Happy Birthday Maddie!

Well, Maddie's third birthday is technically on Tuesday, but we had her little party yesterday and I wanted to get the pictures right up because some people I know whose names I will not mention are very pushy and bossy when it comes to the blog.  You know who you are.

Luke and I cannot believe how much Maddie has changed since her 2nd birthday last year!  She's potty trained, never stops talking, and most importantly has grown in the to the best big sister you ever saw!  Maddie wants Lucy to be involved in most everything she does (she just wants her to stop grabbing her stuff all the time!) and she is so patient and loving with Lucy, um, 90% of the time.  We're hoping Lucy forgets the other 10%!  Maddie has her tough days for sure, but most of her days she is her same sunny self, and she usually makes me belly laugh before 7am with her antics.  She still likes a good cuddle with her mommy, and she likes a good wrestle with her daddy.  She loves her bookies and would read all day if you let her, just like her mom!  She has learned how to play with other little kids and loves all of her little friends at Deedee's house.  She loves her little dance classes and anything she can do in a group.  The bigger the kids get, the more we love getting to be their parents.  Oh, and the more exhausted we get.  This part of things was not adequately explained to us prior to starting our little family.  I repeat, it was not adequately explained.  Here are the photos from Maddie's party.  We were so lucky to have so many friends come by and see Maddie on her big day!  Karyn, Dawn, Martina, Casey, Thalia, Lucia, Alyssa, Mitch, and Oden all came over to help us celebrate.  We were exhausted at the end of it, but mostly just grateful to have been able to give Maddie a day that made her little face light up at least a hundred times before she finally conked out (at a mere 7:30!).

Maddie's birthday coincides perfectly with the need for summer clothes!  So she got a lot of them for her birthday, and here is her adorable birthday outfit.  I had it laid out for her when she woke up from her nap, it was her first surprise of the afternoon.  She was so excited, she's girly like her mom for sure!

I set up everything for her party while she was asleep.  Hello last minute!  Luke started her special day by taking her and Lucy out for breakfast at Devil's Food, she got a scone and French toast.  Then we ran around all morning getting ready for her party, we had so much fun.  We went to Target (of course!), Gateaux Bakery for her cake, we got a haircut (more on this in a minute), and went to Whole Foods ("The Green Store", Maddie's second home). 

Maddie's presents.  We had so much fun picking out her stuff this year!  Summer clothes, bookies, stickers, paper, LOTS of markers, a game, a Barrel of Monkeys (her favorite, because of Toy Story), and an Etch-A-Sketch!

Pretty as a picture in her birthday outfit.  Maddie was her very best self the whole day (any mother of a two to three year old knows what I mean by this!), we were just bursting with pride over what a funny little person she's become.  She waited SO patiently for her party, her cake, and her presents.  She did a lot of sharing, and genuinely seemed to enjoy sharing her day with her little friends.  We were so proud of her!

So yeah, I was pretty excited about this outfit, I took about 100 pictures!  We couldn't put the little sandals on until Lucy woke up from her nap.  Maddie isn't exactly light on her feet.

So, the haircut.  I have been begging, cajoling, yelling (well, just once.  She made me.  She pushed me to the EDGE:)), bribing, you name it, for a month to get Maddie to get a haircut.  Finally on the morning of her birthday, I told her we just had to go. She was in such a good mood that she just sort of good naturedly said no, until finally I told her that we just *had* to go, and that Lucy would get her haircut, too.  Poor Moose didn't even need one.  But Maddie latched on to the idea and was like, "Moosie can go first.  Moosie can get the haircut first."  So when we got there it wasn't looking good, but sure enough Lucy just sat right there in my lap and let the nice lady cut her hair.  After she was finished I thought Maddie was going to bolt, but then she just climbed right up in the chair and let Mary cut her hair, brave as can be!  It was like she just flipped a switch (and I never even had to get exasperated, I was pre-frustration when she went for it!) and never looked back.  So she looked even cuter in her birthday gear because of it!

