Anyone who knows my daughter knows that she is a girly girl. She loves all things pink, prissy and princess. Obviously she does not get this from me... Anyway, for her 3rd birthday, I lost yet one more battle and she got a Princess room. This actually was a strategic plan to not only give her a "big girl" room, but to get her out of the nursery without it seeming like baby brother was taking over her space. It's worked - she moved out and hasn't looked back at the "baby room" (as she calls it) once. Grandi, Gramps, Gee Gee and Pa gave her the Princess bedding and accessories for her birthday, which completed the room. So here are a few pictures of the final result...
The Pink Wall
The Purple Wall
The Castle Wall (with magnetic paint, so they can play with the Princess magnets on it)
The Yellow Wall
This is what it looks like when you walk in. Very pink and girly... And now you've seen it. This is just one more time that I've been taught not to use the phrase "I'll never..." This time, "I'll never have a Princess room in my house." Funny how things work out, huh?
And with a room like this, how could we expect to read anything except Princess stories at bedtime? This time, however, Madigan decided to read to us... (I couldn't decide which one to post, so I'm posting them all. If you're not a grandparent, feel free to disregard a few!)
Beauty and the Beast
The Little Mermaid
Sleeping Beauty
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (or Dorps :) )
So there you have it. The Princess in all her glory! At least she can hit and throw a softball too!!
Last weekend, we had lots of company come visit and help us celebrate Madigan's birthday. Madigan was quite excited to have everyone here!
Sweet hugs for Gramps...
She wasted no time getting Grandi to get on the floor and play with her. Having Grandi and Gramps here would have been exciting enough, but the next morning, Aunt Kate flew in. Here's Madigan waiting (impatiently) at the airport for her arrival.The anticipation is getting to be too much...But finally, she arrived! And just in time too. Madigan was in desperate need of someone to paint her toenails... and to play dress up with.As if Madigan needed anymore excitement, they also brought her PRESENTS for her birthday! Woo hoo! Here's a picture of a cute apron and placemat set that Aunt Kate made. Yes, that's princesses on one side. And Grandi and Gramps gave her some accessories for the Princess room - a lovely purple rug,and the coolest Princess lamp ever! Grandi also made Madigan a Princess mumu! Why a mumu for a 3 year old, you might ask? Last time Grandi visited, Madigan asked her what she was wearing before bedtime. Grandi told her it was a mumu and Madigan said, "I wish I had a mumu like you." :) So, here they are modeling their nighttime attire! And since everyone else was wearing one, I also pulled out my mumu.
(Hopefully you're asking why I have a mumu, so here's the story. At my lingerie party before our wedding, there was a present from Ted's parents. I was very nervous about that. When I opened the card attached, it said "what every Bowsman woman needs". That made me even more nervous. When I opened it, it was this mumu. I can actually say that I was very excited when I saw what was inside!! And so, I am the owner of a mumu and now you all know.) Anyway, back to weekend. We also spent some time outside. "Umm, Aunt Kate. Can I please ride? It's not a REAL Jeep, you know."So much fun!Aunt Kate and Madigan also played a modified version of softball. Make sure you note the batting stance and Gary Sheffield-like pre-swing. I sure didn't teach her that! (Disclaimer - I know she runs around the bases the wrong way. We're working on that...)
Such a Princess...At some point, the game of softball turned into a game of dodge ball. Here's Madigan throwing the ball at Daddy.And if that wasn't enough, Gee Gee and Pa arrived on Friday night with...guess what...more presents!There were so many, Pa had to lend Madigan a hand. As you can see, there was more Princess stuff. In fact, they gave her the Princess bedding set to complete her room. At some point, I'll post pictures of the room but just know, it is ALL princess now. It make me a little nauseous every time I go in there, but Madigan loves it, of course!I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures after Pa and Gee Gee came because the rest of their time here was spent in birthday party preparations. This was our attempt at a picture of all of us before they left on Saturday. Not the greatest, but at least we have proof that we were all in one place at the same time!Thanks to everyone for coming to help celebrate Madigan's birthday! It was wonderful to have you here! We love you all!
