Our Little Sunshine turned 3!

I will never get used to the fact that I have a daughter with golden blonde hair and huge blue eyes.  Zac insists that she wasn't switched at birth, so the next logical explanation that I can come up with is that she is radiating the sunshine that is inside her soul from the inside out.  Charlotte is definitely our little sunshine and we recently celebrated her 3rd birthday in a joyous celebration.

We woke Charlotte up bright and early on her birthday so that she would be able to have time to open her presents and have a birthday pancake with daddy and the kids before they had to jet off to work and school.

The kids worked really hard all week to earn some money to buy Char some presents.  They were very thoughtful in their gift selection choosing things they thought she would really like and I think they were quite successful.

Mom and Dad got Char a bike and she feels like such a big girl!

Bronson supplied her with a new bathrobe and princess bubble bath and Ashlyn got her some Tinkerbell bubbles.

Grandma Kris and Grandpa Rich were able to stop by with some gifts on their way home from Hawaii.

Charlotte loved the little dolly wagon grandma and grandpa gave her, but quickly kicked the dolly out and had Tanner pull her around the house.

Charlotte has been dreaming up a birthday cake since last year when she saw a Tinkerbell cake in the Broulim's bakery.  She has told me about this cake for months.  I don't like to shell out the $$$ for a store bought cake, so we decided to try our hand at making our own Tinkerbell cake.  The night before her birthday, the kids helped me make fondant and color it, and then we rolled out some magical bugs, rocks, and toadstools for the cake.  It was probably the funnest cake we have ever made.

The finished product

I was hoping that she wouldn't be disappointed that it wasn't the store cake that she saw and she wasn't.  She was absolutely thrilled with the finished product.

We also bought some Tinkerbell and fairy rings to put in some cupcakes to share with cousins at a birthday party.

For Char's party we met all of our Fillmore/ Powell cousins at Green Canyon for a night of food and swimming.  Unfortunately in the midst of making sure that everyone had underwear and swimming suits, and towels we left the cake on the counter at home and didn't get to take it to share at the party.

Fortunately, my sister Annie came to visit a couple of days later and brought Cousin Alyza who is 4 days older than Charlotte, so we shared our cake with her as a belated birthday to both girls.

They seemed to think that this was an acceptable idea.

And so did all of the other kids.

Unfortunately, the party got a little wild and Tinkerbell eventually lost her head.  This is how I found her later :(

A big three-year old at her swimming party.

Here are some shots of the kids at Green Canyon.  I haven't figured out how to keep the camera from fogging up at the steamy pool, so the pictures never turn out very well.

Even Bronson had a ball!

We love our little Charlie Bug! 

She loves to color and has a particular Barbie coloring book that she loves.  She likes me to line the crayons up in rainbow order for her while she colors.

We sure love our little cutie bug and can't imagine life without her and all of her crazy antics.

Some things you should know about Charlotte:

1.  Her favorite food is meatballs and she can down 20 in one sitting!

2.  She is dying to be 5 so that she can go to Kindergarten like her brother.  She asks me several times a day if she is five yet.

3.  Her dad gets her to eat her food by telling her it will make her bigger, but then teases her and tells her not to eat her food because he doesn't want her to grow up... and then she will giggle and gobble her food up and tells him she grew bigger.

4.  She is such a daddy's girl and will sneak out of her room at night, go straight to daddy and climb into bed with him.  If she is ever in trouble during the day, she howls for daddy.  She especially loves to go on dates with daddy and tells me he is her prince and that they are married.  She told me the other night that she got married to daddy when he took her on a "marryin' mission".

5.  She is very girly and loves the color pink and dressing up.

6.  She loves to play with her Fisher Price Disney Princesses castle, Princess Polly Pockets, and My Little Ponies.  She is well known for her imagination and the funny voices she makes for the toys she is playing with.

7.  Her favorite TV Shows are My Little Ponies, Go Diego!, and Angelina Ballerina.

8.  She believes that she is a ballerina and often puts on a tutu and takes the time to practice her ballet moves.

9.  She thinks that what a person wants to be for Halloween is equivalent to what they will be when they grow up.  She wants to be a unicorn.

10.  Her best friends are her brothers and sister, and cousins Paige and Alyza.  There is nothing her older siblings can do that she can't keep up with and she absolutely lights up when they get home from school each day, but she also loves wrestling and playing with her baby brother.  She also adores getting together with her cousins and when she is away from them she has many make believe phone conversations and imagined play dates with them.

 

Happy Birthday Charlotte!  We love you :)