Guess Who's FOUR?????

Yep, I can't believe it but my little baby is now 4 years old!!!

We celebrated at Grandma's house since we spent the night on Christmas night and Maddie's birthday was December 26th.

Maddie's favorite part of birthdays is singing the Happy Birthday song and blowing out candles. I think she likes this more than the presents!

And eating cake...

...she looks pretty happy to me!

We surprised her with pink balloons all over the living room when she woke up on her birthday morning.

And we opened a couple presents.

A Melissa & Doug wooden birthday cake playset.

Ohhh, what is it???

A play ice cream set too! Great addition to her play kitchen.

And an activity book with lots of stickers.

For lunch we went into town for Madeline's choice: Pizza!

Christmas 2011

This year for Christmas we celebrated with Daddy's side of the family on Christmas eve and Mommy's side of the family on Christmas day after opening our presents from Santa on Christmas morning.

Madeline opening some of her Santa presents.

Madeline's "big" present from us was a full-sized doll house that can accomodate up to a 12 inch sized doll (Barbie). She loves it and puts her puppies in it as well.

Puppy dining on some birthday cake!

The scooter that we had to get because this is pretty much all she asked Santa for.

Madeline with cousin Ava on Christmas eve with their dollies. I think Ava was actually holding Madeline's doll. Then both got the two little dolls from their Grandma.

This pic was from the weekend before Christmas the night of Madeline's Christmas program for Parent's Day Out.

Me and my girl. Like the ugly Christmas sweater??? Priceless!

Madeline's cousins Abram and Ava came to watch too.

They even had cookies and punch afterwards.

Ava is looking so grown up. I can't believe she will be 5 years old in February! Time sure flies!

Iowa Visit and Christmas Fun!

We took a quick trip up to Iowa this past month...here are just a few random pics...

Maddie loved the Ronald McDonald statue at McDonalds in Marion.

Grandpa & Grandma with Maddie by Aunt Roxie's Christmas tree.

And me with my girl.

A lunch date at Culvers with our family - a couple of aunts and some cousins.

Fast forward a couple weeks to a special date we had with our friends Amy and Alyssa. We took our girls to their first Nutcracker Suite with the Kansas City Ballet at the new Kauffman Center downtown. The building was amazing and so was the show. Too bad it was right at Maddie's naptime so she slept through the first half of the show. The little girls looked so cute in their fancy dresses.

Then this past Friday Madeline and I went to see the Holiday Express Train again at the Union Station downtown Kansas City. It was our third year going and we love seeing it! Afterwards we went over to Crown Center for a little shopping and lunch at the Crayola Cafe with some friends from Madeline's playgroup.

Some of the decorations on the train.

My cute smiley little girl with the train.

At Crown Center Madeline spotted some cute holiday balloons at the toy store.

Then we checked out a really cool ginger bread village display complete with moving trains!

Goodbye Old Friend...

We are so sad that Madeline's first friend Lukas and his family are getting ready to move away to California. Lukas and Madeline have been friends since birth. Us mommies have been friends for many years and shared our pregnancies together with our due dates only 2 weeks apart. The photo above was from their first meeting.

We got together today for one last playdate and lunch. We thought how it was funny that they were dressed in blue and pink for their first meeting and then blue and pink today for their going away playdate. It's like we've gone full circle.

These two have gone on many outings together: trips to the arboretium, breakfasts with Santa two years, trips to Deanna Rose Farmstead, and to the pumpkin patches. We're sure going to miss going on all of our fun adventures together.

Today the kids had fun playing at Little Monkey Bizness and eating Mexican food. They both love chips and salsa.

They threw coins into the fountain and each made a wish.

Our little cuties!

Their good-bye hug. You will both be missed. I can't wait to visit you in sunny California! Until we meet again....

A Week of Birthdays!

Maddie has had quite a busy week with two friend's birthdays to help celebrate!

The first was her long-time friend Jenna. She moved a couple hours drive away from us over this past summer and we've been looking forward to visiting her. Her birthday party gave us the perfect opportunity to drive down for a visit!

She had her 4th birthday party on Saturday at an indoor inflatible play facility.

Madeline got to meet some of Jenna's new friends. Most were from her preschool. She had a couple of her cousins there as well.

Here's Maddie with a couple of the kids.

Of course opening the presents was fun!

Jenna checking out one of her presents from Madeline.

A few days later Madeline and Alyssa helped celebrate their friend Makaylee's 4th birthday. We had a fun lunch at Red Robin then went to a kids salon so they could get their nails painted.

Alyssa looking cute as always.

Maddie showing off her new "bling". A headband, wand, necklace, and bracelet.

Maddie helping Makaylee unwrap her presents.

The funniest part of the whole day was when the servers came out to sing Happy Birthday to Makaylee. They put the two balloons that were tied together under her chin. She just stood there like she couldn't move her head. She stood that way for the longest time and all we could do was sit there and laugh. Poor Makaylee. At least she got a free ice cream sundae!

Maddie feeding Makaylee her ice cream.

And Makaylee returning the favor.

The girls sharing the ice cream, so sweet!

Our little ladies.

After lunch we headed over to the spa for mani's and pedi's.

The girls each got to pick out the colors they wanted for their fingers and toes. Of course they all had to have sparkles on top!

The birthday girl sitting so nice.

What a fun day!

A very happy birthday to Jenna and Makaylee!