Happy Birthday David!!

OK, I am a day late BUT better late than never, right?

Since Madeleine is aware of the concept of a birthday (I think) I figured we'd start celebrating each of our birthdays. OK, who am I kidding, it is an excuse to make a cake!!

David isn't a big fan of chocolate cake or really sweets) but I know he does like carrot cake. I found a recipe for an Orange-Pineapple Carrot Cake that sounded good plus, bonus, it was made in a 9 by 13 pan (no layers!). Madeleine cast her vote for an Elmo cake but I convinced her Daddy would like the carrot cake better. It was simple enough to put together and it tasted great. One change I would make would be too add a little more spice; maybe some nutmeg and a touch of cloves. I cut the recipe for the frosting down by 1/3 and still had plenty to cover the cake. I grated some fresh nutmeg on the top. YUM.

Of course, instead of singing 'Happy Birthday Daddy' she sang 'Happy Birthday Madeleine'. I told her it was daddy's birthday. 'No mommy. Ma'line's birthday'.

Approaching the End of the Summer

Hard to believe we are already approaching the end of August. I know the neighborhood kids start back to school this week. Next week Madeleine moves up to the Toddler Room. Techinically she should have moved back in June when she turned 2, but they didn't have room until the older kids went back to school. I am hoping the new room will help with the potty training. They go more frequently in that room AND they have their own bathrooms.

We did manage to go on one mini-vacation this year. Madeleine and I headed up to Minneapolis last weekend. We went to the Minnesota Zoo, Cascade Bay and attempted the Mall of America. Who knew New Kids on the Block would be giving a free concert? On Saturday morning we met a friend of mine and went to a wonderful bakery for some cinnamon rolls before going to the farmer's market. Of course no road trip would be complete without outlet shopping (chopping! chopping!) ... but not shopping at any ole outlet ... shopping at a chocolate outlet.

By far, any activity that involved water was Madeleine's favorite. At the zoo we came upon some fountains where lots of other kids were already running through them and playing. Many had on bathing suits. As you can see, not having a bathing suit with us didn't stop her!

We were chatting about it on the way home and decided we were going to make out girls weekend an annual tradition .... where to go next year??!!??

A Night at the Beauty Parlor

I have been having a lot of trouble with my laptop this week freezing up on me this week. Not liking me playing around with pictures or even surfing the web. Anyway, been running a ton of virus scans on it, etc., hasn't found anything so fingers crossed all is back to normal.

Last night we came home from eating out and Madeleine needed to get into her pajamas. Procrastinator that she is, she decided daddy needed a 'pony' (as in ponytail) before she could put her jammies on. Just over her arm, on the bed, you can see a sample sized bottle of Clinique's 'Happy' perfume. Apparently daddy's hair needed to be sprayed with it before getitng combed.

I'm almost done mommy!!

I was hoping she was going to break out the barrettes. :)

Olympic Games of our own

I've been running crazy for the last week, but I thought that I'd post a video from Madeleine's tumbling show last week. They all marched out as if they were in the Olympics - theme music and all. Too cute. I need to get better with the camera.



After the march, the kids basically went around and showed us what they like to do. Since it is a parent/tot class, I am already in the know. Once she got the hang of it, she decided she loved jumping on the trampoline. She has since discovered she can bounce on her bottom but hasn't quite figured out where to go from there!



When you see her looking down at the trampoline it is so she can find the smiley face she is supposed to be jumping on. So, I think it is safe to say she likes going to tumbling, so we'll enroll again when the Fall session starts.