ariel party (pronounced ay-yull)

 I have embraced the fact that having Carlie's birthday on January14th, there will forever be a temptation to "skip it" and justify it by the fact that she just had a ton of presents from Christmas.  So I'm trying to start a tradition of party planning on New Year's Day so I don't forget or talk myself out of it.

Carlie's favorite color is purple, so her sisters dressed up for the occasion.  Aren't they the cutest?

And Carlie is a little obsessed with Ariel right now.  Like, I hear "Part of Your World" about 50 times a day.  So clearly, we had to have an Ariel party.

 We invited all these adorable little girls over for lunch:  fish sticks, gold fish, applesauce, fruit snacks and jello--just a few of Carlie's favorite foods.

Then we had a rousing game of "Shark, are you hungry?"  The girls we so cute, and they loved it.  We also made waves with a sheet and threw around some fish puppets that I think they could've done for an hour and still wanted more.

 Then cake and presents!  Carlie got lots of fun stuff, and a lot or Ariel stuff, and a lot of jewelery.

We also went out to dinner, where Carlie informed me she wanted pancakes for dinner.  We took her to Village Inn and she loved it.  Plus you get free pie on your birthday.  I think everyone there was aware of Carlie and the fact that it was her birthday because she kept singing to herself.

I'm glad Carlie survived to see her 3rd birthday, there have been days where I had my doubts.  For a few reasons:

1.  She's a bit of a daredevil.  She is not afraid of anything!  Oh wait, except popping sounds.  But not cars, heights, pools, big dogs, big kids, or any person.
2.  She is disobedient quite often, leaving me very frustrated and sometimes wanting to lock her in her room for a week.
3.  She is a picky eater, but when she likes something she'll eat A LOT.  I wondered if her little body could really thrive on cereal and cheese.

But here she is!  3 years old, gorgeous, vibrant, hilarious, active, opinionated, musical.  She is always, ALWAYS singing right now.  You'll hear this a lot in our house:  "Carlie, we love your voice, but you need to be a little quieter ok?"  "Ok Carlie, no singing at the table."  "Carlie, you're still not being quiet!"  "CARLIE!  Enough!  No more singing!"

This may seem harsh, but the kid has no volume control.  None.  And I love it!

We love our Carlie bug so much!  Happy Birthday, beautiful!