Lillian’s 2nd Birthday

Happy 2nd Birthday Lillian!

Heaven blew every trumpet
And played every horn
On the wonderful, marvelous
Night you were born.
-excerpt from On The Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman

Celebration Weekend

This past weekend could not have gone better! We had a blast celebrating Lillian, enjoying the company of our amazing family and friends, and running running running!

First up on Saturday was Lillian’s birthday party! The day was absolutely beautiful for our backyard soiree. We could have just provided Lillian with some sidewalk chalk and she would have thought it was a great day. But, instead, we gave her sidewalk chalk, a burrito/taco bar, cute decorations, corn hole, lots of music to dance to, and a huge crowd of some really amazing people. She had a total blast, gave out endless hugs, and never stopped dancing! No wonder that she slept until 10:45 the following morning!

As worn out as I was after the party, I did not have the pleasure of sleeping in. I did, however, have the pleasure of running 13.1 miles around my lovely city. Seriously, despite the rain, it was lovely, and it couldn’t have been more perfect that ‘Beautiful Day’ by U2 came on my iPod as I rounded the corner to the finish line! I finished with a time of 2:04:56 – I am really proud of that! And while I’m hooked on this running thing, I am granting myself a week off to rest for the first time in 5 months! Then it’s back to training…the Columbus marathon is months away…the big question now is whether I run the half or full?!

Valentine Recap

Isn’t it beautiful?! The sporadic placement of the pinks and purples combined with the thoughtful dots of the heart shape is just genius!

She got a lot of cute cards and Valentine fun in her box! Not shown below, is a princess wand from Olivia that we have already had a ton of fun with!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day from macdonaldbaby.com! We love to celebrate, and what better thing to celebrate than love?! The creative cat in me started to get really excited when I first saw the note on the door of Lillian’s classroom that requested parents bring in a shoebox for Valentine’s Day. Images of a super cute glitter-covered and fur-trimmed box filled my mind and I couldn’t wait to provide Lillian with the most fabulous box for which to receive her valentines! As I paid close attention to the party planning details at school, I got the creeping feeling that maybe this shoebox wasn’t about me. Could it be that these children, who surely cannot be trusted with a glue stick and candy hearts, are to decorate their own shoebox?! Alas, it was a sad day when Ms. Amanda confirmed my suspicions, and I was to bring in a regular shoebox…a beautiful blank canvas.

I immediately threw my creative energy into something that I knew I had control over – Lillian’s valentines for her friends! You can imagine my joy when Brian saw them and raved about how pictures of them MUST go on the blog because they were that good. Despite the devastating cuteness of the these little diddies, I really think that the kids will love them! Lillian has had a blast with them already, when she sees the frog, she says ‘hop’, and makes the appropriate animal noises for the monkey and lion!

Even after completing the gifts for Lillian’s classmates, I had a little bit of creative spunk left in me to shower my coworkers with a little extra love. Yum yum!

ps-the whole shoebox project was redeemed when the comment on Lillian’s Daily Report Card from school on Friday said, “Lillian loved working on her shoebox for Valentine’s Day!” That’s my girl! I might not be able to sleep tonight due the anticipation of seeing her genius creation! I promise to post a picture of it after the festivities have ended!