Charlotte Turns Three

Our little girl is three! We are a little nervous about starting round two with this challenging age, but we definitely have a few more tools on our belt since Hazel. And we had a great party this year. We did an owl party. What a HOOT!

 

 This little owl cake was fun to make and not too complicated luckily. I especially loved my nice supply of banana Runts that were left over after the party.

Cute cute girlies.

 Mini owl cupcakes.

We showed Charlotte's three year video while the kids arrived so they could polish up on their "Charlotte trivia" for our first game. It was a pop the balloon game with balloons that were taped up in the shape of a "C."

If they could answer a trivia question about Charlotte, they could come up and pop a balloon and get the treat inside.

Then we played a version of Marco Polo but we said, "Birthday Party." One child was blind-folded and started calling out "Birthday" and then everyone else had to say "Party." The blind-folded one had to try and find Charlotte by the sound of her voice and place a sticker as close to her forehead as possible. It was hilarious! We had to get Charlotte to yell "Party!" louder than everyone else so that the blind-folded child could find her. Then she would look at them with their out-stretched hand holding a sticker and back away with a look that said, "Don't you dare stick that on me!"

    
She eventually found places of refuge...
 


 We had races where the kids went from one end of the room to the other while holding balloons on their spoons. This ended up being a little harder than I thought...

  And the last game was like musical chairs, but when the music stopped, you had to lie down on this blanket. If any part of your body was hanging off the blanket, David came and tickled you. Lottie found this as a chance to snack a bit on some of her treats.


Our tradition is to give the birthday girl her own special mini cake with cupcakes for the guests. After Charlotte blew out her candles, we invited and then strongly urged her to dive in! (None of our girls have really dug in before...)She did a pretty good job and then decided she wanted a cupcake.

Our gift to Charlotte was a new helmet to help her with her goal to learn how to ride a bike!

Her sister is always willing to help open those presents!
  



Charlotte with our friend Echo from church.

All in all, it was a wonderful night. Love this little three year old. Wish she'd stop growing right now.

Life at Home in January

Some more random happenings in the Phipps' family lately...

The Treehouse! (love those baby legs in tight leggings).



Our baby boy is getting bigger. I love being pregnant in the winter. Some of my favorite outfits are maternity winter clothes.

I've been working really hard on the furniture for the girls' room. I found this set at one of our neighbor's house when they were moving and bought it for a fantastic price. Now I'm painting like a crazy woman.

  And we started fresh with our Letter of the Week activities. So excited to get Lottie writing her letters. 

First week of January

Things are going well around here! We've been going to the park, which has become more difficult with this big belly of mine because I have to lift the girls in and out of the swings...

I love those blue eyes and porcelain skin.

 
 

I've been putting Eloise in the sink a lot more lately during dinner time. She plays with cups and spoons while I wash the dishes. She makes such great company.

On our first Saturday of the year, we took the girls out into the snow to try out our brand new sled!




Eloise stayed in the warm car for a nap while we sledded on the hill in the park.



Another family joined us on the hill and shared their huge inner tube with the girls. It was a great day!

I love this picture of the girls getting ready together for church.

New Year's Resolution

This year, the Phipps' Family has made a resolution to read our scriptures every day. Hazel made a goal (this was her own idea) to learn how to be better at doing chores around the house--hooray! Charlotte wanted to learn how to ride a bike. My goal was to follow my own personal "formula" for happiness (eat well, sleep well, and read the Book of Mormon) and David's goal was to wake up at 6am every morning. Happy New Year!