A low-key birthday

By the time Madeline's actual birthday rolled around this year, she had already been to Disney and had a party.  So we decided on the actual day, we would keep things a bit low-key.  While Patrick ran some errands in the morning, I snapped a few photos of the dumplings together.  Madeline is sporting a new top I made her.  My sister picked up this gorgeous Amy Butler and Sandi Henderson fabric for me *cough cough* a long time ago.  Thankfully the pattern I wanted to use it for called for the same yardage for the next size up.  I adore this pattern, as does Madeline...for its twirl power.

Once Patrick returned home, it was time to head out to lunch at one of his favorite-y favorite spots on the beach.  Being the homeschooling mama that I am, I try to get the kids to read in the car whenever possible.  Since we were going on two straight days of no school (the kids were sick the day before), I had Madeline read to me while we drove to the restaurant.  I think she preferred playing with her gum.

We ended up getting to the restaurant later than we wanted to. Our timing couldn't have been better though, as a table opened up by the window.  I know you can't see it in the images below because I was exposing the images for Madeline and not the background.  However, the ocean was right outside the window.  Although it was rainy, the view was still hard to beat.

Once we wrapped up lunch, we headed over to my favorite cupcake shop.  The dumplings picked out some candy while Patrick picked out a bunch of cupcakes.  I had wanted to make Madeline some cupcakes and a mini cake for her birthday, but I was also feeling under the weather the day before.  So I had to scratch that idea.

After finally making it home for some downtime and dinner, we regrouped and headed back out to the one place Madeline had been asking for all.day.  Chuck-E-Cheese.  The two of them couldn't stop smiling.  They had a fabulous time.  I didn't drag my big girl camera with me, though I did snap a few shots with my iPhone that I will have to share if I ever get around to doing an iPhone post.

Anyway, I just can't believe our girl is 5 years old.  It's hard to believe that three years ago, we were experiencing quite the adoption paperwork rollercoaster.  Wow.  I don't ever want to go through that again, thankyouverymuch!

Happy 5th birthday, for the umpteenth time Mei Mei Mooster!
We love you like crazycakes!