Come with Me, Under the Sea! Camdyn's 4th Birthday Party!

Camdyn's 4th birthday party was so much fun. The day after Camdyn's 3rd birthday, she woke up and asked for a mermaid party for her 4th. She is so my kid! I immediately consulted pinterest for all things mermaid and under the sea. Camdyn decided to have teal and lavender as her main colors and the theme for this year's party began to take shape.

First up, we have Camdyn's super cute invitations.

Of course, Camdyn is wearing her obligatory matching outfit with star fish clip to boot!

Our house was magically transformed into "Camdyn's Lagoon" with these fun decorations.

 

 

 Our party food included submarine sandwiches, sea snails (pigs in a blanket), sea shell pasta, fruit, star fish treats, clam cookies, shark bait (jello with swedish fish), and ocean water to drink. Sadly, I didn't get a ton of pictures of the food, but these few give you the general idea.

 

Here is Camdyn's mermaid cake! I LOVE how it turned out.

Happy Birthday Dear Camdyn...

After we indulged in the cake and cupcake goodness, it was time to open presents.

Once the whirlwind of opening presents had commenced, the kids all changed into bathing suits and headed outdoors to a slip and slide. Between the slip and slide, kiddie pool, trampoline, bubbles and chalk, there was plenty of fun for the kiddos. The adults hid out in the shade because it was H.O.T. outdoors!

As guests left, they signed a message in Camdyn's birthday book, keeping with our tradition. Then they picked up their Thank You cookie that I baked to look like a Sand Dollar. They have tags that say "Thank you for swimming with me under the sea! Love, Camdyn".

I must say that this party was by far my favorite to plan. I love how it all came together! Camdyn had a great day and is looking forward to next year's party already. The day she woke up on her 4th birthday, she announced she was now almost 5! :) Time to start planning next year's theme! Happy Birthday, Sweet Camdyn!

 

A Letter to Camdyn on her 4th Birthday

My Dearest Camdyn,

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. When you’re not happy, skies are gray..”

Last night I kissed you for the last time as a three year old. Today you are four. Four. Years. Old. So many times over the last few months, I have caught myself being just mesmerized by you. I cannot fathom how four years have flown by in the blink of an eye. We have had 1,461 beautiful days together that have raced by.

I held you for the first time and fell completely in love. I blinked and suddenly you were talking.

I held your hands over your head teaching you to put one foot in front of another. I blinked and you were running through the backyard.

I blinked again and you were headed to Pre-K.
I really have to quit blinking! ;)

This morning I am reflecting on the last year. It’s definitely been one of tremendous growth. You are leaving the toddler stage and are headed straight into kid territory.

This year has been a joyous mixture of fun and trials. Whoever said it was “Terrible Twos” was a liar. It should definitely be the “Terrible Threes”. You are fiercely stubborn. When you set your mind to something, I am hard pressed to change it. Instead of just saying “No” when I ask you to do something, you will say “No and here’s what I am going to do instead.” That mind of your own has driven me to the edge of insanity on more than one occasion. When you’re not exerting that rebellious streak, you are making me full-out belly laugh. You are funny, independent, dramatic, and loving. There is never a dull moment in our home.

You are so imaginative. All you need is some dress up clothes, a baby doll and a stroller and your world is transformed. I find myself lost in your world of make-believe, listening to your energetic stories of princesses, monsters, and mermaids. Your stories are a perfect blend of you – all sparkle and spunk. Your creativity is contagious. I love, love, love that you are much more interested in reading books and making up stories than you are in watching t.v.

You are so stinking smart. You went to three year old pre-k and blew it out of the water. You honestly could go to Kindergarten right now and be just fine. You’ve learned to identify all of your letters, uppercase and lowercase. You know every letter sound and are beginning to blend sounds. You can count to 50 on your own, to 100 if I give you help at the tens changes. You have memorized the pledge of allegiance, the pledge to the Bible and the 23^rd Psalms. You are working on memorizing all of the books of the bible in order. You absolutely boggle my mind.

