Happy Birthday Madigan!

Well, it happened. Tuesday came and my baby turned two years old! She woke up in quite a good mood... at least as soon as we started singing "Happy Birthday" to her :). Here's a picture of her on Tuesday in her "Birthday Girl" tiara from Gramps (aka "Gimps") and Grandi. Thanks again for that...


I had to work on Tuesday, so on Monday night we made cupcakes for her to take to Mrs. Laura and Jenna's house. She was very excited about that! Then, I got off early, took her shopping at Kohls (where she got a new outfit and some light-up Princess shoes!), and then we went out for ice cream. After that, we met Daddy at Madigan's favorite restaurant for dinner... McDonalds. (I'm hoping that will change at some point and we can celebrate her birthday at places like Chili's, Olive Garden, or Outback!) All in all, I think she felt it was a really good birthday!
We spent the rest of the week getting ready for her party on Saturday. Since we had lots of friends and family who were going to be able to come, we decided to hold the party in the family center at church. After a lot of thought, we finally decided on a "crayon" theme for her party (which I thought was better than Madigan's other suggestion of a "pink" party). Crayons were fun because in addition to colorful decorations, we were also able to set up activity/craft stations that entertained the kiddos really well.
Here's a video Ted took of the party fun.


Even though we had practiced blowing out candles before the party, Madigan was a little overwhelmed when everyone started singing to her and staring. So, she just stared at her cake like this :)
She soon got over it though and dug into the cake...We also had a pinata that the kids hit with the inflatable crayons. It was quite entertaining, to say the least!
We were very excited that Pa and Gee Gee and my brother and his family were able to come in for the party. I actually got a lot of pictures of Madigan with them all after the party, but I'll save those for another post. But here's a cute one of Madigan with her cousins and Aunt Susie from the party. We had a lot of fun and Madigan was so excited all of "her" friends could come party with her. Thanks to all of you for coming and making it a special day for her.

I couldn't resist posting these last two pictures of my big girl with some of her new birthday toys. Here she's practicing putting on her lipstick...
and here she's cheesing it up in her cheerleader outfit from Uncle Matt, Aunt Susie, Avery and Ella. My hope is that this will be the ONLY cheerleader outfit she ever has on...Happy Birthday Madigan! We love you so much and look forward to watching you grow every day of your life.