Happy 2nd Birthday Charlotte

Last Thursday, May 10 was Charlotte's 2nd birthday. We had her party on Wednesday the 9th, and made it  a combo party for one of her other friends in our playgroup. We have been in the same playgroup with the same 6 families since our oldest kids were babies! We meet every Thursday and have pretty much stayed on this schedule for 4 years. With new siblings coming into the group, we have grown from 6 kids to 11! And it just so happened that on the day Charlotte was born, Lucy was born too, just hours apart! So, Maria and I decided to have a birthday party for both girls. 

Auntie Carrie and Pearce were in town for the party so she helped me get everything together. The day before, we went to Mama and Papa's house to visit, and Nathan and Charlotte went on a golf cart outing with Papa. Nathan has gotten to be a pro at driving the golf cart. It helps that Grandmother has one too, so he gets lots of practice! Their favorite thing to do is to drive to the bridge and pond and feed the ducks and fish...plus feed themselves with some bread too. 

After Mama and Papa's house, we took Nathan to get a haircut and then all 3 kiddos took a bath together. So cute!

 It's party day! The three things that Charlotte loves most are babies, Elmo, and doggies (and pretty much in that order). So I decided to have a Puppy Dog themed party. I made all of the kids puppy dog ears attached to headbands, we painted on noses and whiskers. The kids also made doggie name tags out of beads and made up their own doggy names, and we played "Pin the Spots on the Dogs." As for the food, I got a doggy cupcake cake, dog bone sugar cookies, and I made "Puppy Chow" which is Crispix cereal mixed in melted chocolate and peanut butter and dusted with powdered sugar. It tastes great and really looks like dog food! We also had fruit and chips and dip. The best part was that we had cute little dog bowls that we served most of the food from. It really was so fun! Oh and the party favor bags had a stuffed dog, a tennis ball, a doggy whistle, and candy. 

Puppies Molly, Trevor, Lauren, and Nathan

More puppies!

Here they are making their doggy collars. They picked out a name badge, put beads on, and made up a doggy name to put on the tag. 

Nathan chose the name "Cookie"

Carrie and Pearce

After making the name tags, Carrie painted each of their faces. After that, the kids really got into character!

Fluffy #1 and Fluffy #2

Lucy, the other guest of honor

Sparky and Cookie

Time for cake! Charlotte and Lucy sat on the island while we all sang Happy Birthday. Both girls were so cute and loved being sung to. 

"Mommy, there sure are a lot of people looking at me."

Everyone took their cupcakes and bone cookies outside to enjoy. They played on the swing set, played with the bubble machine, drew with sidewalk chalk, and completely tired themselves out!

Charlotte and her boyfriend Wyatt :)

Marla with Carrie...Marla is expecting her 3rd baby in the next month!

Sweet Kelly

Connor and Ryan

After the kid party, we had a family party with Mama, Papa, Grandmother, Auntie Carrie, Pearce, and Otis. Nathan was swinging in the swing when the last guest left and we were visiting outside, waiting for Wayne to get home. All of a sudden, we realized the swing wasn't really moving anymore, and this is what we found...

One tuckered out doggie

While I got dinner ready, Nathan took a power nap, and when he woke up, he and Charlotte played outside by themselves for a while. When I went to check on them, I found quite a site! Charlotte, who was looking so cute before, now had matted, soapy hair! Apparently Charlotte and Nathan had fun pouring the bubbles on the ground and on themselves! The funny thing is that Nathan tried to "cover" it up by attempting to fix her hair. When he was finished styling her, she had two bows on top of her head!

Time to open presents! Charlotte got so many nice things from everyone and really did love it all. Nathan too!

Happy Birthday to our sweet girl!