You know Maddie is excited when she starts crawling and jumping everywhere.

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Everything looked great once we got it ready, really festive!

This was the best birthday cake you ever ate!  We got it from Gateaux, this fancy schmancy bakery in Denver we've always wanted to try.  It was a white chocolate peach melba torte.  Yum!  Maddie picked it out as soon as we walked in!

Maddie does not watch Thomas the Train.  But she really, really likes trains.  So I asked her what birthday stuff she wanted while we were at Target and she immediately said "The train!  The train!".  So we just went with it:)  It was her day!

Karyn and Dawn, the pre-party crew.

This was so funny.  Thalia is almost a year and a half older than Maddie, (Luci is about 9 months younger), so Thalia would be talking and Maddie would very conversationally throw out these totally nonsensical replies.  It was hilarious!

We ordered lots of pizza for everyone from The Walnut Room.  Lucy approved!

You have never seen a kid love birthday candles like Maddie does!  She LOVED blowing out her candles!  She was so calm and sweet through the whole thing.  It was such a special day.

I forgot to mention that Thalia and Lucia and Maddie and Lucy spent some time playing dress up before the party officially got started, so Maddie was a mermaid while she opened all of her presents.  Costumes by Grammy!

She was so overwhelmed by all of the presents that she just zoned out by the end.  But she was EXCITED to see them all this morning!

Ah, the recorder.  It was her favorite gift by a mile.  Every now and then she would just stop everything and play a long, loud note in the middle of things.  She calls it a "unicorn," which I just cannot figure out (or dissuade her from:)).

Happy Birthday Maddie!  We love you so much and we're so proud of you!  Three years sure does go by fast...I can't even imagine all the changes this year will bring!  By next year you'll probably be writing your own novels and painting beautiful landscapes...just like mommy.

Have a good week everyone!

Frisco Trip

Last week we went to the mountains for a few days with Sue and Dave, and we had such a great time!  Lucy was sick the whole time with a cold, poor thing, so I'm not sure if she really got the old Rocky Mountain High or not.  She got a little better when we got home only to get an ear infection a day or two after we got back.  She was acting so funny while we were there that I took her to the ER to make sure she didn't have altitude sickness!  She still seemed to have some good times exploring the beautiful condo we stayed in, it was right on Main Street in Frisco, so it was a great location, and Luke and I skied for 3 days in Vail, one of which was one of our favorite ski days ever.  The girls got to have lots of fun with their Grammy and Pops!  We didn't get many pictures, but I've a few good ones here!

Maddie kept asking Grammy to put this string in her hair like a bow.  Nice look, Maddie!

This was the view from our living room.  It really was SO beautiful!

We took Maddie skiing for the first time, here are her TINY skis and boots!  She looked so adorable in all of her gear.  We managed to get her to go down the bunny hill once, but other than that she was not too interested!  We are hoping next year she will be old enough to enjoy it.  She was a very brave girl!

Here are Sue and Dave enjoying a nice dinner with Luke, right before they kick his ass at scrabble!

Here we are before our trip to the bunny hill at Copper.  There was a lot of wheedling and begging involved in this little venture for Luke and I.  

I always feel like I'm skiing in a beer commercial when I'm at Vail.  

Here's Luke on our second morning, right after we realized we were going to have the best day ever!

We had such a nice time on our trip, I wish I had taken more pictures but we were so busy the whole time!  Thanks Sue and Dave for such a great vacation!

Happy 1st Birthday Lucy!

Two birthdays and a vacation in one month is...insanely busy!  We have had a great month, and between our Lucy's first birthday, Maddie's third birthday (it truly is crazy how fast the time flies), and a trip to the mountains with Sue and Dave, it has flown by.  We're also gearing up to do some renovations on our bathrooms and kitchen, and since we're doing all the work ourselves (and because I am chronically indecisive when it comes to major home purchases) that is taking a lot of time.  

