Our 3 year old

What a sweet day with our three year old.  Every birthday might seem like a milestone, but this one really did.  Our baby girl isn't a baby anymore, or even a toddler.  She's a loving, curious, creative, active, observant, imaginative, loyal little girl.  We love her more everyday, and it is a joy to share life with her.

Charli got to be a princess today.  As soon as we heard her awake, Drew and I went into her room singing "Happy Birthday."  Charli is not much of a morning person (in fact, she's a lot like this mama- she's not a morning person or a night person, more of a sleep person!), but when she saw us coming in to sing to her, she lit up and I knew that she knew that today was her special day.  Sam immediately got out of bed and said, "I'm going to make Charli some ice cream," and went to his play kitchen to start "cooking."  Charli wanted to go to school today, so after breakfast we loaded up in the rain and headed out the door.  Everyone at school knew that it was her birthday, so she was warmly greeted as she walked into her classroom.  

At lunch time, Drew and I came to bring cookies to her class.  She yelled as soon as she heard us walking in, "THERE you are!" and eagerly came over to help distribute cookies to her classmates.  (Sam also tried to help distribute cookies, but he got distracted after the first one and started eating one himself.)  Birthday girl deserved a well-earned long nap at home after all the excitement.  

After naps, we opened presents, made cupcakes (does eating the batter count as dessert #2 of the day?) played along the way, and headed out to "the orange restaurant with maracas on the side."  Order-by-number Mexican for birthday dinners- that's how we like it in the Martin house!  Charli loved eating chips to her heart's content, but had no idea that she would be serenaded afterwards!  Love this expression.  Needless to say, she recovered quickly and began eating her dessert (#3, but who's counting?).  

Monday night is our church small group night, so we headed over there after Las Maracas with the cupcakes that we had made, and another group of people who love Charli sang Happy Birthday to her while she buried her smiling face in Dad's shoulder.  The first words after the song were, of course, from Charli, "I want a cupcake!" And so dessert #4 was dished up.  (Meanwhile, in the next room, Sam found a foam sword that he made into an air guitar, and he shouted, "Go Heels!  You sing the Alma Mater while I play."  Stunned that EVERYONE didn't know the words, he proceeded to teach about 10 people "Hark the Sound.")

The rest of the night included lots of running around and very little sleeping until 9:30- which I'm pretty sure is the latest that our kids have ever stayed up!

We love you, sweet girl.