Annual Gingerbread House

Sunday, December 7, 2014

We continued our tradition of building and decorating a gingerbread house again this year.  We always have such fun and our house never looks the same twice.  We stepped up our efforts this year with an extra candy pack to assist with decorating and we even used some of the colored fondant too. The little circle window over the door really made the house, in my opinion.  Emily's idea, Daddy execution.  Great team work all around!  

  

Ta-Dah!!!

Holiday Photo Shoot

November 2014

We did our annual holiday photo shoot early this year so we could make sure to get our cards out on time.  So in November we hung our garland around the house to have a little touch of Christmas in our pictures.  We did a couple of sets which was fun.  In the first set Emily wore her beautiful gold dress.  Here are a few of my favorites from that set:

So much personality in this little one!

We also got several really good family shots:

  

We put this one on our holiday card this year, but it was a hard choice!

Even Zoey got a few great pics!  Her first professional pictures.  Lucky kitty.

   

In the end, we let Emily change her clothes into her reindeer sweater and we got a few fun pictures to round out our set.  It was really fun!  Already looking forward to next year!

   

Emily's Frozen Party

Sunday, November 30, 2014

I cannot believe Emily is turning 7 this year.  In just 10 days, actually.  Where does the time go? Anyway, this year we decided to have Emily's birthday party on Thanksgiving weekend.  All of her neighborhood friends were in town so it worked out perfectly.

Emily wanted a Frozen theme for her party this year.  She has been asking for it for nearly a year.  So we planned lots of Frozen fun including crafts, games, food, cake and favors.

We started the party with crafts - an Olaf made from a sock and a beaded bracelet with an Elsa charm.

  

 Then we welcomed the ice queen herself to the party - ELSA came to play games with the princesses!  She started them off with a group sing-along of "Let it Go" followed by a game of pin the nose on Olaf.  From there the girls got to put on gloves and try to unwrap Anna and Elsa's favorite treat - chocolate!

After the chocolate game, the kids played Frozen bingo and then made snowmen out of giant marshmallows, pretzel sticks, candy corn and chocolate chips.

  

 After so many games and crafts, the kids were ready to dig into the spread of Frozen food!  We had  We Finish Each Other's Sandwiches (turkey and cheese); Anna's Arctic Circles (blue raspberry gummy rings);Olaf Noses (cheese curls); Sven Antlers (pretzel sticks); Elsa's Ice Pops (rock candy pops); Sisters' Snowballs (powdered donut holes); Coronation Candy (Sixlets and Hershey's kisses); Kristoff Krispie Treats (blue white chocolate dipped Rice Krispie treats); Olaf cookies; Arendelle Apple Juice; Melted Ice water and blue Frozen punch!  A great selection of fun foods!

  

After food it was time for presents!  Emily's favorite part, of course!  She got lots of great gifts - many of them Frozen themed so she was in seventh heaven.  Then it was finally time for cake!

Before everyone headed out, each girl got her picture taken with Elsa and then we got a group picture of all the girls with their handmade Olafs and Elsa too.

To close out the party, we got out a big pinata and let the girls run for candy and treats.  Then everyone got a snowflake wand, candy cup and special Elsa purse filled with goodies.  The purses were a huge hit!  And Emily reports that this year's party was "just perfect" and the best party yet.  I think I might just agree with her about that.  Happy Birthday, Emily.  May your 7th year with our family be even better than the first 6.  We love you so much!

Decking the Halls

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Friday was our family play time, so Saturday there was work to do!  I tackled laundry and putting Christmas linens on beds.  Dan worked on setting up the trees.  Then it was time for all hands on deck for tree trimming!  Emily was a terrific helper.   She hung as many ornaments as the rest of us and loved every minute.  We turned on the carols and spent about 3 hours trimming our little hearts out. It was a great way to spend our Saturday and now our halls are fully decked!

  

Uncork & Create (Mega Black Friday Fun)

Friday, November 28, 2014

We decided to try something a little different on Black Friday.  Of course I still did my customary morning shopping, but later in the evening we all headed to Uncork and Create to paint our very own "joyful snowman."  Here is what we were supposed to paint:

So we got to work listening carefully to all instructions and trying our hand at canvas art. It was hard at first because with a paint brush and acrylic paint it seemed almost impossible to make a mistake, but we quickly learned how to work with water, correct misplaced strokes and make beautiful snowmen.

It was a load of fun and indeed everyone seemed to be quite joyful.

  

After about 2.5 hours, we did it!  We all successfully completed joyful snowmen and they were ALL really, really good!

Not only did we complete some amazing snowmen, but so did many others in our class!  It was definitely a great way to spend Black Friday!

Thanksgiving 2014

Thursday, November 27, 2014

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving this year.  We started our morning with pumpkin cinnamon rolls with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!  From there it was time for playing and hanging out...except for Daddy.  He was on Turkey duty.

After the parade and playtime it was time to start preparing the big feast including turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, corn pudding, broccoli, cranberry sauce and crescent rolls.  For dessert we had chocolate pie, pumpkin pie dessert square, pumpkin roll and custard pie too!

Then it was time to eat.  And eat we did!  YUM!

  

Even Zoey had a big feast.  Some from her own bowl...and some from daddy's plate!  Definitely a successful Thanksgiving.

  

50th Day of School

The kids got to celebrate the 50th day of school with a 1950's dress up day.  Lots of the girls had poodle skirts and satin jackets.  Some even had cute little neck scarves and side pony tails.  Of course Emily's hair would not make a side pony tail but she did have cute cat-eye glasses!  The kids even made some 1950's art!  What a fun day!

Veteran's Day

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Kindergarten, first and second grades put on a Veteran's Day show every year at Bible Center Church.  It is a pretty impressive undertaking for the kids and they were fabulous.  They sang lots of patriotic songs and the second grade drama kids did a nice presentation too.  In addition, the middle school girls' choir sang and the middle school boys did a "sword and cake cutting ceremony."  All the rest of the school attends the show and everyone has a great time.  Love that this school teaches not only the amazing love of God, but also the importance of a love for country too.

Dress rehearsal

   

Sparkies Yacht Race

Saturday, November 1, 2014

The Awana Club at Bible Center Church set up a boat race for the kids this weekend.  The kids bought a little wooden boat platform for $5 and then had to design a sail for it. Daniel and Emily painted the boat and made it a sail from some interesting medical bandages from the hospital.  Then they painted it and decorated it with Frozen stickers.  They called it the "Frozen Fun Boat."  Then on Saturday morning all the kids got together to race their "yachts" in little gutters of water.

They had double elimination rounds.  In the first round, Emily came in second, we think.  Then in the second round, she won her group!  But in the third round she came in last so that was it for her.  She still had a really great time and everyone who raced got a ribbon (which she loved.)  She is already talking about how to improve for next year.

After the boat race we headed downtown to Pies-N-Pints for some pizza and then we did our civic duty and took Emily to the polls for early voting.  Not a bad Saturday at all.

     

Go Emily Go!!