Evil Madeline

Maddie will make this face where she puts her head down and then looks up at you with just her eyes. Brad caught it on camera while at lunch on Friday.

Feelin' Artsy!

The end of January and month of February was a very "artsy" time in my life apparently. Recently we discovered a place that was called Sips-n-Strokes, it has since changed names to Uptown Art Uncorked, we prefer the first name. Basically you pick a class based on the painting you want to create, pay your money, receive a blank canvas, instructors walk you through creating the picture, and 2-3 hours later... Voila! Art!!

Oh and did I mention you get to drink wine while you do it?! Good times!!

I first took my mom for her birthday, we painted beach houses. 

 I went back the next night with my GNO group and we made a Fleur-De-Lis. (See the wine in the picture!)

And finally a group from school (including our principal!) went and painted a field of poppies. A lot of us have used the pictures of each step for writing lessons (minus the ones that include the wine) as a way to show sequencing, developing details, etc. So the whole thing has become multi-purpose.

If you haven't been you should try it, we had a great time each time we went. I hung the Beach Houses in our bathroom... still searching for locations for the other two, but I love having something I did!

An Early Easter on Meadow Lane

We were invited to an Easter Egg hunt by the lovely Anna (the maker of the personalized shirts you see the kiddos wearing in most holiday related pictures). This was the first real egg hunt for Madeline and she did pretty well. I would spy and egg and call out to her, she would come running and put it in her basket. Other things also went into the basket... like dandelion blooms and empty candy wrappers... we'll have to work on those later.

 Anxiously waiting for the hunt to begin. 

She only wore the ears for about 2 seconds. 

Our hunting partners, Ellie and Ashtyn. 

On your mark, Get set, GO! 

 She's on the move!

 Found one!

 Checking in to see what Lucy found. 

 Examining her loot. 

She was excited for some Skittles!

Ready to roll!

Last night I told Madeline, "Let's go to Lowe's." I needed to get some flowers and some weed spray. Without missing a beat she ran into the playroom and grabbed HER keys and phone. This kid...

OCD Much?

Madeline loves to have things lined up just so!

All caught up!

Once again, I am all caught up on posts! Whew!! Just keep going back... I had to start at Halloween. :-)

Christmas!

Madeline exceeded my expectations on Christmas morning. She woke up in a great mood, like usual, and loved watching us turn on the tree in her room. She said "Oooh!" like she did every time a tree was turned on this year. She noticed the present Santa had left for her under there and then followed us out to the big tree in the living room. Usually she gets cranky right away if she doesn't eat, but the minute she saw what Santa had left for her.. she didn't think about food again for some time!

  A view of the tree after Santa came.

 

 Turner found his and went straight under the bed, silly dog!

Stockings were filled!

 Merry Christmas!

 A present from Santa

 Straight for the cozy coupe!

 Knocked other presents out of the way to get there!

 Loving it!

 Actually got out of it to open her stocking.

 Hollywood! And back in the cozy coupe...

 She noticed that Santa drank all his milk (unlike her) and ate some of the cookies.

 Playing with new toys at the Grandparents' house.

 Snack break! (What she does best!)

 Back at it with Grandma Beth and Grandma Jan.

 Playing puzzles with Grandpa Dan.

 Not sure about the Sit-n-Spin, yet...

Playing, playing, playing!