today madelyn turned 7! she was pretty excited about her day - mainly because she was getting her ears pierced! but that wasn't all of the excitement in store for her today...
a few weeks ago she was asked to help with a vbs song during a family service today (they do these ever fifth week or thereabouts). what that meant is that we had to be there super early and she got to be on stage both services without having to miss any of her normal sunday activities (they only do childcare for 3 and under on family service sundays).
we had to be there by 8am so it wasn't really going to work out for a 'birthday breakfast', but she hadn't really picked one so we went with the special treat of fruity pebbles that i keep for my own dessert or baking - never breakfast. she loved it!
and then off to church where much fuss was made over her hair and her birthday. she was in heaven. she was very excited to get to hold a sign that was "four feet huge" for the song.
enjoying the freedom to run across the stage between services
mason settled for taking pictures of the stage decor from our seats in the second row.
after church we went to "brunch" (another madelyn favorite) before getting on to part two of her gift - pierced ears! when we got to the mall people were coming out and saying that the mall had lost power and was closing. we decided to at least go in and see because madelyn really, really wanted to get her ears pierced on her actual birthday. while many of the stores had closed their gates (for security purposes or because it was just too dark inside to be safe), claire's was open, running credit cards old school (carbon copies and calling in for confirmation) and willing and able to pierce her ears. things were taking much longer than normal so they offered all of the kids in the store lollipops. madelyn knew exactly what she wanted when we looked at the options - her birthstone (according to claire's, tanzanite). she thought that it was the perfect choice for a birthday day piercing. and we knew nana would love that they were a light purple shade.
they gave her a teddy bear to hold.
happy girl with her locations for new earrings marked on her ears.
and then there was the actual piercing. you can sort of see how her eyes get wider and wider as they actually pierce her ears.
we had discussed at length how much it would hurt, for how long and all of the care that would go into getting earrings. but she was just in shock. she held very still and when they were done she got up and gave me a hug while bursting into tears.
i know it's mean to take a picture but it is almost cute how pitiful she is with so much pain.
some of it was tired tears because we stayed up watching the lego movie again (since mason got it for his birthday). she was so great and really, really happy to be done. by the time we got home she was much better and looking forward to presents!
these are gifts that maddux picked out because he saw madelyn looking at them once in michaels. we went back to get them without her at his request.
talking on the phone with grandma - obviously, her ears feel much better.
we keep finding more cards and gifts for manning.
loving her lego movie set from manning - cloud cuckoo palace
so happy to have 'girl' legos
finally happy enough to take a picture of her 'new' ears!
we had all three birthday kids open their gifts while skyping with big pop and grandma last night and then with papa and nana tonight. the look on maddux' face in this picture sort of shows how he felt about watching everyone open gifts except him. except last night he bawled and was almost inconsolable. poor kid. it really is hard to see everyone get presents except for you. he did get a small gift from papa and nana today and a card or two from kind friends. he has been eagerly planning his own birthday all month.
mason got a cool spider-man card with a "5" made out of webs
another awesome lego set! he was really excited about it!
i had totally forgotten about this one because we bought it so long ago and didn't wrap it, but madelyn was super excited to have her own 'kit' doll and books!
instead of cake madelyn went with root beer floats and root beer float cookies (chips ahoy). matt thought i was crazy trying to put a candle in hers for us to sing...
we all agreed that this was an excellent choice of treat and she said she wants to have these again next year for her birthday! (this was the first time she has ever had a root beer float - at least that she can remember, i am sure she has had a sip or two of one before.)
we should have taken these pictures earlier in the day when i was still dressed from church, but a bad picture with the birthday girl is (almost) always better than no picture.
madelyn said that this was a wonderful birthday day! to close out the day, she asked to watch the lego movie again, so that is what they are doing now. off i am to join her! love.
of course, we kept playing with legos! i got to cleaning up, daddy went out to start some yard work and the kids got busy with all of the legos.
