Happy 3rd Birthday Madison

Today was Madison's birthday, hard to believe it really, I can't believe she is 3. Of all my pregnancies her was the easiest, I wish all my pregnancies had been that easy I might have actually had more kids (just kidding). She was my biggest baby at 6lbs 8oz (woohoo an actual giant -LOL) However she continues to amaze me, she has always been independent, she never needed me to snuggle her as a baby (although now she does), she's always wanted to do things on her own, in her own way. I always said she was the mix of Jordan and Kaleigh and she is as independent as Kaleigh, but almost as sensitive as Jordan. She always asks if Michael and I are best friends, I guess she wants to know, not sure why maybe because we do almost everything together as a family. She wears her heart on her sleave she is always saying, I love you mommy, I love daddy, I love Jordan, etc. (until recently it was always Joran and Kaya and Jadee - now it's Jordan, Kaywee and Jaden)

She likes to crawl into our bed at 7:15 and wants to snuggle with us but after about 10 minutes gets restless and wants breakfast.

Of all my kids she is by far the biggest. She ranks at the 90th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight, they are estimating she will be about 5'8" way taller than me, but we'll see how much she actually wants to snuggle when she's bigger than me.LOL..

Madison Age 2

Madison Age 1

All Eyes.

My sweet baby

Today for her birthday we took her to the National Museum of American History we wanted to something fun with the kids that was out of the norm, so this was both fun and educational.
They have this section that's very hands on and lets the kids see how toys can actually teach things as well as science experiments, the girls made instruments out of Popsicle sticks and rubber bands, here Madison and Kaleigh were on an exhibit on how wind effects a sail.
This was awesome, it was all about balance, you had to build blocks evenly around this table to keep it from turning over, of course once this little boy got to it, the blocks were down, he loved it.

This was outside the Spark Lab where they have Science in America, it was great because it had things to do that the kids have been doing in co-op, like the electricity experiment. I wish we got more pictures in this room but the kids were so excited they needed adult hands to help with different things.
He like the giant magnifying glass, they had a section that was for kids 5 and under it was great for him.
We were able to see all the presidents in a time line from Washington to Obama they liked that and they had a podium that you could stand behind and pretend to be the president and give your speech. This is also where they had all the first ladies dresses displayed but we didn't get pictures of that, I was really bummed, but again the kids were great but it was hard stopping too long for some displays.
This was a huge doll house, it had 23 rooms, I wish I could remember the name of the woman who built it, but it was a big hit.
This was the transportation area, it was awesome, all the kids except Madison (it was a little noisy for her) loved it. It had everything from the first wagons to trains to automobiles.
The first trailer that families used for vacation until the Great Depression when they became the first trailer homes (I never knew that).

One of the first school buses.

I had to take a picture of the station wagon, too many memories not to.

Riding a subway that actually had video playing in the background of people talking on the train and actually coming to a stop, that Madison really liked.

There were so many fun things to see and do I wish we could have taken picture of everything. Including the simulation ride (Madison and Jordan didn't like that - Kaleigh and Jaden loved it). Having just seen the movie Julie and Julia, I got to see Julia Childe's Kitchen, and Kaleigh loved the Ruby Red Slippers from the Wizard of Oz, but everyone agreed that the mask from the Lion King was a little scary for them.

It was a great day for Madison and a good school day. We are covering the American Revolution this week and we were able to see pictures and uniforms and puppets saying "Taxation without Representation" it was excellent. They got to ask lots of questions and I wish we could have spent more of the day just in that part.

In total we spent 4 and half hours there and we could have spent more time, we skipped a couple of exhibits because by 3:00 everyone was getting tired.

Although I have to say we have been to the museums on the weekends and it was chaos, going early in the morning, in the middle of the week was perfect, the museum was practically empty, it was nice not to have to worry about getting crushed in the crowd or losing a child who just wants to see an exhibit and can't see because there are too many people in front of her. It was really great, I can't wait to go back and actually the kids have already asked when we can go again.