Only Four Short Years

 Time goes by so quickly when one is an adult.  Making every moment count seems so important because I know just how quickly it goes by.  It does and yet at the same time it doesn't seem so long ago that we brought Charlotte home.  I am thankful every single minute for this beautiful girl.

 1 year old!  Walking around and giving off that little half smile.

 By her two year birthday her crazy silly personality had fully emerged.  

 By the third birthday that goofy sense of humor was in full swing.

I hope she always keeps it!

Having a sense of humor about life is entirely necessary!

 And here she is on the morning of her fourth birthday.  What a little girl she has grown to be.  No more the baby or even toddler.  Four seems so much more grown up!

 We started the day with presents in bed. It has become a really wonderful tradition that the kids love.  Hugs and kisses and "happy birthdays".  It also gets the whole anticipating of the gifts out of the way and we can just focus on the day. 

 Sparkle shoes for her and Emily were the highlight of the morning.

 Birthday girl gets to pick whatever she wants to do and eat on her day.  It was donuts for breakfast, McDonald's for lunch (for the kids at least.  Brendan and I had Chipotle! Yummers.), and junk cereal for dinner.  All those things are extremely rare in our house (in fact junk cereal is only birthdays and getaways like camping), so each one was extra special!

 Even though Charlotte had a really fun birthday party, we wanted to do something special as just a family so we went to Chuck E Cheese.  Charlotte was so excited.  She got 2 free tokens just because it was her birthday.

 Meeting Chuck E Cheese was the highlight. She made me stop and watch Chuck E at another party and wait for him to come by for a "hi" and a picture.   Charlotte loved the roller coaster ride as well. This girl will be a daredevil like her brother!

 Tickets redeemed and a blue taffy as a reward.  

 More sugar!  Charlotte chose cupcakes for her birthday celebration.

 She wanted purple and yellow frosting but I just ended up making purple and then adding some of the decorating frosting in the end. She decorated and was happy with them.

As far as junk cereal my favorite is Lucky Charms and Brendan likes that as well so we were trying to steer her in that direction but Cole had his own agenda and craftily suggested Cookie Crisp instead.  Charlotte listened to Cole. :)  I loved this cereal when I was a kid so I understand! She gobbled up cantaloupe as well so I felt slightly better about her dinner choice.

 This is so Charlotte.

 Happy Birthday my darling girl!