Happy Birthday Maddie!!!

Hello party people! Thanks for bearing with my absence lately. But I think Danielle has done a great job keeping everyone up to date. We've been slammed with getting portrait sessions taken care of, getting ready for this weekend's bridal show, general pre-baby nesting, and birthday partying. So for today's post, I thought I would dedicate it to my precious little girl since it's her 3rd birthday! It's amazing to me that she is three already. And even more amazing that Danielle and I are about to go through all the whole new baby thing again. I sure hope it's like riding a bike because it's been three years since we've done some of this stuff.

Here's the skinny on this post. We had planned to have Maddie a little family party this Saturday and then a party with all her friends at Jumpzone on Monday (that way we'd have the bridal show out of the way and hopefully more kids could come because it'd be on a weekday afternoon). Weeeeeeell, Jumpzone called us last week and told us that they were closing their doors. We could still do a party, but we'd have to do it before Aug. 12. Do what?!? So we threw everything together, got all the party-goers called, and had her party a week early. Big kudos to Danielle (little Miss Hormonal Von Preggerstein) for not flipping out. It was a blast (as you'll see below) and Maddie had a wonderful early birthday party.

So here are some fun pics. The lighting in the place was absolutely horrible (what? I can talk bad about about them... they're out of business! Actually, it was a cool place and we hate to see them close), but I managed to get some really unflattering photos of some of our wacky friends.

First, let's start off with the most important part of any birthday party, the cake! Maddie wanted a puppy themed party, so we came up this cute idea for a dog bowl cake and then we got Katie at Sweet Celebrations in Maryville to bring our vision to life. And doesn't it look awesome? The bad thing was that somebody (*ahem*) thought we needed some delicious cupcakes too (also done by Sweet Celebrations) which were all eaten first. Nobody had room for the actual cake! So guess what we're eating tomorrow!!


Danielle being her lovely goofy pregnant self.


Tara, of Dixie Pixel fame, grabbed my camera and caught Maddie and I on one of the slides. Good to see you using a Canon TK!


One of the few moments I was able to capture Maddie, who was FLYING around Jumpzone playing with everyone.


And later our buddy Jason, of J Davis Photography fame, grabbed my camera to get me struggling to regain my balance. These inflatable things are a great workout!


What's wrong with this picture? Maybe it's the fact that a three-year-old is forced to stand aside and watch the thirty-somethings slide? Eh, we invited a bunch of our "grown-up" friends (like Leann, Robin, Jodi, and Traci here) because we knew they'd have a blast.


Alright, technically this photo isn't anything special, but I love the faceplant Robin is in the middle of. Told you these things would kick your butt. If you don't believe me, check out the next pic.


This is our friend Michael "stuck". I think he said something like "if that ends up on the blog, I'll kill you." But come on, I had to share this one. And no, his feet aren't 4x the size of his head... that's a fair bit of wide angle distortion there. But he really was stuck.


Here comes the crazy photographer section...

Jason Davis
School: University of Florida
Position: Outside Middle Left Linebacker
Number: 55.


Steven Bridges
Stats: 32-31-32
Hometown: Some trailer in Arkansas
Interests: Slow walks in the rain. And kittens. Or is it slow kittens in the rain?


Here's Tara trying to wrangle her little one's. Look at the glare from her little Odelia as Boru runs past. I don't think it was intentional since Odelia is a sweety pie. At least we convinced Tara to take off her platform shoes before jumping... that could've hurt!


Jason sliding with his youngest Cooper while Ryan checks me out. Those are two of the most photographed boys in the Knoxville area.


Steven getting tackled by his little tiger Silas. Steven, sorry I'm captured you with a goofy face, but as we've already established, you are from Arkansas. ;)


Hey I was happy that the majority of the kids were looking at me for this one.


Blowing out the candles.


Opening gifts among the vultures, I mean, volunteer gift-opening-helpers.


Maddie got a little preview of holding a baby when we convinced Stevie and Leann to let her hold Evan. Thanks for being brave new parents!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADDIE!!! (not that you can read this yet!) Thank you for being such a beautiful intelligent and most of all, hilarious, little girl. Thanks for being my buddy! I LOVE YOU!!

Okay, back to preparing for the Premier Bride Bridal Show this Sunday. I'll try to post a photo of our setup tomorrow night so you'll know who to look for. Until then...

-Wes