Birthday Traditions - A trip to the Zoo

We started a birthday tradition when Madelyn turned one of taking the day of her birthday or one closely surrounding it to be a day to spend together as a family.  That first year we went to the zoo and a tradition began.  This year I thought Madelyn might rather do something different, but she was distressed at the suggestion that we might do something other than go to the zoo.  So, the zoo it was.  This year, the trip included Mommom, Poppop, Uncle Aaron, and Aunt Lauren.  Although it wasn't warm, it was at least sunny and above freezing.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

Mommom and Madelyn

Admiring the Sea Dragons

Hi Five from Uncle Aaron and Evan to Madelyn

Showing off a completed Minnesota Trail find the animals game

Getting Punches with Daddy

Uncle Aaron put in a long stretch as Madelyn's transportation

Poppop and Evan

Aunt Lauren is silly :)

Cinderella

A few weeks ago I got to take Madelyn to Cinderella at Children's Theater in Minneapolis.  It is long show (2 hours), and even with an intermission I was a little worried that she was not going to be able to handle the length or pay attention through the whole thing.  I am really happy to say that I was wrong - she was great.  She really liked the story and the music, and especially Cinderella's beautiful dress.  This production is their Christmas show, so there are some interludes with Victorian carolers and she did a get a little confused during those parts, asking where Cinderella and the sisters went.

This production of Cinderella is a reprise of the one they did in 2009, mainly starring their company actors with men playing the parts of the stepsisters.  It is pretty over the top, and the corny jokes keep coming through the whole thing.  It is mix of serious with Cinderella and all of the supporting characters, and ridiculous with the stepmother and stepsisters.  It's not my favorite production of Cinderella (I am pretty partial to the Roger's and Hammerstein version) but it definitely engaged the target audience of children and Madelyn really enjoyed herself.  I am happy that theater is an experience I can start sharing with Madelyn and I look forward to taking her to our next production this year "The Very Hungry Caterpiller and Other Eric Carle Stories".

Costume Cuteness

Halloween has come and gone, but we didn't get many pictures of the kids in their costumes on Halloween this year because Madelyn was sick with a pretty high fever and taking pictures got pushed down pretty low on the priority list.  However, on the Saturday after Halloween I dressed the kids up and brought them into my work at Madelyn's request since she missed out on her Halloween activities.

This year we tried to work with what we had for costumes.  Madelyn had an adorable dress from when she was a flower girl in the spring that seemed ideal for a fairy princess costume, and Evan had the bear suit that Madelyn had worn at his age to keep warm in the winter.  With a little accessorizing they made a cute fairy princess and teddy bear.

Madelyn Updates

This fall has brought a lot of changes for Madelyn's schedule.  She started preschool the first week of September and the next week she started Cubbies.

First day of Preschool!

So far, Madelyn has really been enjoying preschool.  She goes Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons.  It is only two blocks from our house and so far the weather has been pretty nice, so she is usually riding her scooter to and from school.  She loves art, playing on the playground, and the interactions with other kids.  She isn't always descriptive of what she did at school, but she looks forward to it and is always really excited about school when we talk to her.

Scooter :)

Madelyn has been a little less excited about Cubbies, but I think there are a couple of reasons for that.  Since she has preschool in the afternoon, it makes for a long day on Wednesdays, and it is also pretty late in the day for her - evening is still her cranky time of day.  Also, the 4 year olds have already earned their vests and there is some jealousy among the 3 year olds who don't have theirs yet :)  Hopefully when she gets her vest she will be a little more excited. She likes the stories and does pretty well with the memory verses.

Family photo shoot in July - it is clear who the star is ;)

All in all, that is a lot more structure this fall for Madelyn than she has ever had before.  I think as she gets used to it she will like her new schedule, but so far it has only been a couple of weeks and we are still in the adjustment period.

Paul Bunyan Land - from our family vacation

Madelyn really enjoyed the rides - no lines made a big difference :)

 Madelyn loves to be outside, art, packing things into any container she can find, and playing with her brother.  She loves to tell him what he should be doing; that is working ok for now - we'll see how that goes as Evan gets older.  Oh, the adventures that are yet to come!

Princess Party!

When I asked Madelyn what kind of party she wanted for her third birthday she did not hesitate at all - she wanted a princess party.  The upside - it is a very popular birthday party theme.  The downside - she wanted to have both girls and boys and a princess party isn't completely gender neutral...what are you going to do :)

We had 5 of Madelyn's friends (and their escorts!) for the party, along with both sets of Madelyn's grandparents.  It was so special for her to have Grandpa, Grandma, Mommom, and Poppop all here to celebrate with her.

