Happy Birthday, Madeleine!

It's hard to believe that Madeleine, who was 5 months old at the time I started this blog, is now three!  Not that she is really aware of the fact.  As I peeked into her room this morning to see if she was awake, she peered out at me from underneath her covers, then threw them aside with a beaming smile.  I sat down on her bed to wish her a happy birthday, and she once again demonstrated the fact that she has absolutely no idea what her birthday means.

ME: Happy BIRTHDAY, honey!  You're THREE today!
MADELEINE: I am?  But why am I three?
ME: Because it's your birthday!  (snuggling in next to her and kissing her) Happy birthday, honey!
MADELEINE: Happy birthday, Mommy.  Mommy, it's YOUR birthday TOO!
JULIA: (coming upstairs and into Madeleine's room) Hi, Madeleine!
ME: Julia, do you have anything you want to say to Madeleine?
JULIA: Happy birthday, Madeleine!
MADELEINE: And Julia, you have to say happy birthday to Mommy, too.

I guess Madeleine and I are both three today.  Or four.

I sent her off to school with her horrible muffins, and when I came to pick her up, she was aglow with birthday love, wearing the construction paper crown her teachers had made.  There were only three muffins left in the tupperware container, so hopefully the kids found them a little more tolerable than my children did.  Madeleine had certainly had her doubts about that, though; as I drove her into school this morning, she told me: "Mommy, uh, I don't think any kids will LIKE those muffins, because...CUPCAKES are just easier."  I don't know if she could heap more praise on my pumpkin muffins if she tried.

Julia had a half day at her school today, so shortly after picking up Madeleine, we went to retrieve Julia.  I let the kids stay and play on Julia's school playground for a half hour or so, and then we departed for a special birthday outing at Belkin Lookout Farm.  The kids enjoyed their apple picking adventure, starting with a train ride out to the orchard:

Both girls were thrilled to bear the responsibility of picking apples off the tree, especially Madeleine, who has heretofore been a little too young to participate in this aspect of apple picking:

In fact, I began quietly chucking apples back onto the ground after awhile, as our bags were more than full enough and the girls were so ecstatic to continue bringing me their newest picks.  Luckily, I was able to finally divert their attention from apples by mentioning that we had yet to visit the play area, so before long they were hard at play on the playground, in the bouncy house, and on the hay piles:

It had begun to rain during our playground visit, but Madeleine, already covered in mud and wet-headed, did not let the weather deter her.  As I attempted to guide the children towards the line for the returning train, Madeleine wailed heart-brokenly, "But...WAAAAIT!  I need to FIND something to PLAAAAAY!"  I was able to convince her that we had truly tried out all the available play equipment, and the promise of a second ride on the train was enough to get her cooperating again.

The birthday is not over, of course; we have yet to give our Rowe family gifts to Madeleine, and we'll be going out to dinner at the restaurant of her choice, but for the moment, the girls are cozy and snug in pjs, watching "My Little Pony" before the excitement picks back up again.

On a different topic, Julia has finally gained enough confidence through her classroom assignments of sounding out words for her writing folder that she actually attempted the same feat at home.  Is there an end in sight to my spelling out things like "Beezus Baby-sits Ramona" letter-by-letter for all her home-made books??  Last night, as I put Madeleine to bed, Julia began a brand new book, without any spelling help from me.  Blog readers, behold the newest Julia Rowe novel, "The Go Stop Love":

And while her sounded-out words are definitely missing some essential vowels, I was still able to understand what she was trying to write, so she's certainly on the right track. 

Unfortunately, this is as far as Julia got in her new book, because by the time she had written this much, I was done with Madeleine and ready to put Julia to bed.  Man, she left things on such a cliff-hanger.  Now I'll never find out what the little girl l.