Sweet baby girl, you are so loved. I loved you before I ever knew I was pregnant. I prayed for a child and the Lord granted me the desires of my heart- he gave me you. You are such a blessing and joy to me. My heart is so full because of you. I pray for you daily. A long while ago, I came across a prayer that has become engrained in my heart. These words reflect my deepest desires for your life.

“When it’s hard to be patient… make her willing to suffer. When it’s ridiculous to be thankful… make her see all is grace. When it’s radical to forgive… make her live the foundation of our faith. May she be bread and feed many with her life and her laughter. May she be dead to all the ladders and never go higher; only lower, to the lonely, the least, and the longing. May she be led of the Spirit to lead many to the cross."

Camdyn, I am so proud of who you are. I am blessed beyond measure to be your momma.

I love you to the moon, baby girl.

Love,

Momma


Just like last year, I have picked out the top 5 funniest memories of you this year.

1)    I listen to the bible app in the mornings while I am getting ready. I guess you thought God himself was talking to me through my phone because after several days of rain, you told me to “Tell God in your phone to make the rain go away.”

2)    Speaking of the rain, you absolutely hate the carwash, so when it started raining again one day, you said “Don’t worry Momma. The rain is just God’s carwash. I don’t like that other carwash. Let’s not go back there.”

3)   When I asked what you wanted to be when you grew up, you sighed and said “Tall enough to reach food in the pantry!”

4)   You and I had been having lots of discussions about saying things you don't mean. As I was cooking dinner, you kept asking me if it was ready and I kept telling you “in a few minutes.” After about the fourth time, you scolded me and told me not to say things I didn’t mean. I questioned what you were talking about and you responded “You keep saying dinner will be ready in a few minutes. It's been a few minutes. What you mean to say is that it will be ready in a few HOURS.”

5) You told me that when you turned 4 you would be willing to eat hamburgers and salad because at 4 you would be a grown up. I reminded you that you were just a few weeks away from being 4, so why not try salad and hamburgers now... You sighed, exasperatedly, and said "Mom, don't rush me to grow up!" Ha!

Look Whooo's Three: An Owltastic 3rd Birthday Party

I suppose that now that it is December, it is time I finally blogged about Camdyn's 3rd birthday party from waaay back in July! I don't even think this qualifies as procrastinating anymore! It's just plain laziness! 

Well, as usual, I thoroughly enjoyed planning this Owl-tastic birthday event!  Camdyn picked out her own theme for the first time. She is into owls right now, so we went with a "Look Whooo's Turning Three" theme.  Here are some pictures from our very fun day!

I ordered the invitations from Etsy because I simply ran out of time to make them myself. I love how they turned out!

 

 

Some fun decorations! 

 

 

 

Now for the best part- Food!

We ate our food (the menu included hot dogs, potato salad, chips, veggies, fresh fruit, and S'more marshmallow pops) and then headed out doors for owl-house painting. 

I love how in this picture, all of the adults had taken over the painting! ;)

Camdyn had a minor major meltdown outside over the kickball being used by someone other than her. We had to have a little attitude adjustment prayer time away from party guests and then it was back inside for cake and presents! 

Camdyn insisted on blowing out the candle three times because she was three. Whatever. What birthday girls wants, birthday girl gets. 

As guests began to leave, they stopped by the table to sign a special message in Camdyn's Birthday Book (Camdyn has a signed book from every baby shower I had and every birthday party she has had) and pick up a "Thank you for making my party a hoot" cookie.

All in all it was a very fun day! Camdyn woke up the morning after her 3rd birthday party and announced she wanted a mermaid party for her 4th birthday. Ha! She is so my kid.

A letter to Camdyn on her 3rd birthday

July 26, 2013

My Dearest Camdyn,

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine; you make me happy when skies are gray…” 

You, my darling daughter, are my sunshine. Today you turned THREE…. When you turned two, I commented about time racing at warp speed. Well, time hasn’t slowed down any because I blinked and now another year has flown by! 

