A Visit to Santa and the Chapel Hill Christmas Parade

Cruising on the Carnival Inspiration

5am. . .don't they look bright eyed and bushy tailed???

Madeline's and Mommy's First Fondant Cakes

As a special anniversary gift, Matt gave me cake decorating classes. Madeline and I have had SO much fun playing with fondant.

Baby Girl, It's Your Birthday

As soon as Madeline woke up on her birthday, she ran down the stairs, and yelled, "Mommy, I'm six today! It's my real birthday". As a special treat on her birthday, we took a vacation from school, went to TK's jungle, and ate McDonald's for dinner. Of course, we told her that we would go WHEREVER she wanted on her birthday, and McDonald's was the first choice.

Per Madeline's request, we had pancakes for breakfast, followed by present opening.

Madeline hugs a polar bear from Grandpa.

Daddy took RyRy to Walmart to pick out a present for Madeline. He chose a Rapunzel Barbie, and he was SO excited to give it to her, and she loved it.

A thank you hug.

Because Madeline loved the almond joys in her Halloween candy bag, she wanted a coconut birthday cake.

Madeline blows. . .

and not a candle goes out. "What's going on", she's saying.

Birthday Party

On Saturday, we celebrated Madeline's sixth birthday with her friends. It was an all girls party. We painted figures, make tissue paper flowers, and decorated cupcakes. There was lots of squealing and screaming and running around. It was wonderful.

Jessica, Madeline, and Ali decorate cupcakes.

Here's Jenna decorating.Ry didn't really decorate. . .he just licked icing off his knife.

Oh, and we did a pinata. And let me tell you, there are some 6 year old girls with strong arms!!!

Ryan, of course, loved the pinata.

Madeline Decorates Her First Cake

I love all the girly things Madeline enjoys doing. A couple weeks ago, I made a cake for a wedding shower. I messed up on a layer, so I let Madeline have it, as she was begging me to let her help me decorate the shower cake. The girl LOVED decorating her little cake. She was so focused and engrossed by the task. She has such a great eye for design and color. On the top of her cake she placed M&M's and then piped color on top of each one. As a finishing touch, she frosted flowers around the body of the cake in a very even and symmetrical fashion. It was a beautiful cake and yummy, too. My little decorator.