madelyn's 7th birthday

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.