joie de vivre: Super Seven

I know I'm so behind in keeping up with our blog this summer! We've been busy having fun and spending a lot of time as a family -- trying to prepare ourselves for this crazy year we're about to start again!
This year Madeleine was so excited about her birthday! She's been counting down the days and looking forward to opening her gift and having a day that was all about her. :) The night before her birthday, Matt & I decorated after she'd gone to sleep so she would wake up to something special.

That morning she woke up and loved what she saw! She's at the age where she really gets excited about all the little extra things we do for her birthday and it's so fun to do them! The first thing on our birthday girl's agenda was a special daddy-madeleine breakfast at a new bakery near us. It's called the Briar Rose Bakery and it looks like a cottage out of a fairy tale -- curved roof and curved doors with a special little door for kids and even castle-like chairs to sit it! She loved it!

After she and Matt got home it was my turn for some special time with the birthday girl! We had an appointment for a mani/pedi at Glitterbox Salon-- a salon just for little girls. She was so excited about having her nails done and picked blue and pink zebra stripes with glitter for both her fingers and toes.

After a quick stop at Sonic for drinks we headed back home to open gifts. Harrison was about to bust from keeping his gift for her a secret. She'd been bugging him for days to tell her what he'd bought, but he held firm & kept it a secret. Probably, because I'd told him that if he told her what he bought her for her birthday we would take it back and he would have to pick out something else. Since he'd spent a long time considering what to buy and choosing the "perfect" thing he did NOT want to do that! So, she was entirely surprised by his gift. He chose a Ariel & Prince Eric set for her birthday. We are a little short on princes here, so she was very excited!

Then it was on to opening the rest of the gifts! She got some more charms for her Disney charm bracelet, a bag of scrapbook stuff (funky scissors, paper, etc), Tangled Leapster Game & Leapster Camera App, Polly Pocket fairy set, Barbie Airplane to start off.

She wanted a new "sparkly" Bible. And, while I rolled my eyes a bit as I bought it, I have to admit that she's keeping up with it really well and reading it too. She just loves it and it suits her personality perfectly!

Her most favorite gift -- the Tangled Tower. She's been eyeing this in the stores for months, and was so so excited to get it!

After gifts and lunch, we waited for Mimi & Grandad, Sugar & Stewart to arrive to celebrate with us that evening!

Madeleine chose Red Robin for dinner and ate her entire hot fudge sundae they gave her. She wanted us to make sure that they sang to her and loved that moment of being the center of attention. :)

After dinner it was party time! We headed home for cake and ice cream. Since our 2 favorite bakeries were closed that week (from it being the 4th of July week -- boo!) we ended up with a HUGE cake from Sams.