Caroline's Corner

Chuck E. Cheese's...where a kid can be a kid. It is my family's annual holiday tradition to go to Chuck E. Cheese's even after my sister and I have gotten older. At least this year we had a kid with us! Caroline enjoyed all the lights, games and people. They don't have Chuck E. Cheese's in Kenya, so Dickson didn't know how to play all the games. He liked it after we showed him what to do and he got the hang of it!

This is Kim's boyfriend, Jason. He joined us for our outing this year. Looks like he's a winner!

Dickson's favorite American food is pizza!

Caroline loves to play ski ball. She and her daddy could probably rack up on some tickets next year if he could train her to put the balls in the right holes!

Like I said....where a kid can be a kid...

Here are pics from Caroline's 1st birthday!

We had a birthday breakfast for her.

Complete with a loaf of pumpkin bread that she likes. Too bad she burned her finger on the candle while I was trying to snap a pic!

Here she is playing with her new toy, a ball hut. She climbed right up in there!

Later, we took her to the park since it was so nice and warm outside!

Here she is on the big girl slide. She didn't like it at first, but after she got the hang of it she loved it!

That night we took her to San Jose's for dinner because she loves watching the Mexicans come out with their big sombreros and sing to the birthday person. Turns out they won't do that any longer. They did at least bring the hat out for her to wear. Obviously, she doesn't like hats!

After dinner we picked up Dickson and took everyone to the zoo to see the Christmas lights.

Caroline is trying to catch the fake snowflakes...it's obviously not really snowing based on the clothes we're wearing! :)

She's clapping for the snow!

The next day we had her big party.

Kim's boyfriend, Jason, graciously offered to do some of the photography for the party.

Here are some of the decorations.

These were our party favors...little pumpkin loaves with pictures of Caroline.

We told Caroline she could invite 1 friend since she was turning 1. That wasn't exactly fair since her best friends are twins! :) So, we made an exception.

Here she is greeting Ella Grace with a hug.

Eating pizza for the first time!

I mentioned earlier that she didn't like hats. I had just put a party hat on her before trying to hand her the cupcake. She cried big crocodile tears, so we immediately removed it. It took her a while to get over that trauma. :)

She does actually like cupcakes...just not hats.

Caroline liked "reading" her cards more than she liked opening her presents!

I tried not to cry when she opened this book. It is the sweetest thing. Thanks, Cindy! What a great gift!

We are all watching a couple of movies Chris and I made showing Caroline growing up over the past year. Of course, I think most of us got a little emotional!