Happy 5th Birthday, Charleston!

Dear Charleston, 

The day is finally here. You're 5! 

It's not 13. Sixteen. Twenty-one.

But 5, it seems so . . . so big! 

A birthday of 5 means the end of preschool days. Swimming on your own (almost). Running free in the back yard or riding your bike on your own. Coloring in the lines of your coloring books. Dancing and twirling through out the house and practicing your cartwheel whenever you can! Five means you're still a child, but yet you're so independent.

You put on your own clothes. You get your own drink from the fridge. You like to help in the kitchen, You feel less like my baby and more like my little girl.

Every year, you grow into who you are destined to be. You become more defined. More yourself. More beautifully you. Soon you’ll be going off to school, and creating a life for yourself that is less dependent on me every day. Your world will expand to include new teachers, new friends, and new experiences that won’t include me.

And that’s wonderful!

I envy the fun you’re going to have, the things you’re going to learn, and the people you’re going to meet. To you the world is fresh and new, and something to be amazed by. Learning something new every day comes naturally to you because your heart and mind are so open to the wonders around you.

When you walk into a room and talk to someone new, you bring a smile to their face. Your joy in life brings joy to others. And it pours out to every person you interact with on a daily basis.

You are compassionate. If someone is hurt, you want them to feel better. If someone is sad, you want them to feel happy. And if you don’t know what is wrong with someone, you want to find out. I love your heart for people. I wish we all had a piece of that. 

I want you to remember, there will be challenges over the next five years. You will find that not everyone is nice like your family. There will be other kids who will be mean to you and Emersyn and try and tell you things which aren’t true. But I will be here for you both. And so will your dad.

We will not be able to keep you girls from the sadness in the world, and you will make mistakes. Lots. And lots of mistakes, but we will help you learn to cope with it and teach you how important you girls sticking up for each other is. I don’t want to shield you from the sadness and difficulty, but you girls won’t have to face it alone.

Because those experiences have value too. You will learn how to handle difficulties, and become an unstoppable woman. You will handle the mean girls, and become a better person for it. You will have your heart broken, and learn that you deserve better. 

We learn more from our mistakes than we do from being right all the time. We become better people when we are faced with those who seek to tear us down. We join a sisterhood of strong, confident, kick-ass woman when we survive our childhoods.

But through all of this, I want you to remember one thing...

You are 5 and you are brave, independent, stubborn, strong-willed, loving, warm, bossy, difficult, easy, cuddly, and tough all in one. You are like me and like your dad, but you are not like me and you are not like your dad. You are perfectly you, and I will love you through it all. 

There is nothing you can do, nothing you can say, to make me think otherwise.

So I will be here to listen when you need an ear to bend. I will be here to hold your hand when you need a boost of courage. I will be here to wipe your tears when someone breaks your heart.

In me you will always have a safe place. A soft place to fall. A place where you can be totally, completely yourself, even if yourself is awkward, nerdy, self-conscious, unsure, know-it-all, sometime inappropriate girl who’s still trying to figure out exactly who she is.

But I know you will make me proud. I know you will shine.

This is life at 5. And I wouldn't stop it for the world, but I sure wouldn't mind pausing it.

I love you.

Happy birthday,

Your proud mother

Charleston's FIRST Birthday Party!

After months and months of planning Charleston's first birthday party, the big day finally arrived. Our house was filled last Saturday with friends and family with an outpouring birthday love for our sweet girl. The whole day was kinda of surreal, and I still can't believe our baby girl is a year old. I wanted to make this a special birthday for her (even if she wont remember it) and Im so happy with how everything turned out.

Even though my mind was in that crazy hosting-coordinating-wrangling mode, I still manged to get a handful of photos. I am truly greatful for my sister, Brandy and my mother n law for the photos they got as well. I know my dad played photographer too, but I have not had a chance to get those. The day went by so fast, that I truly cherish these photos!

Her cake was the inspiration for the whole color theme of the party. I ordered it from Tiers of Joy, she also did our Wedding cake. From that I created & designed her invitation and printed from mixbook. After that was her chalkboard that I created in photoshop. Pinterest and Etsy played a huge part in helping me decorate for her party. (You can click on any photo and it will enlarge it.)

