! While I was taking pictures of them, I'd hear someone say, "I got a grasshopper!" or "I got a butterfly!" Then I heard Reece say, "I got a bat!" A bat? That's not an insect. And then Nathan showed me a plastic mouse that he caught! Buying the insect catchers and plastic bugs was Wayne's job...it turns out he not only bought bags of typical insects, but also bags that had mice, bats, and roaches in it! That wasn't really part of the "sweet" garden theme, but oh well, the kids loved it :)











Time for cake! Charlotte wasn't to happy about wearing her hat so that quickly came off...after taking her picture in it every month, she's finally sick of it. At first, she was a little unsure of her cake. She would stick her fingers in it, but then reach toward me to have me eat it! But once she figured out it was ok for her to try it, she really dug in!
























The party was a huge success, and as you can see in the above pictures, we were all worn out afterwards! Happy Birthday to the sweetest girl in the world! We love you Charlotte!