A Birthday Re-Cap

A HUGE thank you to all of you for sending us extra love, support, texts, emails...you name it...on Wednesday as we celebrated miss Charlotte's 3rd birthday.  I know that it might not seem like much to you, but every single word of encouragement or acknowledgement makes hard days just a little more "do-able". 

We had a pretty busy day, full of all things Charlotte.  We started out with a morning walk (to beat the forecasted 100 degree heat!)  While we were out we saw our very first butterfly of the season. I shouldn't be surprised...our little girl always finds a way to make her presence known.

After a divine 3 hour nap (for Harrison, not me) we opened some packages that came in the mail.  Books for Charley!!!  Thanks to H, each one has been thoroughly inspected and is ready to go to Children's Hospital later this summer!

That's not all that came in the mail!  NamNam, PopPop and Uncle Abe sent Charlotte a birthday card and included a special t-shirt as well.  I'm so in love...the back says "Home of the loose meat, loose meat, loose meat sandwich."  Hahahaha!  Made my day!

When Matt got home from work, we wrote birthday wishes on balloons and sent them off to the heavens. 

 And then sang "Happy Birthday" and blew out 3 candles.

 The bakery where I bought the cupcakes had bite-sized samples of their strawberry shortcake variety (white cake, strawberry filling, whipped cream on top)  I snagged one for Harrison and I'm pretty sure it blew his mind.  Totally devoured in about 2 minutes.

 After dinner we headed out to watch Matt play sand volleyball.  It was Harrison's first sand experience and he thought it was delicious wonderful!  Afterwards, we came home to an 85 degree, AC-less house (BOOOOOO).  Rather than suffer through the night, we set up camp in the basement and had a family slumber party.  This little guy was BEAT after a long day of birthday celebrations and totally crashed.  He totally melts me when he snuggles with his Charley Bear (Thank you, Aunt Jessy!)

As I said last year in my birthday re-cap...

Our new birthday traditions are not ideal, but they are our reality.  

May 14, 2013 and every May 14 from here until eternity we will celebrate...

...no matter how much it hurts.