State Fair of Texas!

We went to the fair the first Saturday it was open and had a fantastic time!! We got there when it opened and did all the most popular kid things before it got too crowded.

Waiting in line for the ferris wheel...

The ferris wheel is SO tall and it was neat to look out at the city...

The little hands on the farm exhibit is really cool. She did it last year too but had a better idea of what everything meant this year. You are the farmer and you plant and pick crops, milk cows, feed chickens, etc. Then you take everything by tractor to sell at the farmers market. You are paid $1 and get to buy something from the store!

This mama kangaroo was my favorite part of the petting zoo. She had a baby in her pouch!! I've never seen that before! You can see the baby's tail sticking out...

GRRRR...

There was a rapper for kids that was very entertaining! Here is M jumping up and down and dancing...
FREE ice cream cones! The fair is ridiculously expensive, so the ice cream cones were a much appreciated treat!!
Big Tex!
Last year Madelyn only rode one ride...the whale ride pictured below, and Clint had to ride with her. This year she was ALL ABOUT the rides and wanted to ride by herself, if she was tall enough! Wow, she is getting big! We had to drag her out of the ride area when we were all out of money! She even wanted to ride the crazy rides that go upside down! She wasn't tall enough for these though, thankfully!
She went on a kiddie roller coaster!

I think it's the law that you can't leave the fair without indulging in (at least) one corn dog!
another ride...
After 6 hours at the fair, we saw a very unusual site in our backseat...

Lubbock

My parents had extra tickets to a Tech game, so we went home for the weekend. Madelyn had fun tailgating and attending the game. She is quite the sports fan and even used the binoculars! She spent the entire half time trying to find her old babysitter, Emily, who is in the band. That was hard work, they all look alike! pretty sure we never really found her...

Madelyn got an early birthday present from my parents...a scooter and helmet! She immediately took it for a spin and spent most of the morning outside with it.

You can never be too careful on the potty ;)

Madelyn Turns...

She had the best day...from the moment she woke up until 11:00 that night when she finally went to bed! She awoke to find a donut in the shape of a 3 along with flowers and a balloon from Daddy...
We spent the day hanging out with my parents and Clint's dad, who came in town to celebrate with her. We also watched the UT/OU game, which didn't go so well.

Then it was time for her PARTY!!
here's a shot of the place...
The birthday girl with her hello kitty ribbon "so everybody knows it's my birthday!"
Madelyn and Corinne, her best friend from school!
Lincoln, M, and Corinne...
The girls that led the party were awesome and kept everyone entertained. This pic was during circle time. The instructor said "This is a party!" and Madelyn immediately lifted her dress like this...she knows how to party :)
singing songs, etc
playing a game...

This was really cool! It was a zipline, and a bucket hung down for the kids to ride/fly in! They LOVED it!! Madelyn got to go twice since it was her birthday!

My Gym was really good about singling Madelyn out and making her feel special the whole time! They hung all kinds of swings from the ceiling for everyone to play on, then we sang happy birthday to Madelyn while she got to swing all by herself and everyone watched!

Clint tried out one of the swings!

Marchand family...
The girl loves to hang!
They played a cool game with the parachute. Each child took turns running around in a circle on top of the parachute while everyone else shook it up and down. When they fell, everyone yelled "Wipeout" and your turn was over. (The instructor would pull really hard when the child ran by her and they would fall every time! It was really fun, we had some pretty big wipeouts! And it's funny to watch someone fall, so everyone was laughing :) )
Madelyn's turn! She shook her dress the whole time!

friends...Lexi, Anna, Corinne

puppet show...monkeys swinging from a tree!

the kids really got into it! At the end, they had Madelyn be brave and go put the crocodile back in it's cage (which was behind a closed door)...
and she came out on this super cool motorcycle!! They played "Isn't she lovely" while she drove around all of her friends!
Silly faces!
Hello Kitty cake! It was gorgeous and delicious too. It was homemade!
about to blow out her candles...

Cake, ice cream, and cookies!
David (Pop) and Eric

the party ended with bubbles! It was perfect! I couldn't have been happier with how everything turned out! And we just had to show up at the same time as our guests :)
Popio (my dad) and Pop (Clint's dad)
Clint's mom (Nana), and Clint's sister and her kids drove in for the party also! They came back to the house to open presents!
She got so many great things...thank you everyone!
trying out her new purplicious sleeping bag!