My Miss Madeleine Sue, My Baby Girl,

Happy Birthday to my favorite little girl in the world. I blinked and you somehow turned three. Three beautiful, wonderful, magical, drama-filled, chaotic (in the more fun way) years. I am not ready for you to grow up so quickly. I hope you always know that you will forever be my baby no matter how old you get.

This last year you have developed quite a BIG personality for such a little girl. In fact, if you had a personal anthem, it would be Lady Gaga's " Born This Way". You are quite the little diva and are so opinionated and independent. You definitely feel the need to speak your mind. You love to sing...and sing loudly. You love to color, play in the water, help in the kitchen, and put on as many skirts as you can. You crack us up daily with your creative dance moves, comical facial expressions and hilarious conversations. You can have quite the attitude from time to time. I tend to say that I have my hands full with you, but I honestly cant imagine it any other way. You are absolutely perfect to me and I love your sass, your confidence, your compassion, your strong will, your imagination, and your cuddle bug love. You fully experience life. You are all in.

You also really love James. I know the feeling is mutual even though he might not always show it in the best way. You want to do whatever he is doing... you want to play with whatever he is playing with. Sometimes you guys play so well together and sometimes not so much. And I get that. I don't expect you guys to get along perfectly all the time. You need to give him some space and you need it learn to respect his stuff. That means he is not a fan when you take his favorite lego collection and break it into 300 pieces. But when he gets mad at you for breaking his lego set, I love that you are always willing to try and fix it. You want to please him and make him happy, most of the time.

I could not have dreamed the complete and utter job I feel in having you as my daughter. What a blessing and a complete gift you have been to our family. I don't know exactly how these things work; if you chose me or I chose you, or if its simply by chance, but I do know, whatever it was, it got things exactly right. You were the perfect addition to our family.

I love you to the moon and back.

You turn three today! Go get 'em baby girl. Show the world what you are all about.

Love,

Momma

The last weekend in May, we went to Columbus for William's graduation. It was filled with family and friends and wonderful memories.





Preschool Graduation

Yesterday was James' last day of preschool, and it was very bittersweet. He is very ready to go to kindergarten but he is having a hard time understanding that none of his friends will be going with him. We will still see his closest friends over summer and I know once school starts in the fall he will make fast friends, but it is hard to watch him struggle with it now.



 

Since we have decided to send Madeleine to a different preschool, it was hard for us to say goodbye to the wonderful teachers that have had such an impact on James. It will always hold a special place in our hearts. 

 

 

This morning when we all got up, James asked how many days until school starts... when I told him about 100 days and explained summer vacation to him - he got all excited and asked if we could spend those 100 days at the beach. Kid after my own heart!

Random Spring pictures!

Johns cousin Mitch plays Quidditch for Ohio State and their World Cup tournament was in Charlotte, so we were able to go see him play. It was really fun to watch and James LOVED it!



 

Ben and Jerrys had a free ice cream cone day - so after school several friends met us over there! It was a fun little treat for all the kids.



 

At the kids museum one day.



 

For Easter, we got the kids caterpillars and watched them turn into butterflies. The kids really enjoyed having them for those few weeks, but they really loved watching them fly away.



 

 

James drew Spiderman, and I just thought it was so cute - he really has no idea who Spiderman is, but he got a sticker book filled with superheroes for his birthday and just started drawing.



 

A few weeks ago we went strawberry picking with some friends, this is always a huge hit with the kids - I think they eat as many as we pick... thank goodness its an all you can pick for one price kinda place or else I would feel really guilty!



 

This is their "We love strawberry" cheer - every time I asked them to smile they would throw up their hands and cheer! I think they were on a strawberry high.



Disney!

Last week, we drove down to Walt Disney World and met up with Nana and Uncle Ross. It was a crazy whirlwind 4 days - but filled with many special memories. Madeleine was in awe of everything and James just loved all of the rides. Here are just a handful of pictures from our trip. 

Spring Break!

Spring break started with a house full of guests and James birthday party and ended with John leaving for India. It was a crazy fun week filled with lots of activities but wore us all out!

 

We went out to brunch on Easter with Johns dad and brothers before they all left, it was so nice to have them all here!



 

And then we had some neighbors over for Easter dinner. We still had the bounce house so all the kids got to jump again!



 

We also went to our downtown kids library that week with friends - its a really fun library with lots of stuff for the kids to do.



 

They even had baby triceratops for the kids to play on! And yes, Madeleine is still wearing her Easter dress (but I did wash it!)



 

 

We took John bagels one morning and as always James' highlight of visiting John's office is his white board.



 

James finally let us take the training wheels off his little bike! He did great, its so fun to watch him race around now.



 

On Friday, the last day John was home before his trip, we all went to the Greensboro Science Center. It is like a mini aquarium/mini zoo/mini museum. It is great for their age.







James 5th Birthday Party

For James' 5th birthday, he of course wanted a dinosaur party. He wanted it to be at home, and basically the same as last year's party. And we were happy to oblige. We were very lucky that it was a beautiful day out and we were able to be outside the whole time. We had a few crafts and activities but mostly the kids just played. John's dad and two of his brothers were able to be here too which made the day special.

 

One of the crafts was that the kids got to "tie die" t-shirts. If you color shirts with sharpie markers and then spray rubbing alcohol on them, the color bleeds and looks like tie die without all the mess. They all turned out really good, some kids just did random colors while others got really into their shirts. The kids also got dinosaur masks, and they colored on those too! James is making his t-shirt in this picture, but you cant see him with his triceratops mask on!



 

John found a dinosaur bounce house, which was an amazing addition to the party.



 

This year James wanted to help with his cake, so he went around with me to half a dozen bakeries until he found the right cake. He said he knew this was the right one because of the volcano.



 

Since the party was the day before easter, we had to have an egg hunt... a Dinosaur Egg Hunt! All the eggs were filled with dinosaur things that the kids got to fill their goody bags with.



 

Even the parents had fun!



 

The party went on well into the night and by the time we got the kids into bed, they were all covered in dirt and half asleep - but it was so much fun! A great way to start off his 5th year.