She's Two!!!

It's hard to believe another whole year has already gone by!!!
To start off this special day we did Madeline's favorite thing - playing at the park :-) Mom tried to capture a few good pictures while she was playing and this is how they turned out: Pretty good - but it's not hard when you have such a cutie to work with :-)
For lunch Grandma Judy, Aunt Melanie and Great-Grandma Jen came up to help us celebrate! We drove up to Daddy's work and he met us too :-) While we were waiting for our order Madeline got to open a few gifts. She loved them all... A pink cup with her name on it A heart book, a purple shovel, a bucket and a beach ball from Great-Grandma Jen and a musical Little Einstiens book from Mom & Dad! The restaurant gave her a gift too - dessert!
It was HUGE!!! We let her go at it by herself for a little while, but it took all of us to finish it off :-)
Later that night she opened her birthday package from Grandpa and Grandma Frantz. Once she got through all of the paper she found an animal puzzle and 12 number puzzles! The other package had a basketball hoop in it - we'll have to wait for mommy and daddy to put this one together before we can play with it!
Thank you everyone!!!
What a great birthday :-)

Birthday Pictures

Today we took Madeline in to get her 2 year pictures taken... They turned out great!

Let the Celebration Begin!

Today Godfather Nick and Kate came into town to celebrate Madeline's 2nd birthday! They won't be able to be here on Monday or next Saturday for her party, but Madeline has no problem starting the celebrating a little early :-)
In the morning we went to the park and did some swinging. Madeline gave Uncle Nick some knuckles (her new "thing") for pushing her... Then she showed him how she can climb up and down the steps - he was quite impressed! Finally, Nick, Kate and Melanie helped her navigate the snake - high fives all around for that one :-) After all that playing we had to pry Madeline off of the equipment
(she'd stay there all day if we let her) and headed to the local hot dog drive-in for lunch. Then went home and took a nap!
For dinner we grilled out on the patio and ate birthday cupcakes!
Madeline LOVED the frosting :-) After the cupcakes Madeline got to open her card and present from Nick and Kate. Her very own cooking set... this may be a preview of other presents yet to come ;-)
Isn't it great that they're made of metal?!?!
They make WAAAAAY more noise this way :-) Thanks Uncle Nick and Kate! You obviously get some Eskimo kisses for this one!!!

Playdate at Bryant Lake Park

Toady we met some of Mommy's high school friends for a playdate at the park. All of the other little kids were girls too! There were so many things to climb on at the park, but the girls seemed to like playing hide and seek with the stroller to be just as amusing... Where's Lauren?... There she is! Little Molly is a too young to climb around on her own, but we're sure she'll join in just as soon as she can :-) Climbing up the steps and going down the slide were also a big hit :-) We can't wait for our next playdate near the end of July !

Tailgating at the St. Paul Saints Game

Today we met a bunch of Mommy's cousins in Saint Paul to tailgate and watch the Saints play some baseball! We set up our chairs in the parking lot, opened up our tailgates and munched on some snacks. Dad got the grill going and made us some brats. We all ate a lot, especially Madeline - look at that belly! We hope we can do this again , we had so much fun :-)

Fun at Grandama Judy's

Today we spent the day playing outside at Grandma Judy's while Daddy worked on his motorcycles. We found all sorts of pretty flowers. Purple ones, white ones and pink ones... After we picked a few we decided to show Daddy our treasures! He liked them too :-) The rest of the morning was spent running around and capturing the many faces of Madeline... After lunch and a nap we went to cousin Bradley's High School Graduation Party. A great Day!