Charlotte's 3rd Birthday - Tea for Three (March 2019)

We were living in Austria when Charlotte turned three.  This meant that, unlike in 2017 and 2018, we were unable to have family over for a birthday party as we did for her first and second birthdays.

However, we still celebrated Charlotte in style.  Ironically, one of the deans from campus was in the country visiting the study abroad campus with his wife that week.  So Adam, Charlotte, and I wound up taking the two of them out to lunch as part of their "itinerary" and it felt like a small party for Charlotte.  So, at the conclusion of lunch in the hotel restaurant, we surprised Charlotte with a dessert just for her!  To this day, two years later, she still talks about having cake by the window when she turned three.

Her birthday fell on a day I was teaching a morning and afternoon class so Charlotte and Adam were able to spend the day together while I was working.  However, one of the college students graciously took Charlotte's pictures in our apartment considering the weather was cool and rainy outdoors.  This was a fun activity for Adam & Charlotte to engage in when I was teaching my class after lunch.  If you are in need of photos, check out Kendal Huntsman!

One of the neighboring families stopped by and dropped off a surprise gift of candy for Charlotte's birthday!

That evening, we received a few more birthday surprises for Charlotte Annie from some of the college students and other friends!  In spite of being in another country for her birthday, we felt the love near and far for our girl!

The coins and the Kinder Eggs were a surprise from one of Charlotte's helpers from Students Serving Moms, Marci.  She still has the small toys that were in those eggs and plays with them now nearly two years later!

                                                                       Loving being three!

Brushing her teeth on the morning of her birthday - - she was so excited it was her special day!!

We found these outside our doorstep the evening of Charlotte's birthday but there was no note.

It turns out they were from our friend, Sha.  What a sweet colorful birthday bouquet.  Sha, pray for us!  

I titled this post "Tea for Three" even though we didn't drink tea that day.  However, we three had so many adventures during that semester as a family and with our Franciscan Family from Spring 2019.  If we would have been stateside, we would have had a "Tea Party for Three" theme so I wound up purchasing this as her birthday book and had family sign it yearbook-style with belated birthday wishes during the Summer of 2019 as we made the rounds and visited both the East and West Coast Families!