Two-Year-Old Portraits

It turns out that our downstairs neighbour is a photographer!  She used to work as a children's photographer in her native Australia, but hasn't done much of it since arriving to London.  She asked if she might take some pictures of Charlie to get back into the swing of things.  I enthusiastically agreed!  

I love that the pictures are all natural and unposed.  Rebecca put both me and Charlie at ease and you can definitely see the result of that in the pictures.  Because it was so relaxed, Charlie had an absolute blast on the shoot!  She didn't want Rebecca to leave!  It was particularly special to have Rebecca in our home to take the pictures (as opposed to as studio).  As a result, we got some really sweet pictures of Charlie doing what she does best:  playing and being absolutely adorable.

Click here for a link to Rebecca's Facebook page or give her a call at 7447 456205.  I highly recommend her and her work!

And some unedited ones:

THANKS REBECCA!

Charlie's Second Birthday Party

Many apologies to those of you who have been waiting for this post!  I've been traveling within the UK and to Germany for work and Jason is currently in Amsterdam as I write this.  It has taken me a few weeks, but I'm happy to finally get pictures of Charlie's birthday party up!

First of all, you should know that there were balloons . . . lots of balloons . . . two hundred balloons to be exact!

The overall effect was a bit hard to capture, but you can get the idea from the pictures:

They were SUPER fun and festive and Charlie LOVED them!  They had to be blown up that morning (unless they arrived "treated" the day before, but that sounded awfully chemically for a kid's party).  So we had a guy arrive at 7am to start blowing up balloons with a huge helium tank.  Charlie slept in pretty late so they were all blown up and ready to go by the time she woke up.  She was thrilled!

The rest of the party was pretty simple, we had brunch foods complete with mimosas for the adults and flavoured milk for the kids (and Josh).  We added sprinkles to the rims of the glasses by dipping them in powdered sugar and water and then into a pile-o-sprinkles:

The cake was also sprinkle themed:

 

As were the party favours:

I didn't want to organise many activities but I did make a "Pin the Face on Charlie" game.  It started off looking like this before we played:

I spun the kids around and let them put the individual face parts on without a blindfold:

It ended up like this:

It was pretty hysterical to watch.  That bow tie just kills me!  

Everyone seemed to have a great time, and Charlie loved opening all her gifts:

Her favourite part may have been having everyone sing happy birthday to her.  She seemed so flattered and honoured by it all!  The look on her face while people sang was absolutely priceless:

It was a fantastic day!

PS:  Charlie's first birthday party!

Our Baby is Two!

Our Charlotte Loveday is two!

On the day after Christmas, Our Little Loveday turned two.  Jason and I can hardly believe that two years passed so quickly.  She's such a big girl now!  She's using the potty, surprising us with all the words she knows and she's a rockstar at the memory card game on the iPad.  ;)  She's funny, clever and full of surprises.  She's an absolute joy to have in our lives!  

Okay, enough gushiness.  I'll get to the good stuff.  Here are a few pictures of the dollhouse we got her for her birthday:

I got the house itself at the Crystal Palace Christmas Fair (that I was singing at!) and the furniture came from my mom.  She bought a bunch of vintage furniture which I painted to help update it.  (Inspiration from here.)  Charlie absolutely adores it!

Her two favourite things to do with the set is to put the baby on the toilet:

 . . . and to put any of the other dolls in the shower:

I'd like to give the house some better decor.  Mainly, I'd like to add some wall paper and perhaps some new items such as potted plants and rugs, but for now, Charlie likes it just the way it is and that's all that matters! . . . for now . . . 

After the dollhouse and other birthday gifts, we made some birthday pancakes.  Charlotte loves to help cook:

We won't have a cake until her birthday party next weekend, so the pancakes got sprinkles and candles:

We spent the afternoon at the playground and giving her new Balance Bike a test drive:

It was a bit cold and muddy, but we had a great time:

She got more birthday candles when we went out to Pizza at the Palace for dinner:

The staff at Pizza at the Palace are SO great with kids!  In fact, once they found out that it was her birthday, she got a second ice cream with a candle (the first ice cream and babyccino came with her meal) AND a lollipop!  Lucky girl!

She had a fantastic time and was excited to put on matching pyjamas with her doll, Annabelle, for bedtime (thanks Aunt Annie and Uncle Randy!):

Then, before bed, there was more dollhouse playing while singing "Away in a Manger."

"The little Lord Jesus asleep on the PILLOW!"  

Happy birthday to our sweet little girl.  We couldn't love you more!

xoxo