Madison and God

Last week the girls and I were getting into the car at one of our errand stops.
Kennedy needed to nurse so I brought her around to the front seat with me.
Madison asked why Kennedy got to sit up front.
*
Mommy: "Kennedy wants some milk"
Madison: "Oh, you have a bottle?"
Mommy: "Yes, remember the Mommy Bottle?"
*remember, Madison started referring to 'the mommy bottles' when we first brought Kennedy home from the hospital
Madison: "Oh, where did you get the Mommy Bottle?"
Mommy: "From God"
Madison: "Oh, I want to go see God"
Mommy: "Not today, Madison. We hope you don't get to see God for a very long time"
Madison: "OK, Can I have a snack?"
*

Flashback Friday: Daddy's first 'Religious' Experience

College football season is right around the corner.
What a great time to flashback to Mommy and Daddy's first tailgating/college football experience together.
***
October 16, 2004 Daddy attended his very first University of Georgia football game in Sanford Stadium.
Anyone from the South knows, football truly is a religion.
First comes God, second comes Georgia football.
We flew in a couple days early and introduced Matthew to city of Athens, UGA campus, and Mommy's two best friends- Kimberly and Kristi.
Saturday morning we met up with some of Kimberly's friends and Kristi's brother Brian for some good old fashion Bulldog Tailgating.

We had a blast at the game with Kristi, Kimberly, and Ramsay.
It was a gorgeous day for Georgia football!

After the game we even got to meet UGA himself!
Mommy gave the hot and tired little boy a kiss on the head.
The entire time Mommy was attending University of Georgia she never got to meet the MAN.
Mommy was definitely more excited about the meeting than Daddy.

We got some fun pictures of the game, too!

One of our favorite parts of the game was running into this cool guy.

Doesn't his shirt say it all...

It was a fantastic weekend and the perfect introduction to SEC football for Daddy.

This year we get to go back to Athens for another game in the stadium.

Stay tuned for our upcoming Bulldog adventures....Go Dawgs!

Princess Madison and Noah the Knight in Shining Armour

As promised, here are a *few* of our favorite photos from Madison and Noah's wagon fun.
They started with Noah's Daddy, Chris pulling them around the yard.
Sierra is always close to follow the wagon.
We think she is afraid one of the kids will get hurt.

After a lap or two around the desert like backyard terrain, Noah decided he wanted to pull Madison by himself.

Princess Madison in her new crown and dress up shoes was a little heavier than Noah expected.

He couldn't quite get her up the incline on his own

so Uncle Chris stepped in for a little extra nudge

and they were off again

Noah happily pushed and pulled his Princess all around the yard,

as a good Knight in shining armour should

He paused for a small token of his affection

and got stuck.

The kids leaned over to see what the problem was, when Knight Noah found....

a magic sword to thwart off any evil doers in the yard

When all was clear again, Noah did a little examining to figure out why the wagon wouldn't move

(could it be that they lost all their momentum when they stopped for a kiss?)

He tried pushing backward from the front

pushing forward from the back

Madison got out to lend a hand

(Dukes of Hazard style)

Low and behold, the wagon moved again

So they pushed and pulled together for a while

Until Princess Madison...in true Princess form...lost a shoe

Noah looked everywhere for the shoe.

Finally locating it,

he bent down to assist Madison in replacing the 'gwass swipper" on her foot

and all was well again.

so they went on their merry way again

until they hit another 'bump in the road' on the other side of the yard.

Strong, burly Noah effortlessly flipped the wagon back over

(Matt says it's time for Noah to get a Jeep and hone these skills for off roading)

And again, on their merry way

with a slight role reversal

All that pushing, pulling, riding, and rolling tuckered out the Princess and brave Knight so they stopped for a royal drink of water.

Two little peas in a pod

They are just too sweet together

**Thanks to Angie for snapping such great pics while Mommy was busy patting together our yummy feta burgers. Watching these two interact together was such a crack up! **

Birthday Splashes and Cake

For the past several months if you asked Madison,
"How are you"
She would answer
"I'm Two"
Clearly confusing the question.
We thought it was pretty cute, though.
In the weeks leading up to her birthday every time she answered
"I'm Two"
We responded with
"You're almost Three!"
It caught on.
The week before her birthday we started telling her she was going to see Mickey Mouse and the Princesses on her birthday when she turned 'three'.
She started asking us then when she would have cake and her birthday with her friends.
See, she's been to several birthday parties for her friends lately,
with cake,
and singing
Special Agent Oso on the Disney Channel even has a surprise party.
Madison kept asking me when her friends would come over
and hide
and say surprise
and have cake
and sing Happy Birthday
(you think I'm making this up?
You should hear her talk a mile a minute!
Where ever does she get it.
wink)
So, with all of this in mind,
we invited some of the girls' friends over to splash in the backyard
and have cake
in celebration
of Madison's 3rd
and Kennedy's 1st
*
Saturday, August 22nd around 2:30 they started arriving.
The living room quickly went from neat and tidy to disaster zone as every toy in the house came out of it's home.
We quickly moved the kids outside for some fun in the shade
(thank goodness for the big Ikea umbrellas)
The big kids played in the big pool

while Kennedy played in the little pool
with her pal, Gwen watching from her Mommy's lap

As usual, Kennedy's time in the little pool was short lived as she was desperate to splash with the big kids...

