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!