I could not be prouder of who you are! At just 3 years old, you show tremendous compassion and love for others. You are kind and gentle, silly and sassy, and you light up the room when you enter it.  You talk nonstop. You engage in conversation, with real dialogue and concern for what the other person has to say. You ask anyone you meet what their name is. You want to know how those around you feel, or if they’ve had a good day. You have begun to question my every decision- “Why, Momma, Why?” is your new favorite phrase. You are hilarious. As in, stop in my tracks and laugh out loud kind of hilarious. You are ridiculously smart. You know all of your colors, shapes, letters and most of their sounds. You use picture clues to “read” books all by yourself. You are such a girly girl. You love jewelry, hair bows, high heels, nail polish, princess outfits, and anything pink. You LOVE to dance and we’re still having dance parties every evening. You are fiercely independent. Heaven forbid I try to put you in your car seat! You can do it all by yourself! You want to try to accomplish everything on your own. Yes, it sometimes drives me crazy when I am in a hurry, but that “No, Momma, I can do it” reminder tells me to slow down and enjoy watching you learn.  You are stubborn and self confident. Bossy? Yes, but that assertiveness and take charge attitude will serve you well in life. 

You are beautiful, inside and out. Proverbs 31:3o says that “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” As you grow older, I want you to discover the importance of your inner beauty. I pray people see you as beautiful because of your kindness towards others and your passion for Christ. I pray that you would pursue the heart of a servant, love others more than yourself, and reflect the love of Christ in every aspect of your life.  

Camdyn, I love you so much. Happy 3^rd birthday! I love you to the MOON!

                              Love,

                                              Momma

PS – You know that humor I referenced earlier? Well here are 5 funny memories from this year.

1)  We went through the Chic-Fil-A drive through and you were happily eating your chicken nuggets in the backseat of the car. When we passed the chicken processing plant in Canton, you saw its sign had a chicken on it, and said “Chickens say bawk bawk.” Then instantly, you looked down at your own chicken nuggets and loudly said “Oh no! This chicken don’t say bawk bawk no more!” 

2)  We were hanging out with Uncle Mike and Aunt Whitney. You threw a blanket over Hudson’s head and he ran into his baby gate, bounced off, and fell into the floor. Out of nowhere, you said “No one can help you now!” in your best Darth Vader voice! We have no idea where that came from! 

3) You spent the better part of this year calling yourself “Cammen”. I would correct you and say, “Your name is Camdyn”, really enunciating the D. You would flat out argue with me that Camdyn was not your name. I finally told you that you had to say your name right or you couldn’t go to preschool. (I know that is terrible parenting, but I was exasperated!) Your response? “Fine Momma, my name is Camdyn.” And you’ve been Camdyn ever since.

4) Your Honey and Papa went on vacation. You asked where they were since you hadn’t seen them for a few days. I told you that they had gone on vacation. You said “No they didn’t! I still here!” You just couldn’t believe that they would go on vacation without you! 

5)  We were over at your best friend Jack’s house. You and Jack were potty training at the same time. You’d just gone potty and now it was Jack’s turn. You saw his underwear and proudly said “Jack, you have big girl panties on too!” Jack spent the whole next day telling himself “These not big girl panties. These big boy underwear!” Ha!

A Seuss-tastical 2nd Birthday!

Camdyn just turned two and her party was on Saturday.  I had a blast planning and designing for this event! I went with a Dr. Seuss “Thing Two” theme because Camdyn loves Dr. Seuss and let’s face it: it’s an adorable theme! Here are some pictures from our very fun day!

These invitations were handmade and I really love what the final product looked like!

A welcome table was set up in my entry way – on it was a favorite quote from Dr. Seuss and an important message to stop at the table and write a birthday wish in Camdyn’s Dr. Seuss book!

Sadly this picture is too dark to make out details, but I made a “13-24 months” banner with a picture of Camdyn from each month of the past year! It turned out super cute! Maybe someone else at the party got a decent picture of it!

