Birthday Bonanza

We spent the weekend celebrating Caroline's birthday and we all had a great time.  There was a hot air balloon championship in Baton Rouge this weekend, so we spent Friday evening out there watching the balloons take off and fly and then at nightfall, they did the "balloon glow", which was a little scary for Caroline at first, but she ended up really enjoying it.  You don't realize how huge those balloons are until you are up close and I'm sure for her they were a little imposing, not to mention the loud noises they make and the heat they put off when they fire up the burners. Caroline also enjoyed about four or five bites of a snow cone before she decided it was too cold and too messy to deal with.  We ran into some friends a visited a while before heading home to get Caroline a late bath and put her to bed.  

Saturday was Caroline's party and she had a great time.  It was at the Little Gym and that was the perfect place for a group of energy-filled two, three, and four year olds.  Her cake was hilarious; it was a Disney Princess cake and the first word that popped into my mind when I saw it was "tacky", but in a good three year old little girl sort of way.  

Finally on Sunday, her actual birthday, she woke up and we gave her the present we got her: her pink Barbie Powerwheels Jeep.  She loved it and we gave her a little driving lessons around the block on the spot - all of us in our pajamas (so if any of you drove down our street at 6:45 or 7:00 on Sunday morning, that explains the family out for their morning walk in their PJ's).  I think she's finally getting the concept of steering the Jeep; it wasn't quite clicking at first that she actually had control over the direction the Jeep went.  After church, my Mom came by to give her a present, she got a really nice doll that I know Caroline will love for a long time.  This doll must be special because it is the first doll that Caroline has actually bestowed with a "real name":  "Annie".  No, the doll does not have red hair and freckles, but Caroline named her Annie anyway.  All of her other dolls are named "baby", so this little doll has a special place in Caroline's heart.  As if that wasn't enough, my Dad and his wife came over to give Caroline a doll house, and this doll house is actually the doll house my dad made for me when I was about 5 or so, although they spent plenty of time updating and improving it.  It looks great and Caroline has already made some make-shift furniture for it.  

Sunday night we decided to head back out to see the balloons one last time and we were treated to seeing some tactical skydivers before the balloons blew up and took off for their final send-off.  The skydivers were really neat, we got to see them actually take off in their helicopter and fly up to about 7,000 feet before we saw little specks come out of the helicopter and slowly emerge as people as they got closer.  These men were Army skydivers and while it was entertaining to watch them, it was also interesting to think that they use these skills in wars and battles around the world.  

We really had a good weekend; Caroline was blessed with lots of love and plenty of gifts and I know it was a treat for her to spend so much time with family and friends that we don't get to see often enough.  She was a little spoiled by it all and didn't want to go back to school Monday morning, but her teachers gave her a little extra love and patience and they said after about ten minutes, she was back to her old self.  

I haven't loaded all of the pictures from the weekend yet, but I'll post those soon.