Happy 4th Birthday Madeline!!

We've been back a week and found that both blogger AND youtube are blocked in China so it takes TIME to get the posts up and running. This post is worth it though as it's all about Maddie's 4th birthday!

She woke up just a bit cranky but came around a bit and surprisingly did not want others to know that it was her birthday. We went swimming with Cooper in the morning, but she didn't want to tell him it was her birthday. She only wanted mom and dad to know. Things that make you go, hmmmmmm......

We went to the Links' store and Maddie decided to buy a chocolate cake with chocolate icing! Between the three of us, I'm pretty sure we got chocolate in every nook and cranny in the kitchen! Maddie thoroughly enjoyed licking the bowl and I think she's coming around to the camp of believers in batter being better than the actual cake. As Maddie decorated the cake, she would put one spoonful on the cake and one spoonful in her mouth... she explained the pattern to me through her chocolate teeth!

We got the sprinkles out and she decorated away... again with sprinkles rolling in every nook and cranny in the kitchen but she was so happy! I had brought back things from our "American home" and Maddie put those on the cake... 4 candles, 3 pinwheels, and 4 toothpick clowns.
I think Maddie was more interested in the decorating of the cake rather than the eating of the cake because after blowing out the candles and taking a single bite, she declared that she was ready for her presents!

She loved her new chapstick and put it in her make-up bag after trying it out on daddy - she said he needed a little color! She loved the finger paints... she loved the new Hello Kitty backpack for school... she loved the new Mac game that she played with this summer in the Mac Store... but she is a girl so most of all, I think she loved her Barbie!

She getting quicker at opening her presents! At Christmas time it took 3 hours to open 3 presents. This time it only took 1.5 hours to open her presents! The please and thank you's were flowing freely and she was one happy little four year old girl!!