Celebrate Good Times!

Waiting for her party to begin!

Decorating butterflies

Yummy!!

Opening presents!

Not a real girl party unless you dress up!

We've had a lot to celebrate the last few weeks!  With Mady turning 4 and Trip finishing his first year in "big" school, we have been celebrating all the good times!  As is the tradition in our family, Mady's birthday celebration has lasted for two weeks!  And, apparently our elementary school also feels that celebrations should not be limited to just one day, as the kindergarten had TWO parties to celebrate the end of  the year.  Why only celebrate once what you can celebrate twice...or more?!  So, we started Mady's birthday celebration with a little pajama/butterfly party (again why only 1 theme when you can have 2).  Sadly, it was much smaller than we had hoped as 3 of the 5 little girls we invited ended up not being able to come.  But, Mady and the two sweet friends that did come had a GREAT time!  And, it was super easy for TJ and I to handle!  :-)    The girls came over in the morning in their pajamas and we decorated bug barns and butterflies.  It was SO funny to watch the difference in how they decorated.  One little girl, Ansley, just sat and poured tons of glitter glue on one butterfly and then didn't decorate any more.  Then, Anna, put just a little bit of decoration on each butterfly.  Mady was somewhere in the middle, but they all turned out just right.  Then, while the girls watched a movie and devoured two bags of popcorn, TJ and I hid the butterflies upstairs.  After the movie, they went on a butterfly hunt to find their butterflies.  Once they got upstairs, they all wanted to play with Mady's toys, so they stayed up there and played for a while.  Then, we decorated cupcakes and opened presents.  All in all, it was a FUN party!  Trip went to his friend's house during the party and when the two boys came back over, all hell broke loose.  What had been a sweet, quiet, tame party now became wild, loud and out of control.  Funny how just adding two little boys can do that!  We also celebrated her "real" birthday this past Wednesday.  TJ stayed home and took Trip and Mady out for donuts in the morning.  Then, we opened presents.   After a lunch at the pool and BIG naps, we all went out to Mady's favorite restaurant for dinner!  We just finished our third birthday celebration, along with Mady's cousin Nicholas, at Kaki and Grandads over the weekend!  Mady is officially FOUR!  I can't believe it!  She is so independent, but she is still my baby!  I am so proud of the amazing girl she is becoming....so confident, sweet, kind, funny, smart, and incredibly observant!  She is loved by everyone who knows her, even those of us whose buttons she loves to push!  What a blessing this precious daughter has been to us these past four years!

End of season baseball party

First Kindergarten party

Hula hooping!

Big Boy!

Kindergarten party #2-ICE CREAM!

Treat of choice on her "real" birthday...peppermint pie!

Celebrating at Kaki and Grandad's

FOUR YEARS OLD!

In the midst of all of these birthday celebrations, we also celebrated the end of baseball season and the end of kindergarten for Trip!  How is that possible!  How do I have a child that is now a first grader!?  He has grown so much this school year! He is so bright and so smart and he tries so hard!  He is incredibly kind and a friend to everyone.  And, yet, still in that big boy is my sweet little baby that loves to cuddle and loves TJ and I sing to him before bed and still needs a little encouragement when it comes to trying new things!  I am really so glad to have him home all day with us for the Summer!   So, let the good times continue and the celebrating never end....because this is a GREAT LIFE, full of blessings and many more memories to be made!