Saturday, August 25, 2012

Here's the Scoop...

 Miss Maddie is 5!
We had an ice cream themed birthday party this year.
I made the invitations from card stock and then used brown paper lunch sacks for the envelopes (loving all of the fun ideas on Pinterest!)

I have so much fun making their birthdays extra special, although I'm not gonna lie, at some point oh usually the week before the party I have a moment of what was I thinking. :) But it is always worth the effort to see it all come together. One of our sweet friends from church laughed and said you can tell Maddie is the oldest because her 4th child is Maddie's age and he is yet to have a birthday party! Its one thing to do this twice a year, not sure if I could pull 4 parties off a year though. Chris often reminds me that every other year I think it is a good idea to have the party at our house, and I am then reminded why its easier to do it somewhere else! So after last year when the thunderstorms cleared 15 minutes before her party in our backyard started, I was happy to oblige when Maddie asked if she could have her party at BounceU. 

One of the many reasons why it is nice to have the party somewhere else - they set all up and clean it all up afterwards!
I was so excited to find all of the ice cream paper products on sale at Party City!

I monogrammed a chair cover from Chasing Firefly  and used it as a sign to hang on the door

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes (once again thank you pinterest!)

Ice Cream Cookies for the adults in case they didn't want the oh so delicious funfetti cupcakes!

Eliza, Caroline, and the Birthday Girl

Emalyn was little overwhelmed by all the kids and wanted me to hold her for a good part of the party, but at least this year we got a picture of her smiling. She is definitely going to be the more introverted of the two of them!

And let the chaos begin - pizza!

The birthday girl!

The party favors
I found these cute ice cream printables and ordered small ice cream containers for the party favors, however I failed to make sure all the ice cream toys I found on the $1 aisle at target for the boys fit into the ice cream containers before I bought them! So the girls got the cute ice cream container with spoons/ straws tied to them and the boys got white bags.

Maddie's favorite part of the party favors were the bracelets she helped me make (keep her quite busy during her rest time!) with the ice cream cone charms I found on etsy.

At the end of the night with Bebe.

We celebrated her actual birthday at the beach.
One of her major concern about being at the beach on her birthday was still having donuts for breakfast on her birthday.  So Chris went to donut hole that morning, and I even found ice cream cone candles - why wait for the cake? She wanted them in her donut. :) The girlfriend is all about birthdays (she is already talking about next year)!

Oh what a fun year we have had with Miss Maddie - the 4 day 4's at St. Georges, Tuesday afternoon ballet with Caroline Pittman, Disneyworld, the Christmas Paegent, St Georges Soccer, Noah's Ark - and so many more sweet memories! She brings such joy to our home. She has one of the most thoughtful and tender hearts. Her teacher pulled me aside this past year and said she was one of the sweetest, easiest children she had ever had, which of course made my heart smile and reassured me that it has been worth all of the hard work I have put into training this sweet child. She has always liked to talk, but I feel like this year more than ever she is nonstop chatter! Asking every question under the sun! She loves coloring and drawing - we go through more paper than I ever thought was possible. I carried two large trash bags out last week that I had her help me sort through - and she still has 2 containers full of artwork! It has been so fun to watch her this year as she is getting more comfortable writing words and is starting to read and put sounds together. And she has an exciting year ahead of her this year with a new school and new friends!

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Summer

Not sure where this summer has gone! Here is a little bit of what we have been up to. 

May was full of end of the school year activities.
Maddie's last chapel



          And the end of the school year picnic. 
Maddie got to eat with one of her sweet friends Hollis.

 Emalyn with Miss Anne Byrn
Miss Anne Byrn was holds a very special place in Emalyn's heart - not sure what she is going to do without her next year!

Maddie with her teachers Mrs. Spelman & Mrs Baird

Class Party
Eliza, Caroline, and Maddie at their class party!

St Paul Bound
With some changes to St. George's schedule for next year, Chris and I started praying about options for next year. And we are so excited that the Lord provided abundantly, and Miss Maddie will be in Junior Kindergarten at St. Paul Christian Academy next year. This picture was at the new families picnic in May.

In other exciting news...
Emalyn is now sleeping in a big girl bed with Maddie!
They have been asking for months, and I figured going into summer was the perfect time to make the change. We have turned Emalyn's room into a playroom, which has been so nice to have one room to put all the toys in! It was definitely an adjustment esp since Emalyn has reached the point where if she takes a nap she is wide awake until 9:30 or 10:00! She stays in the bed, but just talks to herself & her stuffed animals. Maddie told Tee last week, "Uncle Tee, I've got something I need to tell you and you are not going to like it! This whole Emalyn sleeping with me thing is not working out!" 

In June, we went to the lake with the Bruces and the Agnews.  
All the kiddos (and Lewis) eating breakfast
Emalyn, Maddie, baby Elizabeth Agnew, and Will Bruce

Maddie has loved doing ballet recitals for everyone this summer!

The boat ride started like this - the girls were not crazy about the wind

So we finished like this
They are both under the towel. :)

Emalyn loves Miss Katie and Mr. Lewis, but especially Mr. Lewis. 
The Agnews are some of our dearest friends.

 And we had our Macie Day...
 which included manicure and pedicures of course!