It's Lottie Caroline's Birthday!

Before I knew that Lottie was actually going to be in Michigan for her first birthday, I had some pictures picked out of her to put on this post of her birthday and I would have published that post very early in the day so that all of you could wish this little sweetheart a happy birthday. But last week when they surprised us by driving up to Michigan, I changed my mind and decided that we would take some pictures of her on her birthday and show you those instead.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LOTTIE!

We bought one of those very tiny cakes that Meijer's sells ... and I actually think this was a leftover Halloween cake, based on the color scheme ... but we got it for Lottie and just wrote her name on the top and placed a special candle for her to blow out ... Nathan actually blew it out, but we missed that picture!

This is Lottie's face as she is anticipating her very own piece of birthday cake on a plate ...

And this is her first plunge ... a nice fist full!

Isn't she the cutest little thing?

She had no trouble whatsoever with eating her entire piece of cake ... and the "mess" was limited basically to her hands and face (well ... there were a few runaway chunks UNDER the high chair) ...

We got her three gifts: a colorful abacus, a 16-piece wooden block puzzle that has six different farm scenes you can make, and a nice wooden animal puzzle that has different textures for kids to enjoy feeling with their hands. Lottie had a lot of help opening her presents and shared her playtime with Nathan and Nia.

We sat around the table and watched the children play for quite awhile ... such nice little kiddos, all three of them!

I bet you were worried that I wasn't going to post any pictures of Nathan ... we took so many pictures today, and I am a little too tired to sort all of them out tonight and do them justice. We played outside this afternoon, raking leaves and working in the yard, having leaf fights and giving wheel barrow rides, and generally having some good outdoor playtime in the nice fresh air and beautiful sunshine ... but I'm going to have to show you those pictures ... tomorrow ... and I'll also show you some good snapshots of Nathan's visit to see some very special trains.