Madeleine's Ninth Birthday

First off, let's just get this out of the way: I can't believe I have a nine-year-old daughter. Nine! For some reason her turning nine has been a hard to digest number. It just seems so old (kid-wise).

But today is the little girl's birthday. Today she is, in fact, nine-years-old. If you're interested, her birthday story is here. Today the neighborhood children will come over for cupcakes and lemonade in our backyard (if anyone who is not a neighbor and would like to come, just give me a call and let me know!) and tonight, as a family, we will pour over Madeleine's baby book and reminisce about her birth.

Yesterday, though, we celebrated the event, one day early. In attendance were grandparents, a great aunt, aunts, uncles, cousins and godparents who were all gracious enough to make what was, for some, a two hour trip. It was such a perfect day.

On the way home from church we stopped to pick up a large balloon bouquet. A few made it outside, but most loomed over the food table.



By mid-afternoon we were ready to eat Madeleine's birthday request: BBQ ribs and sweet corn (and a lot else too, obviously).





The beautiful weather allowed us to take our heaping plates in the backyard and eat in the sunshine (good thing, too, since ribs are messy!).

Later we came in for cake.



Can you see the horse in the middle of the cake? Ace of Cakes I am not but, still, I thought it was pretty cool.



All in all a very nice day. Happy Birthday, NINE-year-old Madeleine!