party time

this morning we got up and got out for ava's birthday. madelyn was so excited to see ava that she could barely sit down long enough to eat breakfast. she was also in a disney sort of mood and gathered up all the stuff toys because she wanted to take them in the car with her.

ava's party was at monkey joe's. i describe it as a cross between pump it up and chuck e. cheese for those of you not familiar with it. matt had taken madelyn once before but i had never been. because of the number of kids for the party, they opened an hour early for us. it took madelyn a little while to warm up to the inflatables. she wasn't alone; many of the kids were too interested in the arcade to play on the inflatables.

madelyn had a lot of fun sliding. and she slid really, really fast! i had to use the sport setting on my camera to have any chance at a picture.

it looks like i am going to have to make a copy of madelyn's birth certificate to carry with me considering she is about 39 inches - the height of some of the 5 year-olds around here. she still played on the inflatables for kids 3 and under, but it was breaking the rules...

i don't know if i should say that she learned how to play air hockey or that she tried to play air hockey. the kids had a hard time playing because they could reach/see the top of the table. it didn't stop them from trying though!

i thought that the birthday table set up was pretty impressive - especially ava's birthday throne at the head of the table.

madelyn and our neighbor jason digging in to cake and ice cream. i was proud of her for actually singing along with "happy birthday" instead of just singing it on her own at home. madelyn perked right up after this and was ready to go play!

the cake must have made her braver too because she took on several of the larger slides afterwards. here she is climbing the tall 'rock' wall to a big slide. i think it was a real work out for her.

happy birthday to ava! madelyn had a great time and was worn out by the time we left. she is already looking forward to going back to monkey joe's some day soon. mason went too, but he spent the whole time strapped to me in the moby wrap so that i would be ready to climb in if madelyn needed me. love.