Mady and Abby's Big Birthday Bash

Today was Mady's 2nd birthday. See my previous post for the theme of Abby Cadabby. There were 12 people at the party. Lots of presents and fun. Some of the highlights included:

• No major meltdowns by Mady since she didn't take a real nap the whole day. Too many new toys and people around to keep her busy.
• Mady blew out the candles on her birthday cake with a party blowout during the Happy Birthday song. It was priceless.
• Good company with family and friends present.

Low points included:

• Nutmeg getting hurt. The wind outside and the garage door being open created a vacuum effect and his nose and paw got caught in the door. Sad. :(
• The top tier of the cake sliding off on the way home despite driving very slowly. Thanks to Hy-Vee for sending over a decorator to fix it. (Devon tried to fix it but he didn't have a spray gun for the icing.)

Gardening

Today we went to Mulhall's nursery and bought $250 worth of plants for the yard. Devon cut down the tree/bush thing in our front yard flower bed area. Seems like we always get stuck with the ugly tree/bush things in our front yard (our house in Phoenix used to have an ugly tree/bush thing as well). Guess the people that owned the houses before us didn't have very good taste in plants. I cleaned up the purple flowering plants along the house and planted some annuals even though Devon thinks they are a waste because they won't come back next year.

Devon planted some rose shrubs in the back. He also planted some peppers and tomatoes in the back.

Mady was a good helper and watered the plants. I also found a nightcrawler and she held it in her hand and giggled.

We learned a lot about plants today that's for sure! I do not have a green thumb but my Dad says anything will grow down here with the humidity. We'll see about that!

Sweet Spot

Devon went mushroom hunting on Saturday and found 9lbs of morels! We were all laughing at him because he got lost for 2 hours and couldn't find the car.

Today he went out to the same spot and found out that the land he has been hunting on is private property. Whoops! LOL! He took the family a cheesecake tonight to apologize.

Before he found that out, he gathered more mushrooms shown in this picture. They are getting larger.

The Tassle's Worth the Hassle!

Chelsey's graduation was today. Gosh I feel old! You know those slideshows they play at graduation? Some of the kids in her class I recognize better by their baby pictures than by seeing them in person. A lot of them would come to the pool where I was lifeguarding and I'd teach them swimming lessons. Exactly 11 years ago today was my high school graduation - crazy!

Odd day for a graduation - there were some huge snowflakes coming down! "The size of baseballs," said Dane.

The after graduation party was a hit. Chelsey helped the kids break open the pinata. Josh's friend brought margaritas - then the party started!

Mady's having a blast with Paige. She follows her around everywhere. Now Paige has a "mini me".

Mushroom Hunting is like...

Sniper hunting - so Devon said at first. Finally starting to find some though. He found 18 of them. Here is the first photo.

Fearless

Mady is turning out to be a pretty brave little girl. We walked up the hill to the park today and were playing on the small slide and going across the bridge on the swingset. She then decided to go down the "big" kids twisty slide instead. It's really pretty tall so I was surprised when she sat right down and zipped down the curves and laughed when she got to the bottom. "'Gain (again)," she said.

Devon said she will be fearless!

On another note, she barely took a nap today (just in the car on the way to lunch at the CCF). I tried to get her to take a longer nap but I think I was the only one that fell asleep for a few minutes. The end result - her falling asleep in her highchair after dinner. Aw...

Ever Ever After

Mady and I just had the most fun ever! First we fingerpainted - her very first time. It was a progressive thing. She used one finger first, then two, then finally, the moment I was waiting for, her whole hand to spread around the paint. Then, Mady got out her bubble-maker and we danced in the bubbles like crazy people to the Enchanted soundtrack. What a magical time! I will remember her face laughing at me in the bubbles forever!

Now we are watching Caillou "on demand" and she is getting mad at it when the muppets come on instead of the cartoon. Haha.

Gone Fishin'

Today, Mady and Devon went fishing at Two Rivers. Devon bought Mady a fishing pole with Dora the Explorer on it. They caught their limit of four trout within the first hour so I will say that was a successful fishing trip! I'm sure Mady was tickled getting to see the fish.

On the other hand, later this afternoon they went mushroom hunting. They didn't find any. I'm hoping Devon finds some next week when the weather warms up so we can fry them up. Yum-yum! Good luck honey!