Five!! And A Whole Lot Of Other Things

Emily on the left (polka dots) and Madeleine on the right. For those who may be concerned about equity and/or adequate sugar intake...each child had her own birthday cake on the day of her party. However, not wanting to have cake kicking around the house, the girls shared a cake on the actual day.

Early last month Madeleine and Emily celebrated their fifth birthdays! I had no idea "5" was such a big deal, but I swear to God there has not been this much fuss over the girls since their initial arrival. Their pediatrician gave them a goody bag with stickers, games, a book, etc. (Although, this is a new doctor/practice, so I don't know if the bag is an annual event or linked to a milestone birthday). The actual day was a rather big deal at school and we had lots of visitors over the month for which we stretched the birth"day"s.

On the magical day, the girls ate cake for breakfast (one day a year isn't going to kill anyone), went to school where they were given gifts and we went to dinner at a dining establishment of their choice (IHOP - contain your jealousy).

Each year I decorate the girls' bedroom door and set out the "correct" number of balloons for each child. This year with five (ten) balloons, it was getting cozy in the car and I'm envisioning this possibly becoming an issue as the numbers climb. Madeleine in the foreground.

Presents from Oma and Opa. Emily on the left and Madeleine on the right.

Madeleine (wearing her birthday dress and crown) being given her gift at preschool by her teacher Miss Judy (the woman is a saint). Each child gets to pick one gift out of the bag.

Emily's turn with the gift bag.

Miss Judy says a prayer and blesses each child (as you can see we took it very seriously). Then all the other children come up and say socially appropriate things (suggestions given if needed) and give the birthday person a hug.

Emily on the left and Madeleine on the right at dinner. Our crowns were worn, with great confidence, all day.

Uncle Paul came for a visit in late February/early March. He single-handedly completed 3 years of yard work, fixed the porch railing, washed the siding, painted the deck railing (I painted half - but only because I don't mind painting as much as all the other stuff he did), etc. (sounds like a lot of fun). However, his work was not the primary focus around here - what mattered was he was here for the girls' "real birthday", for which he gave them a bird feeder. He even painted it to match Emily and Madeleine's house.

Uncle Paul shows Madeleine (green) and Emily (yellow) how to mix cement for the new porch railing post.

Walking around on chalk drawings Uncle Paul drew on the driveway.

Madeleine in the background and Emily with Skeeter's toy - trying to "make him dance too".

The Monday after Uncle Paul left we had our ballet "performance". Apparently, the teacher isn't really into parent participation (as in she covers the studio windows so you don't see class at all) and grudgingly lets parents watch one class each year. Our pictures did not turn out to be the greatest....so, above is a backstage pass, pre-performance, photo.

One random day, Emily came downstairs laughing and informed me (with underwear on her head) that she was a snowgirl! Madeleine followed suit and after I got them off to school - I put clothing back in drawers.

Emily Snowgirl
Madeleine Snowgirl

Grandpa and Grandma arrived in mid-March. Madeleine and Emily waited to have their birthday parties with their friends until the grandparents were here to partake in the celebrations. We are once again in debt to the Balloon Lady who successfully entertained the entire preschool class for a significant amount of time.

Both girls wanted a princess theme (shocking). Emily chose to focus more on Cinderella whereas Madeleine was a bit more inclusive toward a selection of Disney princesses. It was nice to have help with the cakes this year. Grandma even figured out how to get photos of the respective princesses on their cakes and thought to back the photos with wax paper to eliminate photo paper chemicals getting on the cakes.

Madeleine's castle cake with Princess Madeleine in the tower.

Madeleine's end of the table.

Emily's carriage cake with Princess Emily riding in the carriage.

Emily's end of the table.

Emily with her balloon hat.

Madeleine with her balloon hat.

Grandpa and Grandma left for nearly two weeks in Paraguay, so they were unable to attend the preschool Easter Pageant. Near as I can tell, "the donkey" was the star of the show. Emily was a "woman at the tomb" and Madeleine was a disciple. When I asked her what a disciple did, I was told "I walk with Jesus and get the donkey". I told "Jesus's" mom about this. She asked him what Jesus did and was told "Walk with the disciples (all short 'i' sounds) and get the donkey". The pageant went off without a hitch and was blessedly uneventful. Miss Judy told me during the Christmas pageant of '98 (I believe) Mary got a bit miffed with Joseph and a custody battle ensued. The tragic (although to my mind hysterically funny) outcome was the sorrowful decapitation of Baby Jesus!

In other theology-related news...The girls were told about Jesus dying on the cross at preschool (Don't even get me started). I asked what they had been told, Madeleine - "Just that he got on the cross and died." Emily asked if I knew how they got him on the cross and I asked her if she knew. You bet. "They said, 'Come here Jesus. Come here and get on this cross and all of your wishes will come true.' So he did, and they killed him." Okay.

Disciple Madeleine in blue and Woman at the Tomb Emily in green (still with the My Little Pony tattoo on her arm from the Balloon Lady at her birthday party!)

Emily and Madeleine (purple) decorating a bush in the yard with Easter eggs. The house at the end of the street does this every year with one of their trees, therefore....

Madeleine (l) and Emily (r) with their eggs at the school Easter Egg hunt.

Grandma and Grandpa flew back in on Good Friday. This means they got in on egg dying, Easter itself and Spring Break (which ended up being a rather busy week).

Emily (pink) and Madeleine playing in the sand at Yorktown.


Emily (stripes) and Madeleine on the ferry on the way to Chippokes Plantation State Park.

Madeleine driving the tractor at the Farm and Forestry Musuem.

Emily giving the tractor a spin.

Learning about harvesting peanuts from one of the park rangers.

Madeleine milking a cow at the Children's Museum of Richmond.

Banker Emily beginning her career at C-MOR.

This past Tuesday night was the Annual Art Show at preschool. The whole family got dressed-up and had a great time seeing all of the gorgeous artwork.

Madeleine with her blue ribbon piece.

Emily with her blue ribbon artwork.