Birthday and other happenings - Part One

We'd barely caught our breath from Christmas and there was Maddie's birthday staring us in the face. Even without her birthday happenings, this January was overwhelming with sick days and ice and snow. Since Christmas, we've weathered croup, strep throat times two and an ear infection. But there are always those who have it worse. Sickness just makes the winter seem even longer...

The post will mainly be photos and will be up to and including Maddie's actual birthday. Part Two will be photos of yesterday's party with her friends. As usual, she had three separate birthday events......busy gal!

Maddie sometimes wants to help with cleaning and folding clothes. Here she shows off an entire stack of washcloths she folded herself. She was really proud of herself!

Mason is now eating on the table with us instead of eating on his highchair tray. The first night we tried this, Maddie insisted that he sit right beside her -- I think we need a longer table!

Ah, snow and ice -- why must you make us homebound??

Mason displays his and Maddie's balloons from Red Robin.
Anyplace with balloons is their new favorite restaurant.

One night we had an amazing moon. It was so close to the horizon it looked like you could reach it.

So last weekend, Uncle David, Grandmama and Grandaddy visited, and so began the week long birthday festivities. We had an awesome day with them.

Uncle David brought Maddie a giant birthday cookie decorated with a crown and wand. Perfect! We ate a great lunch out and had cookie for dessert!!

Grandaddy gives Mason some rocking horse riding lessons on the horse he made for Maddie's first birthday. Mason loved it! If only his legs were a little longer...

Maddie opens the first of many presents -- a ViewMaster. Remember those? I loved mine and thought she would, too, so Grandmama and Grandaddy obliged. She calls the slides "movies."

Thanks Grandmama and Grandaddy!

Mason and Grandaddy playing with tissue paper.

While relaxing and watching what I'm certain was either Shrek or some Nick Jr. program, Mason used Frank as a lounger.

But after a while, Mason slid ALL the way down Frank's back until I guess he found a nice little "pillow" to rest his head on. So hilarious, I had to take a photo. Frank was oblivious to Mason's new position.
Fast forward to Maddie's actual birthday on Tuesday. We let her open one present the night before her birthday. And since we are savvy parents and it was bath night, we chose to give her the new Dora Mermaid doll. She loved it and wanted to take a bath with it right away. Smile!!

Frank made Maddie a special birthday breakfast of grits, eggs and sausage.
It was a fun weekday morning treat and she loved it!

Birthday night. Maddie gets leggings, a hat, an Olivia doll and some other stuff she wasn't wild about.
Like the Gotz doll I've been saving for her since she was a baby. Turns out, I should have kept saving it. It's like a German brand American Girl doll. She immediately dressed it in the pajamas she got with it, but hasn't picked it up since that night. I think this photo sums up how she feels about the doll. Go figure!

Quick, guess who is more disappointed in this photo. It's a draw.


Next post: Birthday party with friends -- wands and castles and crowns, oh my!!