Camdyn also had a “Happy Birthday” Banner!

Now let’s move on to the food table!

Here we have “Oodles of Noodles” (Pasta Salad), “Green Eggs and Ham” (Green deviled eggs and ham & cheese sliders), “Truffula Fruits” (fruit skewers), “Dr. Seuss Produce” (Veggie tray). “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” (Goldfish), and “Hop on Pop Corn” (popcorn)!

For the kiddos, “Beezlenut Splash” (Hawaiian Punch+ Lemonade) was provided. The adults got Coke in glass bottles with blue straws!

The desert table was by far my favorite! Here we have fun marshmallow and pretzel rods dipped in turquoise and red colored chocolate. I also had a small cake for Camdyn with Thing Two cupcakes!

  

Of course I had to make some favor cookies for the guests.  I made personalized “thank you” tags with my handy-dandy Silhouette Cameo. LOVE that machine!  

Here are some sassy pictures of my birthday girl!

 

 

I love that Jack and Camdyn hold hands everywhere they go!

 

Sweet Rylan enjoying a marshmallow!

  Camdyn LOVES her cousin, Hudson! 

 Of course, we had a wardrobe change!

 

Happy Birthday, Camdyn! 

A Letter to my Daughter: Happy 2nd Birthday Camdyn

My Dearest Camdyn,

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine; you make me happy when skies are gray…” 

You, my baby girl, are the light of my life, my sunshine. Today marks your second birthday…. I can hardly believe that you are two. TWO! It’s true what they say; having kids makes time increase to warp speed! I honestly believe that it was just yesterday that I brought you home from the hospital!

I am blessed beyond measure to be your mommy. This year hasn’t been easy for us sweet girl, but you have never let it stop you from conquering the world around you. This past year I have watched you change in so many ways. Just one year ago, you were still learning to walk and now you are running full steam ahead. Over this year, I have watched your vocabulary grow from calling out simple words to babbling endlessly about your hair bows matching your outfits. Most of all, I have enjoyed watching your personality develop this year! You are full of giggles, wiggles, and sass. As I am typing this letter I am smiling because I am thinking about you taking me by the hand and saying, “Dance, Momma!” You LOVE to dance. We crank the music up loud while I am making dinner and have dance parties! You crack me up by wiggling those hips of yours! You are just beginning to exert your independence and I love watching you try your best to accomplish something after proclaiming “I do it!” I love your intense curiosity. You are always asking me “What’s that?” or “Who’s that?” I love your giant, open-mouthed, wet, sloppy kisses. I love how you wrap your arms around my neck and squeeze. I love how you never meet a stranger. We can’t walk through an aisle at Target without you saying “Hi!” to every person we pass. And we can’t just smile and pass by. You insist that we stop and wait for a response or you will just keep yelling “Hi!” louder and louder! I love how you have such compassion already. Without understanding what tears are, you see them and you respond with a hug. Somehow, you know just what I need. I love how when I tuck you in at night I will say “I love you to the____” and you fill in the blank with “MOON!”

Sometimes you make me crazy. Your favorite word is “No!” and you love squeezing your Capri Suns so that the straw becomes the catalyst in a volcanic eruption of juice (usually in my carpet!) You throw every morsel of uneaten food on the floor after declaring that you are “All done!” But even in the moments where I think our poor house may never again be presentable, I am so grateful for you. Truth be told, I wouldn’t trade all of the craziness of our life for anything. Why? Because our messy, crazy home tells the story of our love!

You are my greatest gift, a priceless treasure that I have been given by God. Part of me wants to freeze time because you are growing up way too fast, but those thoughts are fleeting. Truth is, I have many things that I am excited to share with you and teach you as you grow older. Mostly, I cannot wait to share with you about God’s love and His grace. I pray for you every night – my prayer is that you would grow up to love God and be passionate about His word and for His people.  

Camdyn, I love you so much. Happy 2nd birthday! I love you to the MOON!

Love,

Momma