Madeline's Birthday Extravaganza

Before I show the enormous amount of pictures of Madeline's 2nd Birthday party, I want to explain a few things.

Many people have been hearing for weeks now the amount of effort I have put forth for this birthday.  I began to get more involved after I found out Will would be here for her birthday.

After all the things I made went up, it didn't look as crazy as I had thought it would. Also, most of the items came from the dollar store. Time was the culprit in the planning of this party.

When you saw the look of her face as well as the people who came through the door, it was well worth every minute!

So far there have been three Minnie Mouse cards given to Madeline and three of which were the same exact card. Hee hee. :)

Don't say I didn't warn you about the pictures.

DECORATIONS:

Told ya you were invited. 

REACTION:

ACTIVITES:

Madeline absolutely loves balloons still.

Josh humored us. 

Ornament time. 

I made ears for the kids. 

First time she blew her own bubbles. Awww. 

Josh loved Madeline giving him bubble wand taps. 

Minnie pinata made by me. 

Madeline's huge swing (tap) at Minnie.

Our friend, Chantal, helped Madeline while mommy was taking pictures. 

Josh was the last and he finished smacking it open. 

Will couldn't stop laughing because the sticks were a wee bit too large for the kids and honestly, put everyone around in danger. 

Kids decorated Minnie bow cookies. 

Our friend, Sara, helped Madeline with hers. 

Perfection.

THE CUPCAKES:

Yum Yum!

I am thankful I warned everyone how Madeline would most likely cry when we began to sing. I think we stopped at the first, "to youuuu."

Trying to focus on the sweets!

Completely focused. 

Not too bad for a baby girl who was sick during the entire party.

PRESENT TIME:

Her birthday kitchen was a huge success!

It cracks me up how the name of the game was how close can you get to Madeline opening presents.

Ha ha, do you see Tori getting super close behind her? :)

I had a different kid in my lap almost every other gift.

A special thank you goes to my sister, Wendi, who willingly agreed to take pictures throughout the party! :) 

Next on the agenda...celebrating Madeline's real birthday on Thanksgiving with just the three of us, Madeline's 24 month wellness baby checkup, and the dreaded deployment. :( 

The Calm Before the Storm (Madeline's 2nd Birthday Bash)

I mean seriously, can you believe she's ours?

Blue Lollipop + Mirror = Blue tongue discovery

She loves it!

Unfortunately, it's blurry, but the love is still there! EYE ROLL!! 

It was awesome to see my former co-worker and dear friend, Katrina with two wonderful additions: husband, Matt and beautiful daughter, Kathryn.

Will and I attended my very good friend's, Shelley, wedding in Texas. She was beautiful!

I also got to see my sweet friend, Hannah!  

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who appreciated Will's awesome dance moves!

Wendi came to help celebrate Madeline's birthday. But before that, a little TWILIGHT FUN!  

Doesn't Wen have the best smile?

Happy Halloween

I apologize for the streaks in this post and the last one. It has been quite a challenge lately to download the pictures without some sort of issue. I have and continue to look for solutions. What I post is generally the best out of 2--3 of the same picture. I continue to try and find a solution, but until then, please excuse the streakiness. UPDATE: FIXED THIS POST'S STREAKS

Some random tidbits:

*Madeline's birthday celebration is November 17th. I will post a picture of the invitation and eventually the actual birthday in the near future. Please note, if you are reading this, you are invited. :) 

*I have been promoted from Mama to Mommy. While this is super sweet, it also makes me a little sad on how fast she's growing. Will continues to be called Dada. I'm obviously progressing a lot faster than Will. In 17 days, she will officially be 2 years old! CRAZY?!!?

*As of today, one of Madeline's ears is infected and has drained blood. We are in the process of getting things figured out. She's on two antibiotics and I will be the squeaky wheel in getting an ENT appointment tomorrow. She is scheduled to fly this Thursday, which hopefully will still happen. UPDATE: MADELINE'S EARDRUM WAS ATTEMPTING TO CLOSE OVER HER TUBE. THE FLAP "BURST' CAUSING THE BLOOD. AFTER 10 DAYS OF EAR DROPS (ANTIBIOTICS) SHE IS GOOD AS GOLD. SHE ALSO DID AMAZING ON THE PLANE!

*Starting January 2nd, Madeline will be starting a Mother's Day Out/preschool twice a week. She is at the age where she would start benefiting being around other children her age.

 Madeline's first time with finger paint. Besides painting her hand for lots of hand prints, she preferred (and still does) using a sponge brush. 

 

I think she likes it!

Shaving cream-tastic.

Helping us spoon out the pumpkins. Every time she touched the pumpkin guts, by accident, or saw a pumpkin seed, she would say, "Eeeewww!

                                                                            

 During a festival, Madeline had to sit on the ride on lawnmowers.

Mice time!

O for Obringer!

She was singing, "eyes and ears and mouth and nose..." She gets the general area when it comes to pointing the different body parts.

About to touch her, "knees and toes."

About to start gathering some candy. She needed to triple check and confirm that there was absolutely nothing in her bag. 

Madeline would walk up, gather the candy, mumble something close to, "trick-or-treat", Will or I would quickly put her candy in her bag, and then would capry on.

We went to about seven houses and she started to get the hang of it.

Finding other uses for her Sit-and-Spin. She's singing a song where part of it says, "Shh shh shh".