My sweet girl turns 3 years old tomorrow. But, before I get all emotional about that, I wanted to share some pictures from her birthday party this past weekend. It was a blast! A little background - she WANTED a Princess party, just like she wanted last year. After tons of suggestions meant to distract her from that idea, we finally settled on a Candyland party where she could be the Candyland princess. Nice compromise, huh?! Luckily, we found a Candyland princess shirt on Ebay. But, I couldn't let her have all of the fun. So, I commissioned my friend Eric to make me a shirt that was fitting for this time of my life - Plumpy!! Here's a shot of our shirts (I would have included our faces, but it was a really bad picture of me and well, that's why I do the blog posts. :) )
So, we had the shirts. Next, we made a cake that resembled the board game and had candy where each character would be. We were very blessed to have all 4 grandparents and Aunt Kate (not pictured) come into town for the party... So we put them to work! Grandi was in charge of the food. Aunt Kate took care of the balloons. Gee Gee (who is in the very back of this picture) was in charge of being OCD and straightening anything that needed straightening. She was quite good at this job. Gramps and Pa were in charge of taste testing the food... And entertaining the grandchild...The only one not pulling their weight was Madigan. We let it slide since she was the birthday girl! Once everything was ready, the fun began! We had a big board game set up on the gym floor. The kids seemed to enjoy walking on it in follow-the-leader fashion!!Then we had a station for each character. Here's Plumpy's Plum Toss. Jenna figured out the best way to get those plums in the hole... But sometimes it was tricky to figure out where they'd gone!! Mr. Mint let the kids decorate candy cane door hangers at his station... And Jolly's Gumdrop Mountains housed the gumdrop bracelets... Grandma Nut's Peanut Pit was full of packing peanuts and toys... It was a hit with most of the kiddos! At Princess Lolly's table the kids made playdoh lollipops. Only a few of them attempted to eat them. (Hey, a little playdoh never hurt anyone!) Queen Frostine's house was the princess bounce house that Ted bought at a garage sale earlier in the summer. This was definitely one of the most popular stations.At Molasses Swamp, Gloppy let the kids make slime. We learned a few things through trial and error. Sorry to those of you whose kids were in the first group. That was some messy slime!But we figured it out. Madigan liked this station a lot, But not quite as much as Gee Gee! (seriously, she was still talking about it the next day!)Last but not least, the kids got to go to Candy Castle to get balloon crowns from King Kandy. Chris started out just making balloon crowns, but the kids were more interested in balloon swords and dogs. We figured Candy Castle needed someone to protect the walls and I'm sure they had pets as well, so it was all good.We did manage to squeeze in time for food and to sing Happy Birthday to Madigan. Fortunately, she wasn't traumatized by the singing and staring like last year! All in all, it was a great party. I think all of the kids (and some adults) went home with a bit of a sugar high. :) I can attest to the fact that Madigan crashed pretty hard after we got home! Lots of excitement for the birthday girl! A very fun birthday party, a fun way to remember the big #3 and one more year without Princesses. We're very grateful to all of those who came out to help us celebrate. You made Madigan's party a great success!!
Obviously she does not get this from me...
Anyway, for her 3rd birthday, I lost yet one more battle and she got a Princess room. This actually was a strategic plan to not only give her a "big girl" room, but to get her out of the nursery without it seeming like baby brother was taking over her space. It's worked - she moved out and hasn't looked back at the "baby room" (as she calls it) once. Grandi, Gramps, Gee Gee and Pa gave her the Princess bedding and accessories for her birthday, which completed the room. So here are a few pictures of the final result...
The Purple Wall
The Castle Wall
The Yellow Wall
This is what it looks like when you walk in. Very pink and girly...
And now you've seen it. This is just one more time that I've been taught not to use the phrase "I'll never..." This time, "I'll never have a Princess room in my house." Funny how things work out, huh?
