{pretty, happy, funny, real} Happy Birthday Madeline!

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life...

This past Wednesday Madeline turned eleven.  The passage of time truly amazes me.  I still vividly remember the day she was born and the days surrounding her birthday.  Maybe I remember those days so well because she was born less than seventeen hours after the chaos of the September 11th attacks.  Eleven years later and it's still very hard for me to separate her birthday from the day before.  In fact, chances are if you ask me her birthday I'll tell you 9/11 and then have to quickly correct myself.  

{pretty}

The birthday girl just before heading out to catch the bus.

Our snazzy 11 year old posing with her cake and gifts.

Three pretty girls all looking at the camera at the same time!

 {happy}

This has to be one of the better whole family pictures we've managed to get of us recently and that makes me happy.

Madeline was so very happy when she opened the dress she has been wanting for over two months.  My mom and dad were certainly very happy to see how thrilled she was with their gift.

{funny}

Madeline is always asking us to bake with her, and she does the same anytime she spends the night at my parents' house.  So my dad thought it would be a good gag gift to buy her a box of snicker doodle cookie mix.  Madeline LOVED it!  How many eleven year olds get that excited about a box of cookie mix?

{real}

I am so proud of this giant giant cupcake cake.Over the years I have had little to no success at baking cakes for Madeline's birthday.  Something ALWAYS goes wrong and has ever since her very first birthday.  This year, everything came together beautifully.  Sure Bryan had to run out to the store and get me more eggs, and I had to run to Target twice for cake mix (forgot to buy two boxes first time around) and I had to make a last minute run to Wal-Mart for sprinkles, but the baking and decorating went incredibly well.  Best of all, Madeline loved her cake.  Oh, and it was pretty tasty, too!

Happy 11th Birthday Madeline!  We can't wait to see what this next year brings!

Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more snapshots of contentment.