Happy 8th Birthday to Maddie

Boy, oh, boy.  How can it be so that my sweet little girl is already 8 years old?!?!?  Whether I want to accept it or not, on May 15, 2012, she turned 8 and she had her last day of 2nd grade.  Crazy!  But the celebrating began long before her birthday!

Since Maddie and Micah's birthdays are so close, we decided to have a joint party for them.  We had done that once a couple of years ago and it worked out well.  So, we decided to do the party at the high school pool.  It was a great place for a party.  The kids got to swim their hearts out then we had pizza and cupcakes followed by a few presents.  Here are some pictures from the party.  Since this is Maddie's post, I will only use pictures of her portion of the party and save Micah's pictures for his post in a week or two :)

We don't want to pose, we want to swim!

Enjoying pizza

Listening to the lifeguard give the safety speech

Most all the girls



I think that everybody had a great time and it was a very successful party.  So after this party, Maddie had party #2, which was her family party.  We had it on a Sunday afternoon.  This party was also a success - she got plenty of Lego Friends, which was her main request!  Here are the pictures from this party:



Blowing out her candles

Her rainbow cake, designed by her

Opening presents

Playing with her presents

She had a wonderful time at her family party as well, of course.  But the celebrating is not quite over yet, because her actual birthday still hasn't happened yet.  But it is coming and it just so happens to be on the last day of school as well.  Which of course makes it an extra special day!

She started her day off with some yummy biscuits for breakfast. You'll have to ignore the crazy bed-head!

Next was the fun part - it was Mark's turn to be a "Watchdog" at her school which means that he went to school with her the whole day and helped out around the school.  So he went and picked up some birthday donuts for her to take to school.  Then she got a ride to school via her Daddy.

After school, she and Mark came home and then we let her choose where to go for dinner.  She chose Genghis Grill so we had a yummy dinner, then had some ice cream from Braum's.  I can't imagine how her birthday could have possibly been better!

I love you so much, my Maddie Pie.  You are such a blessing to me, and such a great kid.  You are always willing to lend a helping hand to me with Mason.  You have a huge group of friends from so many areas of your life and you are kind to everyone.  You love the Lord and you love going to church.  You love school and you were so sad to see 2nd grade end.  You love your family and told Mr. Jered at church that the best part about summer was spending time with your family.  You love playing softball and you have rocked it this season.  You love summer time because it means lots of time at the pool and lots of play time in the yard with your best buds across the street.  I love you and I love your enthusiasm for life!