then they decided to try out mason's new game - the joker fun house game. they played for at least three hours all together and mason played at least another hour just on his own! this is a super fun game where you mostly work as a team. not to mention that you get to use "super powers."
here are mason and maddux modeling the superman x-ray vision mask.
what a great ending to a super fun day! now tomorrow madelyn turns 7! yes, another birthday! love.
party time! mason (and all our kids) were practically bouncing off the walls with excitement! once all of our friends arrived we got the party started. we had several games planned and played a few, but the kids were just happy to play with our toys and each other so we let them do just that.
lego brick toss. they had to try to get the duplo blocks to land on as many plates as possible, there was a tie of three
we had lots of lego color sheets
as we transitioned to lunch, i suggested that we go upstairs and play with some legos. they all quickly headed upstairs and got to work.
mason and his friend quinn - they have been in class together for the past two years.
for so many boys, they were relatively quiet. and it got really quiet when they got to eating lunch! we had hot dogs, fruit, chips and juice.
the chocolate, chocolate, chocolate cake.
mason ordered a chocolate cake with chocolate custard filling and chocolate frosting with chocolate ice cream on the side (we also got vanilla ice cream for anyone who didn't like chocolate that much).
the birthday boy!
that cake was gooood!
manning was the last one left enjoying cake and ice cream.
we tried for a group shot, but there was no wrangling after they had eaten that much sugar...
then back up for presents. mason loved everything he received. he is such a grateful sort of kid. love him!
and then we gave out the goodie bags, had everyone pick out two of the lego marshmallow heads and said our good-byes. mason was sad to see his friends go. i think we will have to work on some playdates.
maddux and his very best buddy jackson.
i was a little worried about pulling everything off, but we did it. matt even downloaded the lego movie soundtrack for background music. mason loved his fifth birthday party. and we love him. love.
when mason and i had our date a little over a month ago to plan his birthday party, he settled on a "lego movie, superhero, ninja" theme. i sort of boiled that down to just "lego." mason did have first and third birthday parties, but this is going to be his first solo birthday party (the others were joint with madelyn). he is pretty excited!
i have been preparing over the past month, but last night we started putting everything together. mason had chosen 10 friends to invite and we had invited about 4 of their siblings (one of their little brothers just happens to be maddux' best friend). we only had three say that they were coming and fortunately, they were three who were bringing siblings. so we would have a decent sized party even though there weren't going to be a lot of his friends.
i was pretty proud of my duplo name on the mantle
we had made a trial lego head from marshmallows last week, but i wasn't thrilled with how my finals turned out. mason was very happy with them though and that is all that matters. i thought i took pictures of all of the versions, but i missed a lot of them. i made one with a scared face, but mason said they could only be happy faces which limited my options substantially.
we also ordered super hero lego figures to use as cake toppers. they ended up being knock-offs, but mason, again, loved them anyway.
i cut out a little over a dozen 'lego guys' for a game of count how many are hidden around the playroom. it took the kids a few tries before someone came back with the right answer.
maddux modeling our 'lego wall' that he, madelyn and mason helped make while daddy and mason went to pick up the cake and balloons.
we are making these bracelets with all of the kids as part of their goodie bags
this was one of those where i saw it and thought "wow, that would be cute," but then realized i did not have a rectangular serving dish when i went to put it together this morning. is sort of worked out...
blocks built to hold plates and utensils
look in the background of the picture above to see the gift bags with dots to look like lego bricks - each bag had a mixel lego set and a rice crispy treat. i was running late and didn't get pictures of everything all set up. mason was over the moon happy with everything. he was just disappointed that more of his friends couldn't make it - summer makes it difficult. one of his very best friends was on vacation which was really disappointing for him.
we had all three birthday kids open their gifts while skyping with big pop and grandma last night and then with papa and nana tonight. the look on maddux' face in this picture sort of shows how he felt about watching everyone open gifts except him. except last night he bawled and was almost inconsolable. poor kid. it really is hard to see everyone get presents except for you. he did get a small gift from papa and nana today and a card or two from kind friends. he has been eagerly planning his own birthday all month.
