マディソン絵日記/Madison Iwai Says: Happy 3rd Birthday Madison!!/３歳の誕生日おめでとう!!

Her actual birthday fell on a Tuesday this year but Tuesday is Dave's college class day so we originally thought not to make a big deal about it BUT since her pre-school class(Guppies) had a birthday party for Madison we knew she would be aware of her birthday(plus we told her happy birthday when she woke up that morning, etc...) and so Dave picked up an ice cream cake to eat together on the actual birthday night... Dave was able to come home around 8 just as we finished our Ofuro(bath) time and we were able to surprise her together!

今年のマディソンの誕生日は火曜日でした、でもデイブの大学院のクラスが毎週火曜日なので何も言わなければきっと知らないで土曜日のビッグパーティーまで持つかなーと思っていたら大違い：）マディソンの保育園でしっかりお祝いをして貰えるらしく、しかも朝私達が誕生日おめでとうって言ったので、計画急遽変更です。デイブがマディソンに内緒でアイスクリームケーキを買って冷凍庫に入れて置いてくれたので、デイブが家に着くなりすぐに家族３人だけでお祝いする事が出来ました！

Then Saturday was the BIG Birthday Party! Dave and I both took Friday off to get ready... Wow so glad we did it because we had so much to do that day and got a lot of things done... I had homemade lemonade on our menu but our lemon tree only had about 5 lemons I can use so I called Carmen Reeves(Spanish speaking preacher's wife) who lives about a minute away and has a lemon tree to see if I can come by and pick some of her lemons... Even though she was super busy that day trying to get funeral meals ready she said sure so I got there right away and went lemon picking...
They actually have two lemon trees and both of them were covered with yellow big lemons so that was really cool...:-) Hope ours will look like that next year...
そしてその土曜日はお友達と盛大にお祝いするマディソンのミッキーマウスクラブハウスパーティーです！！とっても盛大過ぎてデイブと私は金曜日仕事を休んで準備をしなきゃいけませんでした。でも、そのお陰でなんとか全部準備出来たんだけどね：）私たちのレモンの木になっているレモンを使って手作りのレモネードを作る予定でいたんだけど、やっぱりレモン５個じゃぜんぜんだめだ〜と言う事で、近くに住んでいるカーメンのお宅へレモン摘みに行ったりと、あ〜疲れる！でも大きなレモンの木が２本あるリーブス家の木にはレモンがたーくさん成っていて、ちょっとうらやましいなー。来年私達の木もあんな風になるんだろうなーと期待満々です：）

Our theme was "Madison's Clubhouse"...of course a play off of Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse, so we had four different stations set-up where the kids could hand over a token from their Minnie or Mickey bucket and compete in the game to win a prize. We had bowling and toss-the-ball-in-the-bucket going on in the family room and fishing and basketball in the master bedroom. It may seem a bit weird to have one's master bedroom as the focal point of a child's birthday party, but this is no ordinary master bedroom :-) and the space worked quite well as you will see. On Saturday morning Brian and Kim were able to come early so while they played with Madison we finished up everything for the party...
We had buddies from her bible class, her pre-school and of course Liam and I think we had about 40 people that showed up for Madison:-)
このカードを見ての通り、マディソンのパーティーのテーマはミッキーマウスクラブハウスでお祭りみたいに４、５カ所に変わったゲームを設置して子供達は貰っ多コインを使ってゲームに挑戦、そして景品が貰えるという計画...　ボーリング、ボールをバケツに入れる、ミニバスケ、そして魚釣り...私達のベッドルームがとても広いのでそこも使ってゲーム...：）マディソンのお客さんは、保育園で仲の良いお友達、教会の同じクラスのお友達...　そしてもちろんリアムの合計約４０人：）

I have to say this $5 fishing game was a huge hit for all the kids... The two boys in the below picture fought for this game later on...

なんでか知らないけど、このたった５ドルの魚釣りのゲームがみんなのお気に入り！下の写真に写っている男２人は、最後には取り合い間でする事に...

Madison checking out her prizes...
景品の確認中...

Madison's Play area was also a hit with the kids...
マディソンの遊び場も他の子達のお気に入り...

After the individual games we gathered in the master bedroom and played two group games...first it was Pin the Nose on Mickey for the Boys and Put the Ring on Minnie for the girls...they took turns being blindfolded and it was cute too watch...

ケーキの前に子供達揃ってゲームを一つ...目隠しをしてミニーの指に指輪をはめたり、ミッキーに鼻を付けたり...順番に一人ずつ挑戦します...

We were sure Madison would cry when she has to put on a blindfold on but she didn't and actually did great playing this game for the first time...:-)

マディソンは一番最初に挑戦しなきゃいけないし目隠しを嫌がって絶対泣くなーと思っていたら、そんな事も無くミニーの指の近くにシールを貼る事が出来ました...：）

Not too bad for the first time!

初めてにしては上出来!

After the pinnings it was time for some Madison's Clubhouse Bingo...for this game Anna designed a wicked cool Bingo Card full of different Disney character for the kids to find. The game went really great and the birthday girl actually ended up winning, but she shared her prize with second and third place...such a good sharer!

次のグループゲームは、私がデザインしたビンゴ：）マディソンが本当は一番最初にビンゴになったんだけど、景品を譲って次にビンゴになった人にあげたんです。いい子：）

After Bingo it was time for CAKE!! Anna had special ordered the cake because she is in love with it. Someone at work would order this type of cake for various office parties and Anna thought it was the best cake in the world...after two weeks straight of eating the leftovers, I am inclined to agree :-) The decorators did a great job however and the cake looked as good as it tasted. And next year we have to remember to get a half sheet cake instead of full sheet... for our health sake...:-)
On your right is Strawberry Shortcake and on your left is Taxido...!
ビンゴの後は待ちに待ったバースデーケーキ！もちろん特大のミッキーミニーケーキを注文：）写真では分からないと思うけど、このケーキが本当においしいんだよね：）右側半分がストロベリーショートケーキで左側半分はチョコレートムースが入ったタキシードと言うケーキ...：）

Anna was kicking herself for not filming the song part... It was so nice everyone sang beautifully for Madison and I know she was feeling pretty special...:-) Madison stepped right up and did a great job on those candles!!
せっかくみんながマディソンに歌を歌ってくれたの、ビデオに撮るのをすっかり忘れてしまいました！でも、マディソンは本当に嬉しそうに聞いていたよー。そして、ちゃんとろうそくも吹き消す事が出来ました!!

After CAKE the party really got rocking as the afternoon moved outside, which could mean only one thing...shivering kids in a freezing pool :-) Well it wasn't that cold and we were so impressed that everyone had brought their stuff...it was really fun to watch as Madison had a blast swimming with her buddies!!

ケーキに後はみんな水着に着替えてプールにジャンプ！まだ５月の初めなので水は結構冷たいんだけど、みんな楽しそうにおよいでいました...マディソンもお友達みんなと一緒に泳げてとっても楽しそうでした!!

Finally, after most of the guests had gone home, tuckered out from the swimming and needing to prepare for the second party of the night as another girl from Madison's Bible Class was having her birthday party that evening...Madison opened her gifts.
パーティーも無事終了してみんな帰った後、ちょっと一息休憩しながらみんなが持って来てくれたプレゼントを空けました...