Today Maddy turned four. There can't be a friends party this year, but the family gathered to celebrate. To make it seem special, an ice cream truck arrived. To make it as safe as possible, Leon was the only one who interacted with the server. Maddy was quite excited, and we all enjoyed great ice cream from a Rochester local ice cream store. Here are the three cuties posing for me before their ice cream.
Then it was on to opening presents. I don't think I've ever seen anyone as excited as Maddy who exclaimed over each and every gift. "It's what I've always wanted!" "Look, Mom, it's a rainbow dress!"
And, of course, there was the birthday cake. Maddy insisted she blow out the candles without help, and proudly announced, "That's the first time I've ever done it all by myself." Maddy took off her birthday dress so it wouldn't get dirty during dinner.
Here's the card I made for her. When I saw this slimline die for a peek-a-boo windows by Lawn Fawn, I knew I'd find plenty of uses for it. I ended up using a number of stamp sets to complete it. Many of the images came from a Hero Arts Monthly kit from December 21018. I've only purchased two of the Hero Art kits, but they both had wonderful images, and come with the dies and lots of embellishments.
I started by using the Simon Says "Falling Stars" stencil in a light pink and also stenciled the business envelope as well. I masked around the three flaps and then stamped images on each flap: Hero Arts fairy, sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Balloon Bash," and the rainbow and cloud Simon Says "Best Ever", and the cake with four candles from My Favorite Things, "Birthday Bears."
Under the flaps, all the stamps came from the Hero Arts sets. Everything was colored with Copic markers. I added clear glitter pen to the fairies' wings and the icing on the birthday cake. Three small purple pearls were added to the flowers.
This turned out to be a great sentiment for a slimline card. It's from the Winnie and Walter "Wish Big" set, and there's glitter on all the alphabet flags.
Maddy's card turns out to be a good entry for the current AAA Birthday Challenge: 3-D.
We got home from Sarah's last night so we'd be here for Maddy's birthday. Making the trip during the pandemic seemed a bit daunting, but driving straight through didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it would--helped, of course, by good weather. We stopped only for gas, to change drivers, and to get lunch which we ate in the car. Not our preferred way to travel, but as safe as we could make it. It took us about 11 hours each way. Once we were there, we stayed at home, as do Sarah and her family. They order most of their groceries, although Adam did go to the store once or twice while we were there. It was great to see them, and the grandchildren were thrilled to have us there, and sad to see us leave. It was also good to give Sarah and Adam some relief as they both work from home as well as entertaining and trying to provide enriching activities for Caleb and Hannah. It will take me a few days to settle back into routines here, but it's good to be home.
