And then she was six...

Can't hardly believe she's SIX!!! Seems like just yesterday I was watching the end of CSI and Dr. Korman told me at 10pm would should get serious about pushing and then she popped out at 11:21pm! How completely blessed are we? So very, VERY grateful for this precious girl of ours! What a gift! We love you more than life itself Charlotte Frances! Today we spoiled her rotten! Breakfast, lunch and dinner out. The Avengers, haircut and fancy braid, her new bike and dinner with Grandma & Grandpa! What an awesome day it was!!! Life is GREAT!

Dessert at Red Robin for dinner.

The Avengers...Kinda freaked her out when The Hulk first showed up.

Getting her hair washed in the big girl sink for the first time.

Awesome special birthday braid.

Awesome Bee Cakepops from my friend Cindi!

Dinner with Grandma & Grandpa.

Building her Lego Friends from Grandma & Grandpa Birthday money.

Gift card from Rose to her favorite restaurant, Red Robin!

Fun Scrabble Junior and 550 piece puzzle from Grandpa Cina!

Hiding her eyes waiting for her big surprise!

Yahoo, new bike!

Breakfast at Longbottoms.

Tea lights and a manger...

What happens when you leave the 5-year old alone with flame less candles and a manger...

Me:  Charlotte, what's up with all the tea lights around the manger?
Charlotte:  Mommy, they couldn't see the baby Jesus, so I had to add more light.

#1 reason we have flame less candles in the house!!!

She's SO....

AWESOME!!!!

Never knew being a mom would be SO much FUN!!!

Love that her new after school teacher April is an art teacher and loves helping Charlotte with cool/fun projects like this one!

























Charlotte's LIFE-SIZE self portrait...

























Posed look of the day before school....

Five...

In the blink of an eye...unbelievable that she turns FIVE today!

We love you Charlotte Frances, more than life itself!!!

Finally...she's riding her bike!!!

Sun was out...we helped push her as she rode her bike to the park...she ran around, played and then THE MOMENT...another little 4-year old (who also had her bike with training wheels) was just riding around like crazy and asked Charlotte if she wanted to ride too...Charlotte said she couldn't and the little girl said she would help her...next thing you know, Charlotte is pedaling all on her own and following the other little girl around the park...AWESOME. We knew it would happen, but when you least expect it, YAHOO!!

She rode her bike all the way home, then had to show our neighbor Joe how she was doing it all on her own. Such a great day and we were both there to watch it unfold!!! Lots and lots more bike rides in our future (FINALLY)!!!

She's a good helper...

when she wants to be......tonight, she was a GREAT little helper!

Photos a-la Charlotte...

I've created my own little "mini-me"...watch out world...

Reason #373 that I should get her her very own digital camera (built for kids)..she LOVES to take photos using my little point-n-shoot. Luckily she gets it when I say "do NOT touch the lense"...

Photos from last night that I forgot to download and post yesterday.

Today has been a good day...

Best Christmas gift...

We got this a few weeks ago, but it was wrapped up all nice and neat from Charlotte (made at her school). We put it in the office, so Charlotte wouldn't think it was a gift for her and then we forgot to put it under the tree. Not sure what triggered me remembering it last night, but we opened it up (after she was asleep) and we SMILED!

This was without a doubt, the BEST Christmas gift Victor & I got this year! Handmade by our little Charlotte, hand prints and all!

How does she sleep that way???

I went to check on her @6:30am...this is how she was sleeping? She cracks me up. Bum in the air, knees up to her tummy...

All she asked Santa for...

was a Cinderella dress.

Today, Santa arrived a little early for the kids at school to meet him and ask for something special to add to their Christmas list. All the kids got a photo with Santa...her teacher had the photos on their classroom door and yes indeed, Charlotte wants a Cinderella dress...might just have to see if Santa can bring her one by Christmas...(she already has Minnie Mouse & Sleeping Beauty dresses).























The scene with four of her princesses...Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel and Mulan (incase you didn't know all of those)...this time they weren't all lined up to waltz, just all lined up behind one another.



















She also found one of her many WeeBee hats and decided it went with her Minnie Mouse dress.

She cracks me up...

with all her funny facial expressions.

We went and got her hair cut after dance class this morning. Just wish she would hold still for us like she does the gals at the hair salon.

Too cute for words!!!

Charlotte's school Christmas program was tonight. Six of the classes each performed 3 songs, Charlotte's class was first up, they are wearing the Christmas tree hats...

They've been practicing their songs for the past few weeks and they were wonderful and too precious for words! YEAH for preschool, it rocks!

Field trip time...

I was one of the 7 parents that went with Charlotte's preschool class (all 3 year olds) and her two teachers. Seventeen kiddos and they were all really, REALLY good. Half the fun was getting there on our light rail system. It's only a 5 minute walk from school. The kiddos loved it.

Each adult was buddied up with one or two kids. Charlotte, Cassandra and I were the three amigos for the day...what a sweet girl.

I was pretty exhausted, but not because they were unruley, it's just tough being around a bunch of little ones that long when you aren't use to it. I'll be volunteering again the next time they go on a field trip...it was FUN!!!