November 5, 2006

Happy THIRD Birthday Charlie! We can hardly believe that our little boy is THREE today! How the time has flown by, and how much he has grown. He has really understood the whole birthday thing this year, and has been SO excited for the last week or so, and kept asking how many more sleeps until his birthday!
We had his party yesterday - by my count 23 children, and I don't know how many adults! We hired a big room at the local leisure centre with softplay blocks and an activity bouncy castle, and also had the essential party games! The whole party passed off without a hitch, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Charlie was over the moon with the whole event - and when we watched the video footage back a bit later, we saw him sitting on the bouncy castle in a quieter moment, saying to no-one in particular: 'I'm the birthday boy!' which really made us smile!
Watching his face as everyone sang him Happy Birthday, and he blew his candles out was so precious. I was quite choked as we sang to him - we are so, so thankful to have celebrated his third birthday, and appreciate how very blessed we are to have him with us.
Today, the big day itself has been somewhat calmer, but no less fun. Despite having a really heavy cold, Charlie's soldiering on merrily. We couldn't believe how many presents and cards he had - after opening his presents from us upstairs, he came downstairs to find presents stretching almost the whole length of the lounge! His first reaction was to ask if it was Christmastime now instead of his birthday! He's been thoroughly spoilt, and has had loads of fun with all his pressies.
We asked him what he wanted to do today, and he decided he wanted to have his lunch at the garden centre (!?!), which we did, and this evening we're having a firework display in the close with all the neighbours, which should be lovely.
I'm attaching a couple of pics of Charlie with his pressies - once I locate one of him with his cake, I'll post that one too. (We STILL don't have our digital camera back.)