Barnyard Party

Our little Charlie turned 3 on November 2nd.  We threw her a barnyard party at a Farm here in Cincinnati.  We decided to do parties every other year so I was excited to plan something this year!

The kids had a great time running around, petting the animals, and having cake!  We loved having all the family and friends help us celebrate Charlie's birthday!

Halloween Recap!

This year we had a monarch butterfly and a bumblebee :)  I wasn't originally planning on dressing Leni up since she goes to bed so early.  But on Monday morning I woke up and felt really bad I didn't have a costume for her.  I ran to Target and they had the cutest bumblebee costume that actually matched Charlie's polka-dots.

Charlie LOVED trick-or-treating.  She was gone for 1 1/2 hours!!!  I stayed back and handed out candy/hung out with Leni.  Our cul-de-sac camped out on the street with fire pits, table for the candy, and a keg of course.

Of course I cannot get a picture with both girls smiling at the same time!  I should probably get used to that, right?

This was at the end of the night when all Charlie wanted to do was lay down and eat candy :)

Filter Fun!

I'm so late to the Snapchat world, and technically I'm not reaalllllyyyy on it as I downloaded it just for the fun filters.  Charlie and I spent at least 30 minutes playing around with it.  So much fun!  Especially to see these little ladies with the filters, ha!

And then I meant to include these on Leni 5 month posts, but here are a couple fun collages.  The first one is of Leni & her changes!!  Look how grown up she looks.  I expected these changes from 1 month to 3 months but I'm shocked to see the difference between 3 and 5 months!  The second collage shows Miss Charlie on the left and Miss Leni on the right both at 5 months.  They look a lot alike but there sure are a lot of differences too!

Easter 2015

Little behind...yes, I know!  Things have been crazy town around these parts.  But we had such a great Easter, I could NOT not blog about it.

I finally got an Easter basket for Charlie this year (mental note for next year- turn around the bunny ear so you are able to see the name correctly).  Anyway, we hid it in a very obvious spot assuming Charlie would not know how/wouldn't be into looking for a basket.  We definitely underestimated her Easter skills.

I had fun stuffing her basket with monogrammed things this year.  Including an adorable little apron she can wear while cooking in her kitchen :)  PS- how does she look so big?!

Charlie thoroughly enjoyed going through her basket and pulling out her new things!  Including those bunny ears....they did not come off all day!

Charlie is obsessed with jewelry and shoes (duh!) so bracelets were a must for the basket.

Derek had to work unfortunately so it was just Charlie and myself for the day.  We went up to my Mom's to see family and eat a delicious meal.

My Mom was smart and nice enough to plan a little Easter egg hunt for Charlie.  Again, Derek and I completely underestimated Charlie.  We thought she was too young this year to enjoy a hunt...we were wrong!!  Girlfriend picked up all those eggs in a few short minutes.  Oops, I know better next year!

Charlie is obsessed with taking the eggs apart, putting them back together, taking them out of her basket, putting them in her basket, etc. etc. even to this day!!

Hope you all had a great Easter!

12 Month Photos

We had the wonderful Jax take Charlotte's 12 month photos.  We met her at the Cincinnati Nature Center on a beautiful fall day.  Unfortunately, after we got there, Derek realized he forgot to put an essential bag in the car and had to run home and get it.  Thus, there are a lot of photos of just Charlie and I!  And by the time he got back, Charlie was a little done with pictures.  But Jax is wonderful and still managed to capture some great family photos.

We brought a smash cake for Charlie and she did not disappoint.  She dug right in and got messy.  This was so much fun to watch!

celebrating a FIRST birthday

On November 2nd we celebrated Charlotte's first birthday.  It was so nice to have her party on her birthday.  Luckily, Derek got off of work and we were surrounded by friends and family to help birthday-girl party!

As all moms know, planning around nap times is essential in order to avoid melt downs during the party.  We thought a 3:30 party would be great with Charlie's schedule.  However, I was at a loss of what to do with the food.  After doing some searching on Pinterest, I came across a "popcorn bar."  I thought it would be perfect!

I was going to do a general fall theme but then the idea of a "Charlotte's Web" party sounded too perfect.  I had to do it before she was old enough to tell me that it was too cheesy ;)  I worked with Courtney to help come up with the invitation.  I sent her some inspiration which is essentially a rustic theme with a touch of Charlotte's Web.  Well, she blew me away her ideas!  I also had her design the popcorn bar signs and details.  Highly, highly, highly (!) recommend her.

Anyway, let's get to some pictures!

The favors were a used copy of Charlotte's Web.  The detail on the outside can be used as a bookmark.

These are the seasonings for the popcorn bar.

The chalkboard sign I created for our chalkboard...took me forever!  However, I have a template so let me know if anybody needs one :)

I did a collage of her smash cake photos done by the talented Jax

Popcorn Bar

Thanks to Anne for suggesting a cookbook for vegan cupcakes...they were so delicious and a huge hit at the party!

Mix-ins for the popcorn

This was Charlie's "look" all day, ha!  She was quite overwhelmed by all the people.

Charlie hanging out with all the guests including one her size...little Hendrik 

I could not stop smiling after the party...it was just so wonderful to have so many friends and family at our house celebrating our daughter's first birthday.  It's one thing when you have people supporting you, but it is completely another when they are there for your child.  We loved every second and could not thank everybody enough.

As far as our little girl, she's grown up so fast.  Remember this tiny thing?

We are so thankful that she is our daughter and couldn't have asked for anything more.  Happy birthday sweet girl :)