Both girls are just growing and growing. I bought Maddie some summer clothes for her birthday and half of them were 5T's.  She is SO tall.  Lucy is off the bottle (nightmare), pulling up and cruising all over the place, waving bye bye, saying "baby" (Lucy version= "a-BAE!"), and pursuing some research in recurrent ear infections.  Poor Lucy just had her third infection in as many months, and I am beginning to wonder if she is going to need tubes.  Maddie has not really had this issue, so I am just learning the maternal joys of this medical wonder.  The good thing is that the antibiotics work *so* fast, so as soon as we figure out that the ears are the problem, we have her feeling better in about 12 hours.  Despite the pesky ears, Lucy continues to be the funniest, most boisterous little baby you ever saw.  She never.  Stops.  Babbling.  You can always hear Lucy chattering about something, sometimes getting very loud and bossy about things.  She watches Maddie's every move and is seriously considering a career in professional wrestling with her dad.  Lucy really likes to roughhouse with Luke.  It has gotten to the point that he walks in the room and she starts wiggling, turning herself upside down, and yelling at the top of her lungs.  I truly am not even exaggerating the situation.  The Moose is LOOSE! (that's going to be her wrestling tag line.)

We celebrated Lucy's birthday the Saturday after her big day.  Lucy's first year was tough in a lot of ways, with the colic and all the GI stuff, and just adjusting to having a baby and a two year old, but in most of the ways that are important, it was our best year yet.  I never get over the fun of watching our kids play with each other, and watching their funny little relationship develop.  Lucy takes a backseat to Maddie quite a bit, and we were so excited to just celebrate our Moose for the whole day.  We tend to do the one year birthday pretty quietly, though Maddie made sure it was, er, not quiet.  We made Lucy her favorite foods for dinner...I made a big tray of homemade mac n cheese, and we made her a pizza (Lucy's going to absolutely love college.).  After she ate her dinner with Maddie, we busted out a very, very large cupcake for both girls, sang to Lucy, and let them go at it.  Dawn  came over for dinner and cake (and Top Chef after the kids were in bed, of course!), and we had such a nice night.  Lucy was so, so tired by the time she went to bed!  Here are the photos from her big night.  

Dawn came over for cake and fun, despite her evil torn ACL!  Tearing your ACL is not cool.  Take it from Dawn.

And here we see Lucy trying to wrestle with Dawn, the closest available human (Lucy's only requirement for wrestling is that you be both close and human.  Notice Lucy's cute new birthday outfit!

Have we mentioned how much we love Dawn?  She comes and hangs out with us every weekend when we are stuck at home once the kids are in bed.  When her dumb ACL isn't torn she helps us with all kinds of stuff.  

Our best attempt at a family photo.

Maddie's starting to get pretty excited because she knows that soon she's going to be stealing all of Lucy's presents.

Singing happy birthday to our sweet Lucy. 

Here come the cupcake shots.  She was so, so funny.  Lucy really doesn't like sweets (weird!) other than ice cream, and, well, cupcakes.

My favorite.  She did this in slow motion, practically.  She didn't really "dive in" to the cupcake...it was more like she was slowly, magnetically drawn to it against her will.

Once she realized she had to hold the whole cupcake for full control of the situation.

She never got very messy!

Lucy's loot.  She opened one or two before Maddie just went ahead and took over the whole operation.

Lucy was more into eating the presents than opening them.

Lucy, AGAIN with the baby modeling!  She's such a beautiful baby!  (Maddie...AGAIN with the present stealing...)

In all fairness, Lucy was way more into watching Maddie open her stuff for her than she was into doing it herself.

Hey Jeni!  Maddie really wants to thank you for this awesome present you got Lucy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCY!  We can't wait to see what crazy things you do in your second year.  We can't remember what things were like before you came along, but we're pretty sure they were way too quiet for us!  We're sorry for all of your nicknames, but we love you, Moose!