Charlotte's Third Birthday

After the longest build-up in the whole wide world (waiting for Niccy-Niccy to come and stay), Charlotte finally managed to have her birthday party and turn three.
The night before, we received a number of birthday wishes from New Zealand, and even a special one from Yoko in Japan.

The morning of the 25th, we started the day off with a great birthday greeting from Sam and Sydney to get us into the spirit of the day.

Then, Tig took some cupcakes to Daycare and basked in the glory as all the kids sang happy birthday.

Mum, Dad, and Niccy-Niccy were a little late arriving at Day Care in the afternoon, so some of the kids had already left before we got there. This upset Charlotte a little bit, because we had all promised her we would come over in the afternoon and make a fuss of her in front of her friends. (I'm sorry kid. I know you were disappointed and our/my tardiness made you cry. I promise I will try and make it up to you somehow kid. I really will).

 

     Tig's disappointment didn't last long, and after a quick tour of the Paddington Playstation, we headed over to Nanny's house and set off for our favourite Japanese restaurant the Wasabi House. Unfortunately, a small fire in the kitchen saw that shop temporarily boarded up, so we missed out of Takeshi's favourite sushi--by the way, if you're thinking it's weird taking a three year old out for sushi on her third birthday, you haven't seen Charlotte drink miso soup...

With the Japanese restaurant off the menu, we dived across the street to the King Wah to escape the -17 deg C temperatures that were causing us all to lose our sense of humour. After an hour of trying to stop Tig from sticking chop sticks up her nose whist blowing bubbles in her beef soup, we headed home to open presents and light the candles and have the birthday cake that Mum made.

Her haul this year was quite impressive:

1. She got a Tiffanys locket from Nanny.
2. Nana Niccy got her some Margaret Mahy books from New Zealand.
3. Sean and Di gave her a Kiwi jigsaw puzzle, some books, and a stuffed lion.
4. Granddad Mike sent a beautiful Husky toy that responds to story-time, we have since named Rosie-bell.
5. Aunty Lucy and Uncle Denny sent heaps of Cadbury's chocolate with magic pop rocks.
6. Mum and Dad took advantage of Charlotte's tendency to clean, and bought her a broom (complete with shovel and brush).
7. Gumpy and Carolyn sent around a Nemo puzzle which I look forward to doing with Tig after our skating lesson tomorrow afternoon.
8. Aunty Marg sent a book, some stickers and some other neat wee nick nacs. 
9. Granddad Kim... well, he doesn't even know when his own birthday is, but I'm sure he's thinking about Tig in his own way...

By the way, we finally managed to persuade Tig to sit still for a candid photo:

In addition to her broom, we also gave Tig a magic wand to follow on from the Magician theme happening at Lilly's birthday earlier in the month.
Finally, hot off the press from the Duty NCO's barracks on RNZAF Base Woodbourne came this little beauty from Sean (aka Dumby) in sunny Blenheim.

This is what I do best as duty officer at Woodbourne on a Saturday. May her year be filled with adventure and excitement (as well as challenging the authority of he parents...)!!!
Love, The Donaldson's.

Needless to say, there were many gifts and plenty of birthday greetings from Halifax and all around the world - so thank-you, thank-you, thank-you to all of you for acknowledging the offspring.
Three is going to be a good year I think.
Happy birthday Charlotte.
Love, Mum & Dad.