Birthday Party Day!

Today was an exciting one for Julia: birthday party day!  It was also a bit of a tough day for Madeleine, who, due to a combination of birthday envy and being under the weather, spent a good chunk of the day ruining pictures like this:

Some of the things about which Madeleine had sobbing break-downs:

1.) It's NOT Julia's birthday.  It's HER birthday.  SHE'S the birthday girl.  No, she's NOT gonna go to Julia's party.  Humph.

2.) The kids who were leaving the party before Julia's at Energy Gym took all the goody bags and didn't leave any for Madeleine.  (Despite the fact that these goody bags were not the ones we had brought to give out after Julia's party.)

3.) The kids didn't want Madeleine to play with the parachute during Julia's party, a conclusion Madeleine came to based on the fact that the parachute handle kept slipping out of her hand as she tried to walk around in a circle with the group of kids.  Also based on the fact that she actively left the parachute game to pout and then wound up "locked out" of this fun-looking activity:

Yep.  That lone little creature on the outside of the parachute is a sobbing Madeleine.

4.) She didn't want a cupcake.  Why on earth she didn't want a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting is beyond me, but she found it worth sobbing about.

5.) She wanted a turn wearing Julia's "Happy Birthday" hat during the cupcake-eating, and Julia -- THE BIRTHDAY GIRL -- wasn't willing to share at that moment.

The coveted hat.

6.) Gramps carried the big plastic bag of Julia's presents out to the car as we were gathering our things to leave the party.  Or, according to Madeleine: (sobbing) "Oh no!  Gramps doesn't want us to have any PRESENTS!"

Thankfully, Madeleine was mollified once we got home and the presents were allowed to be opened:

And luckily, there was a gift for Madeleine included in the bunch, given by family friends who had missed Madeleine's party but were able to make it to Julia's.  Even more luckily, Julia did remember her sister's generosity in sharing birthday gifts last month, so Julia has been very kindly returning the gesture.  So even after a bit of birthday jealousy, the girls remain BFFs.