The Royal Ball

Since Madison goes ahead and introduces herself to people in the following manner, "Hi, my name's Madison. I'm a princess," I thought maybe we should go ahead and throw her a princess themed party. I got a great tip from a friend's mom and checked out www.simplypretend.com. They had all kinds of options for fun parties, but the princess and knight theme was the one we had to go with!

We picked up the trunk on Thursday afternoon and the kids immediately began rummaging all through the contents. Jackson got suited up in his armor and was ready for battle soon thereafter.

The Royal Ball began promptly on Saturday at half past eleven. Lunch was served and included all fairy-tale themed items, such as Snow White's candied apples, Jasmine's Jelly Sandwiches, Ariel's Under-the-Sea Treats (goldfish), Fairy Godmother Magic Wands (pretzel sticks coated in white chocolate and red sugar) and Warm Sandwiches for the adults (I couldn't come up with a suitable name for them so they just did without!).

As our guests began choosing what to dine on for lunch, they were able to peruse the plethora of dress-up attire for the ball.

Always the good hostess, Princess Madison made sure to provide fun party favors, too. The girls got to choose their favorite colored wand and crown and the boys got a super-cool sword.

Even Cinderella was able to make it to the ball!

Looks like she found her prince, too!

I decorated the tables with fun pictures of Maddie and included this one of the invitation.

After the guests were finished with lunch, these two lead the way over to the tramp. I guess the party hasn't really started until we get some jump time in.

All of the Hays' were here to see Princess Madison--the weather could not have been any better, which made it so nice to just hang outside.

When we announced it was time to get dressed all the kids headed back inside. After they picked out their dress, they went over to the Study for Hair and Make-up.

And Voila! We have Princess Belle and her Knight Jackson!

As the girls finished getting all dolled up they were able to enjoy story time with Cinderella.

Then it was time for the entertainment. We were having a fashion show and kicked it off with a jousting match between Jackson and Judah!

Jenny helped me MC the fashion show and of course the princess went first. She looked a bit timid at first...

but then began spinning so fast that she ended up like this!

After steadying herself it was time for our next princess.

Princess Chloe didn't really feel like putting on a ball gown, but she did decide to rock some glass slippers!

Then it was Princess Esha's turn. She took a tip from Maddie and did some mad spinning, too!

Princess Kylie rocked her dress with all kinds of sassy confidence...

and then out came sweet Princess Brooklyn. Can you tell her daddy was the one that brought her to the party?! He didn't think to take off her original outfit and just put the dress on over it...jeans and all!

Princess Ashlyn looked beautiful with all her beads...

and Princess Kylie Jean rocked her purplicious dress.

The Pointer Sisters finished up the show...

until Madison decided she needed one more walk down the runway!

What a crew!

Most of the kids really got into the dress up fun and we loved seeing them enjoying themselves so much.

After the show it was time for a little round of "The Hot Toad." It's just like hot potato except that if you get stuck with the toad when the music goes off, it's your turn to give the birthday girl your present.

"Alright folks, the music stopped, whose present do I get to open first?"

This actually went really well and Madison was such a gracious girl. She said "Oh, thank you Sarina!" "Thank you Ashlyn!" to all of her sweet little friends.

I was so proud of her:)

After the game was over she still wasn't done with opening presents. She got a really cute headband and tutu from Uncle Scott and Miss Lyndsie...

and the coolest talking princess mirror from Uncle Andrew!

During the present time Miss Lila finally awoke from her nap.

So glad she made it in time for some cake!

Knight Jax helped out quite a bit with the candle blowing...

and then all the royal subjects got to enjoy some delicious white and strawberry cake.

After all that sugar the kids flocked to the tramp like moths to a flame!

Us girls hung out on the back porch and watched the mayhem from afar.

Right before the party ended J found another knight costume and put it on.

We managed to get one good picture with all the grandparents and then the party was officially over! Whew! What a day.

The next morning I let Madison borrow a crown since it was her real birthday:)

She wore it for a little while and then decided she'd rather just go enjoy her princess donut!

Madison Reese is officially 3 years old now--what a weekend:)

Happy Birthday Madison!!

Today Miss Madison turned 3 years old. We have been busy celebrating all weekend and she has enjoyed every second of it! Princess Madison had a royal ball at her party this past weekend. Pictures of all the festivities will be posted soon. Right now I need to recover a little bit more! I just had to put one picture up, though, and thought this was was too darn cute to pass up. I am so in love with those dimples and ringlets.

1 year check-up

Today Lila and I went to see the doc for her 1 year check-up. Although she was really clingy, she got a glowing report. Sweet girl has eight teeth and two molars that are starting to come in. Ouch. She can say "hi," "dada," and "mama," and just recently began saying "yes!" we think. Although she has begun to learn how to verbally communicate, her most often used method is still shrieking with her arms stiff and held out to the sides. Very loud and most unpleasant when done in public or while I am on the phone! She loves playing peek-a-boo with Jackson and Maddie and is this close to walking. Heaven help me when that happens! She loves climbing the stairs and if the safety gate is accidentally left open, will zip up them in about 15 seconds. She is a great eater and loves meat--grilled chicken and grilled pork chops are her faves, but she's really not too picky. Right now she's not a fan of naps, really, but at least sleeps 10-11 hrs at night:) Her mama would sure like it if she got back to some sort of nap during the day, though. That's Miss Lila in as few words as I can do...here were her stats from today: Weight: 18 lbs. 7 oz (10%) Height: 30 inches (75%) Head: 18 cm (75%) I get told all the time how much she looks like Jackson. Apparantly she is going to follow him in the body category as well and be a string bean with a big noggin for now! Which is just fine with me.

Dallas Arboretum

Today the kids and I picked up Memaw and drove out to the Dallas Arboretum. It was the perfect day for it--mid 70s and no wind! After these past few weeks of very windy afternoons spent outside, it was pure bliss. We packed a big blanket and had a picnic lunch right after we got there.

Then we began our walk around and quickly found some really cool castles!

This was the first one...

It was the castle from The Beauty and the Beast. How cool!

How sweet is this? Totally unprompted.

They walked up the drawbridge and checked out the inside of this castle. How old does Jackson look here? At least 15.

After touring the Beast's castle, we walked over to Rapunzel's.

Memaw helped both kids get way up high so that they could see where all that long blonde hair was coming from.

When we walked inside Maddie's hollered, "Oh, look! It's the wicked queen!" Think she's read a fairy tale or two?

There were both prince and princess exits. We found this tiny prince exit pretty funny. Good thing J is such a skinny minny. Otherwise that boy would have been out of luck.

Everyone knows that one of the main reasons mom's take their kids to the Arboretum is to get amazing pictures of them in the flowers. Well, with three of them, this is the best we got.

Looking to the side, zoned out and just plain mad looking!

There's a smile from the little one! Too bad M wasn't looking and J didn't have his eyes open.

You can see I was getting no where with this mission...

so we just moved on to the water fountain. After preventing Lila from taking a mid-afternoon swim...

we headed over to another house. This one was Jack and the Beanstalk. Maddie cracked me up with how she was keeping a close eye on Jackson!

The petting zoo was next to the last house and these kids cannot pass one if given the chance.

They both brushed some goats...

while Lila and I watched.

On our way out we went past Ariel's Under-the-sea domain and found this really cool Sea King's chair. They were not so much impressed by this since they have never even seen the movie. I will try and remedy that soon b/c it's one of my all time favorite Disney movies.

All in all a great afternoon outdoors. Gotta love the spring.