Tiny turns 1

I love birthdays.

I may have rushed Christmas a bit, because I was so excited for her birthday.

Maybe I was a bit more excited than usual

 because I was able to keep her alive for a year

or maybe because I just really love cake,

but I had been planning her birthday for months.

We started the day off with breakfast in bed. 

I made pancakes with cream cheese whipped cream and berries.

It was so delicious and it ended up tasting like cake.

(I forgot to take a picture before we stared eating it, but here's one before Madeleine put her hand in it.)

We let Madeleine have four or five bites before stripping her down and putting her on the floor.

We were expecting her to dive right in with her hands,

but she sat there trying to use the fork for a while.

Montessori win!!

Matt plopped her in the bath and we got ready to go to Philadelphia.

Right as we were going to leave the UPS guy showed up at the door with two huge boxes for Madeleine.

We figured we could open them before we left.

We opened the first box and there was a toy doll house. 

Madeleine was so thrilled she climbed on top of the box and wouldn't let us take it out.

She was even able to punch a hole through the plastic!

There aren't any photos of us in Philadelphia, because I forgot my camera card.

It was wonderful though.

We stopped by IKEA really fast for lunch and a birthday present,

before driving home and walking around Princeton's campus.

When we got home, we quickly fed Tiny before eating cake.

We had made castle cakes for her birthday.

We used left over whipped cream from our breakfast to put under the cakes

so that it looked like the castles were sitting on clouds.

Matt had been reading Madeleine this book for the last few months.

It's a wonderful story, so we decided to make cakes inspired by it.

We lit the candle again and after blowing it out, we all dug in.

Madeleine just started by eating all of the towers off the castle.

After cake it was time for presents.

Most of the presents she got on Christmas from us were from the dollar store.

I saved all my favorites for her birthday.

She started getting better at the whole unwrapping thing.

(I got her a crayon roll and a puzzle both off of etsy.)

 But my very favorite was still to come.

We stuck it on the floor.

She knew exactly what to do.
As soon as she had pulled that tissue paper out, she grabbed the bear straight out.

But see this isn't just any bear.

It was made by this local stay at home mom.

She makes bears and quilts from baby clothes.

Madeleine and I went over and dropped off Madeleine's newborn clothes a week or so ago.

We got to pick it up on Monday.

It's so beautiful, and I loved seeing Madeleine's newborn clothes being used.
They are full of so many memories that happened a year ago.

I might do a whole blog post on it by itself.
I love it that much, and thankfully Madeleine does too.

She has been carrying it around nonstop.

Matt then finished reading Castle in the Air and put her to bed, before putting together her last gift.

We actually woke Madeleine up when he was done putting it together.

We were pretty excited. :)

Happy Birthday Madeleine.

We love you!