Madelynism

Madelyn speaking to my mom today:

I want an orange, but I can uncrust it myself.

Pandemonium

I'm not sure how many people we had here on Saturday to celebrate Madelyn's birthday, but it was a lot. We live in a great neighborhood with lots of kids, and everyone invites everyone else to everything. So, we did the same. Plus we invited a couple of other family friends and JD's parents, sister, brother-in-law, and brother were all here. I hope it came across as organized chaos to the guests, but it seeemed like pandemonium to me. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and Madelyn told me as I was putting her to bed that this was her happiest birthday ever. So, that made it all worthwhile. I made a Princess cake, where the cake was Cinderella's skirt; we had some snacks, and we ordered pizza. The kids played "pin the tiara on the princess", and I made a quick treasure hunt. The treasure was a pinata. All in all, I think the party was a success.

Cinderella cake in all its glory. We decided it looked like Cinderella was popping out of the cake when she was posed with her arms up, so we moved them to a lower position.

The birthday girl

The kids are decorating their "treasure collecting bags."


Getting ready for pin the tiara on the princess


Madelyn finished her turn.


The treasure hunt begins.


The treasure was found! Bring on the candy!


All four candles are lit.


I've heard it said multiple times, so I can't give credit for this quote, but whoever first said "The days are long, but the years are short." was so right. Madelyn is four, and all I did was blink.

School birthday celebration

The birthday celebration has begun. I'm still trying to figure out how Madelyn became a 4 year old. Her birthday is tomorrow, but we celebrated at school this afternoon with juice boxes and cupcakes. What is it about juice in a box (as opposed to other types of beverage containers) that gets kids so excited? I think most were more excited about those than the cupcakes. Madelyn's teacher made her a birthday certificate and a birthday crown, and I think she would be satisfied with those as presents. She was so proud. Here a few pictures from the event.



The class was singing "Happy Birthday" here, but Pierce decided to go ahead and dig in.

Madelyn's cute class


The cake in the teeth (Madelyn) and the icing all over the face (Pierce) are perfect touches I think.

Tomorrow is the big day, and we will have a house full of kids. It's gonna be crazy, but Madelyn is soooooo excited. I just hope she'll sleep tonight. More pictures to come!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We celebrated Valentine's Day last night, since that's when we could get a sitter. We had dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse...YUM-MY! I was also surprised with a bouquet of roses. We had an enjoyable evening out, and today JD took the kids to the library and park while I went to the grocery store. The kids are peacefully napping while I prepare for Madelyn's birthday party next weekend. I'm in the process of printing out tiaras for a "Pin the Tiara on the Princess" game and trying to think through a scavenger hunt for kids who can't read yet. If you have any ideas, feel free to let me know.

Hope you are having a wonderful day with the one you love! Happy 39th anniversay, Mom and Dad!

Potty party

Guess which of my two children did #2 in the potty twice today?
Pierce!
I'm not overly excited about this, but I was quite impressed with his initiative. This was two less poo diapers for me to clean today.

The best definition of frustrating:

Spending 10 minutes convincing your (almost) 4 year old that the green "flecks" on her pizza are spices and not vegetables.

Had it been someone else, it would have been funny. However, it was me. Therefore, it was frustrating.

Pierce is a talker,

and so is Madelyn, which means it's never quiet around here. It took Madelyn a while before she really started talking. It was probably right after Pierce was born that I noticed her stringing words together. She probably figured she needed to speak up if she wanted to get any attention with the new baby around. Pierce caught on much faster. He's been repeating words for the longest time. He's been my little parrot. He's also speaking in sentences pretty well too. Ones we frequently hear:

Mommy/Daddy, etc., more [x] please.
Mommy/Daddy/Madelyn, where are you?
Read this, please.
No, thank you, Mommy/Daddy/Madelyn.
I have it.
No, it's mine (yep, he got that word pretty fast.)
Where are scissors? (He loves cutting paper.)
I'm Pierce!

Unfortunately, though, he's at that stage where we mostly hear "NO!"