Seeing all my decorations come to life made me so happy. The colors, the cake, her outfit, the details... it all turned out perfect.

Her banner around her high chair was made from tissue paper that I cut and twisted to make "tassels." They turned out better then I thought, as I made them 10 mins before the party. The "ONE" I had made when I did her cake smash sessions. Those were numbers that I bought from ac moore and spray painted and attached the gold dots and the princess crown. The pink carriage I bought from hobby lobby and spray painted as it was originally a hot pink. 

Charleston did so good opening her presents. Her favorite things were def the books, till she got to Aunt Brandy's princess castle! 

 

This girl was super EXCITED when it was time to eat cake! She wasted no time! You can see her Cake Smash blog here.

 

We didnt get a lot of photos.. but I did get a few!
Her out fit and my necklace came from etsy and my jumpsuit and her shoes came from amazon.

I think her first birthday was def a success and she was completely showered with love!

Letters to Charleston - 11 Months Old

Dear Charleston,

I can't believe this is the last monthly letter to you before your birthday. I have so much to say to you, but I think I'll save the sappy stuff for your one year letter.
So, lets talk about this month. I have to say, and I know I have said it before, but this is my FAVORITE age! You are a ball of energy and I can't get enough of you. I am so blessed to be your mommy. To wake up to your smiling face and bed head each morning. To be able to rock you and snuggle you before each nap during the day. And to steal as many baby kisses as I want. I could never have enough words to express how much I love you and how special you make me feel day in and out.
I feel like this month you're starting to change from my baby to a toddler. You're standing, and walking along furniture. I know you will be walking in no time. And as much as I love seeing you learn new things, I don't know if I'm ready for it. You are a pro at feeding yourself, and you have gotten so much better with sippy cups. You play with your toys on your own. You love climbing things. You're climbing out of your high chair, you're climbing out of the shopping carts, you're standing on top of your baby chair trying to climb into our bed, you're climbing the arm of the couch, pushing on me to get on the table. You're pushing boxes and toys around the house as if they were a walker. You're getting into everything you can possibly touch.
You have such a vibrant personality. You smile at EVERYONE and ANYONE who will look your way. It's easy to go places with you, especially out to dinner. You love watching everyone around you. You're definitely a busy body, You can go from 0-60 in no time. If we take a toy away that you wanted or most of the time it's something you found to play with that you shouldn't have, you can throw a fit. You usually get over it pretty quick. But I know this is just the beginning of your sass.

One of my favorite things about this month that you have just started is your ability to show us your love. You give the cutest slobbery kiss ever. When daddy or I walk into a room you have the BIGGEST smile on your face. It melts my heart... Every. Single. Day.

I noticed the other day, you have 2 more teeth on the bottom. That is a total of 8 teeth. 4 on the top and 4 on the bottom. You have gotten so good with table food. You love eating with your fingers. Spinach ravioli seems to be your favorite. You still love all your fruits and veggies. You're not so sure about meats yet.. you usually push it to the side. Your favorite part about this month was your cake smash session. You were so excited you got to eat cake and mommy did not stop you.

Over the next few weeks I will be soaking up every moment of the end of your first year. I can not wait to throw you a fabulous first birthday party and celebrate you will all of our friends and family.

We love you to the moon and back, sweet girl.

Love,
Mommy

Charleston's CAKE SMASH Session!

Since I started preparing for Charleston's FIRST Birthday party, I've been so excited to do her cake smash session. It took me forever to choose her set up. I finally came up with the perfect set up the day before. I just wanted something simple that would not take away from her, but something that also showed off the Pink and Gold theme. We had Ester from Tiers of Joy bake her cake. She did our wedding cake and she will also be doing her birthday cake. (BEST CAKES EVER)

Before the session I hadn't really let her eat finger foods or even sweets. The day before her session I let her eat finger foods for lunch to see how she would do. She did AWESOME...so I knew she would do great for her session.

Here are a few photos from her session.

This one is a snapshot from the video my mother n law shot! I love it! It really shows how much she loved the cake!

She dug right into her cake and LOVED it. At first she was a little confused bc I was not stopping her.