For the decor I got a few ideas on pinterest, and here is what I ended up doing:

I used silver posterboard to make a castle turret and then positioned our dining room table acting as a gift table in front of it.  I needed to get the dining room table out of the way to make room for a kids table. 

I had crowns for all the adults to wear :)  They were all good sports!

In the dining room I borrowed a kids table from church and then used a foam castle to make a centerpiece along with lots of foam stickers for the kids to decorate it.  I also draped the ceiling of the dining room in 5 different colors of tulle which created a canopy on the ceiling.

The place for each of the kids also had a crown that my mom made for each of them, along with little foam castles we had cut out for them to decorate as well as the one in the center.  There were also necklaces they could wear with their crowns.

On our door coming in, Poppop created a Coat of Arms for Madelyn (I had no idea he was so artistic!).  It included her all important cowboy boots and the tutu she got for her birthday :)

For food we ordered pizza (per the request of the birthday girl) but I also wanted to have fruit and found this great idea for fruit wands on pinterest.  Grandma and Mommom worked very hard the morning of the party to get these looking fabulous!

Instead of a cake, this year I picked up mini cupcakes from the Sweet Retreat (the same place I got Madelyn's teapot cake last year).  There were Choczilla, Vanilla Princess, and Salted Caramel.  They were all really good, but I think the salted caramel won the day with the adults.

Another idea I had gotten from Pinterest was to use little bracelets as the napkin rings and then let the kids take home the bracelets as favors.  I thought they turned out really cute!

I was a little worried about having 6 children hanging out, even though parents would be there as well, but the kids all got along really well and had a good time playing together.  Madelyn had a fantastic time at her party and has told me many times since then that she would like it to be her birthday again :)   Here are a few party pics of the kids enjoying the day.

Madelyn never lacked for assistance in opening gifts

All of the kids took decorating their castles very seriously

Cowboy hats definitely go with tutus!

Update:  I added some pictures my friend Elise (check out her blog) took at the party :)

Another Overdue Update: 3 Years Old!

I have been terrible at getting these updates done on time.  In my defense (albeit not a great one) our laptop was on the fritz for a long time, and then we were in midst of planning and executing Madelyn's Princess Party, Easter, the kids wedding debut, and then...well after that I run out of excuses.

On March 30 Madelyn turned 3!

Madelyn's 3 Year Stats:
Height: 37 5/8 inches (50th-75th percentile)
Weight: 32 lbs (50th-75th percentile)

Over the last year we have watched Madelyn make the transition from toddler to preschooler (even if she hasn't started preschool yet).  She is able to play by herself and she lets her imagination run wild.  She loves to play with her dolls, have tea parties with Grandma, build things with legos and duplos, and most importantly "pack" any bag, backpack, or box that she can get her hands on so that she can be prepared for a "trip" of some kind.

At the hospital

4 Weeks Old

8 weeks old

Madelyn's language now involves complex ideas and sentences, often stringing together 10-12 words or more.  She tells us stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end that make sense in the order that she tells them.  For instance, this past week at Sunday School they learned about the shipwreck that Paul was in and she wanted to show us the pictures on her paper.  She told us that the people were on a ship but then there was a big storm and the ship sank, and the people were swimming, but then they held on to pieces of the boat until they floated to shore.  Even without reading the back of the paper we were able to make a pretty good guess at what story she was telling (although that seemed like a pretty high level story for preschool Sunday School).

6 Months Old

9 Months Old

Tantrums, although becoming less frequent in general, are definitely more intense when she has them.  It seems that Madelyn's emotions run very near the surface and she hasn't gotten the hang of how to deal with them yet.

1 Year Old (1st annual Birthday zoo day)

13 Months Old

18 Months Old (first international trip!)

Madelyn LOVES her little brother and wants to be a part of everything that we do with him.  She likes to help during diaper changes and baths, she is always happy to get him his pacifier, and she wants him to play with her or at least be with her when she plays. In the future, when the last thing Madelyn wants is to have her little brother tagging along, we'll have to remind her of how much she wanted him to be playing with her!

2 Years Old - 2nd annual Birthday zoo day :)

Who can forget what happened last year at the zoo...

Madelyn is an adventurous eater, but has become much less adventurous in other things.  Perhaps because her imagination is more vivid now she worries more about things that she does.  It has been an amazing year of watching her grow and change, and it is hard to imagine how different she will be in another year.

Three...