And finally the party....

I really wanted to get a picture of her in this outfit, just cause I like it. It has flamingos on the shirt so why wouldn't I?? :-) But of course Charli decided to play shy.

Until Dan came along to get her giggling.

And then I had Dan snap one of the two of us just for good measure.

The Murillo twins having lunch.

Here's "little" Louie smiling for the camera

Charli didn't eat much lunch due to all the excitement but she did manage to eat her dip

Getting ready to open presents

Yeah, presents!!!

back to the pool for all the kiddos

Charli loves the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cartoon right now so I went with a Mickey cake. It seemed the most logical choice for this year anyway.

Charli's favorite was the frosting

She kept grabbing more as I was cutting the cake. A picture was definitely needed....

Weeklong birthday continues

I wanted to get Charli the classic Red Radio Flyer (with push handle) tricycle for her birthday. But of course all the local stores were out of it and I had to order it online. Actually this worked out better as it did arrive for her birthday but I waited until after Tuesday and the excitement to give it to her. Here she is at my folks house right after getting her trike.

And this is the day before the party. My mom and dad got her an American Girl Bitty Baby for her birthday. She loves it. She was sitting down to read to her baby while I was doing some food prep. I had to snap a few pictures.

2nd Birthday

Yesterday was Charli's big day. Although she turned 2, this was more like a first birthday as she wasn't home last year for her first birthday. The weather was wonderful. I didn't go to work as Aunt Jo is in town and it's Charli's birthday. I had Emma and Jake come over to swim and play with her. I thought it would be fun for the cousins to be together for the day. It really was fun. They swam and played so well together. Emma and Jake are SOOOOO good with Charli especially in the water. It was so great to see. And then Jama, Aunt Jo and Papa got in the water too. Later Eric came over for pizza, cake and ice cream. His family couldn't stay any longer as both Emma and Jake had ball practice. Charli was so cute when she realized the presents were for her. She was just giddy, jumping up and down. It was a lot of fun. After presents, my cousin Justin and his wife Sarah stopped in to visit. I then took Aunt Jo, Sarah and Jama down to the open house at Charli's school. She literally crashed on the way home. She had such a big day.


Heading to the pool....
The three cousins

Papa throwing Charli. She loved this.

Jama was the "catcher".

And here she goes again.....

mmmmm, dip. Chips are just spoons for dip aren't they???

cake time

not so sure about blowing out these candles

a mother daughter shot. Eric took this and the focus isn't real good but oh, well.

I like cake and ice cream. Yummy

PRESENTS!!!!

a baby doll from Jama and Papa

dancing with my new "radio" from Lois

It's my birthday. Am I cute or what???

Happy 2nd Birthday

Today Chari is two!!! I can hardly believe it. One year ago I was feeling blue knowing that I was missing her first birthday. Now I can hardly believe she's been home nearly a year. It's really hard to imagine not having her home or what my life was like without her. She has grown so much. She is talking more and more each day. She has also picked up some not so wonderful traits be it from "school" or just from being a toddler. But then again, they are all normal. She is truly a delight and the light of my life.

Happy Birthday Charli girl!! I love you to pieces.

The last few days

So, I here are the pictures from Louie's birthday and the golf outing.









Last Sunday (Aug 9) was Louie Pelletier's birthday party. It was a good warm up for Charli's upcoming party. And then we left on Wednesday afternoon for the LLC annual golf contest/outing in Ames, IA. Charli was a real trooper. She did great in the car. On Thursday she came to the golf course and was really good there too. She rode around the course with Brenda and I as we delivered beverages and snacks. She also napped there too. My wireless connection isn't working well so I'll get some pictures up soon to catch you up on Charli.

NNO

Last night our neighborhood had a great National Night Out picnic party. We had the fire department, police and EMS present. The kids all love it as they get to climb in the trucks. I wasn't sure what Charli would think. When we first approached the big fire truck, a young fireman was inside and invited her in. She wanted to check it out. Well, after that, I was hard pressed to get her out.....




This is the "look mama, I fit between the seats and they're just out of your reach" look I got a lot of last night.

And this is the "check me out, I'm sooo cool sitting between the seats" look I got. She really thought this truck was awesome. I think our fire department is awesome for bringing the trucks to the neighborhoods and showing the kids around. What a great community we live in.

I hope you all had as much fun as we did last night. I'm already looking forward to next year's event.

Fair

Being that it wasn't ideal swimming weather on Saturday, I decided to take Charli to the Washington County Fair. I convinced my mom and dad to tag along as I thought they'd enjoy seeing Charli with the animals. She really had fun. She loved seeing the horses, cow, pigs and sheep. But her real favorite was the children's barn where she got to pet the animals.

The horses were good as long as papa held her and they didn't stick their noses out too far.

She was facinated with the cows.

She absolutley LOVED petting the baby bunnies. She kept asking for more, but I told her we had to let other kids have a turn. I think she may have stayed there all day.

But after a couple hours of the animals and fair food, we decided to head to the midway to see if she'd like the rides. Well, she fell asleep in her stroller. I transferred her to the carseat and this is what 3 hours of fair fun looks like to a nearly 2 year old.....