Noah

Spencer

Ryan and Caleb

and big sister, Madison

(Ryann and Annaliese wouldn't hold still long enough for me to get their pics in the pool)

Kennedy found ways to entertain herself while waiting for Mommy to let her in the big pool

No, she didn't actually drink the pool water,

but she got awfully close.

When everyone had their fill of water, we headed inside for more play time.

Kennedy carefully guarded a pile of presents

While Miss Gwen showed off one of her new talents-sitting up by herself!

Anna and Ryann played with dolls and the play kitchen while Madison tried to sneak some snacks from the table.

It didn't take long for all the kids to ask about presents

so we moved everyone into the living room and let the girls go to town.

Madison started with princess crowns from Spencer, Gwen, Caleb, and Ryan.

Then Kennedy got a turn (sort of)

OK, quick reality pause.....

There was no 'taking turns'

It was all we could do to keep the presents out of all the kids hands.

This was the fastest, most chaotic gift time I've been a party of.

All the kids helped open all the presents.

Paper was flying

Kids were crowding.

It was the craziest 5 minutes of the day!

Kennedy did get to open one present on her own.

She tore just enough paper to uncover baby Cinderella's face

then she picked up the still mostly wrapped box and snuggled it to her face

We helped pull the rest of the paper off but she was not giving up her box

With a little help from Angie, we got the box away from her and up to Noah's Daddy-Chris to help take Cinderella out of the box.

Chris couldn't move fast enough.

Kennedy stood there yelling at him to move faster until she finally got her baby doll back.

In the meantime, Madison opened a treasure chest of Disney Princess dress up shoes!

and Disney Princess sets with cups, plates, forks, spoons, and a sports bottle

which Noah happily shared was from "TARGET!"

(Angie said he picked them out all by himself- along with Hello Kitty lip gloss)

Kennedy opened a Fisher Price laugh and learn tea set,

and started signing 'cat'

apparently the tea pot looked like a cat to her

(note: one had signing, one hand firmly around Cinderella)

Dress up shoes were the hit of the day.

The girls got TWO treasure boxes full.

One to keep, one to exchange for more dress up treasures at the recommendation of the gift givers.

Kennedy spent some time maneuvering thru all the tall legs with a gift bag.

She filled it with wrapping paper scraps and her Cinderella doll and carried it around the living room

stopping every once in a while to empty it,

then fill it back up again and go on her merry way

When some of the madness settled down, Angie helped Kennedy open her own Princess plate set

Then all the kids spent time running around the house in dress up crowns and shoes

It takes a true man to wear pink dress up shoes (and a cool star wars shirt!)

Next was cake time.

All the kids piled onto the benches anxiously awaiting cake

We sang,

Madison blew out her candles

her friends clapped

then it was birthday girl, Kennedy's turn

surprisingly she was not interested in the burning flame

only the cupcake that was left when the flame was blown out

She had no problem digging right in

We swapped the big cake for cupcakes for the big kids, too.

(I love the various musical instruments, toys, and other 'treasures' that made it to the table with the kids)

Spencer's 3rd birthday is fast approaching, September 1st so it seemed only fitting he wear the pink, fluffy '3' hat while eating his cupcake.

After cupcakes, while the kids were still messy and contained

we decorated sugar cookies to eat (and mostly take home)

The kids were all great about sharing and taking turns

the blue frosting seemed to be the unanimous favorite

Kennedy (covered in frosting) looked on in envy

then flashed a great smile

Matt thought this would be a great add for Cingular "More bars in more places" and more sugar, I might add!

It was time to say goodbye to most of our friends after cookies and cleanup.

Noah, Chris, and Angie stayed to play a while longer.

Madison and Noah enjoyed a wagon ride

(look for an extended post on this one- it was super entertaining!)

Kennedy (not so quietly) hung out with Daddy

She wanted to get down and play, too!

After the wagon rides, we opened the sandbox and let all 3 kids play while Mommy and Angie worked on dinner

Kennedy snuck over and tried to get some more pool time in

but Daddy made sure this was as close as she got to the water.

After some yummy feta burgers and orzo salad the kids shared a bath

the grown up shared a few laughs

then the Steads headed home

and the girls were off to bed

while visions of Princesses danced in their heads.

*

Thank you to our friends for celebrating with us and making the girls' already magical birthdays even better!