We had Maddie’s Open House for Kindergarten on Thursday and then the very next day we were invited into school for Maddie’s first Publishing party.  I don’t think that I’ve ever seen such boundless energy from her!  We walked in the door and you she practically jumped out of her skin in excitement!  Take a look at her eyes in this picture…. can she be any more excited????

Her story and picture were priceless.  Maddie wrote her first sentence and she was so very proud.  She drew a picture of her bed and of the stuffed animals in her room.  In her sentence she talked about how I was there with her stars on her bed.  She was just so excited!

I loved seeing her confident and learning and confident and happy and confident…. life is the best!

Each year at school we have a spirit parade to kick off the friendly competition for the year between all of the houses. Our family is a member of the Shanxi Pumas and our job during the spirit parade was to yell and scream as loud as we could. I knew I could count on Maddie!

Maddie walked part of the time with her former teacher, Ms. Preeti because this year’s teacher is not a Puma. Part of the time she walked hand in hand with her  good buddy Ri-Ri and part of the time she walked with me…. and she did a GREAT job of screaming!

One year already – how did that happen?

We celebrated Amelia’s first birthday this week.  Maddie counted the days down on the calendar and she helped me choose the type of cake we would make for the celebration.  Maddie and I rushed home after school so that we could get started on the cake.  Maddie actually did everything for the preparation.  She was so intent on making Amelia’s cake perfect.  She measured and added all of the ingredients, mixed the batter by hand and even set the timer on the oven. Maddie’s favorite part was making the pink icing and then decorating Amelia’s cake. 

Amelia simply giggled the entire night.  We sang happy birthday, took some pretty pictures and then BLAM!  Amelia practically jumped into the cake.  Both hands flew into the icing first and then into the cake part!  We had so much fun with her!!

Happy Birthday Miss Meeli Mabel!!!

Maddie has been so opinionated lately…she’s five so I guess she is allowed.  But I’ve been writing less and less because she constantly says to me, “Mommy, I don’t want you to put that on MY blog!”  So I asked her to start taking control of the blog.  When she feels like putting something on it, then we will work together to put it on.  I think this will be more of a transition for me because I’m so accustomed to spilling the beans about Maddie’s trials and tribulations!   She’ll have input on every post from here on out though….

While Andy made dinner tonight, Maddie drew three pictures and I decided to record her while she explained them to me.  It really was that spur of the moment because I had the computer in my hands!  Enjoy Maddie’s second podcast of the year and the third of her life… we have some catching up to do!