Party Time

Annnnd....yet another week has gone by! Whew! Well, as the girls get older we definitely stay more busy! They both had their Christmas parties yesterday. Luckily Allie's was at 11:00 and Lauryn's was at 2:00 so I was able to make both with plenty of time to spare. I'm the room mom in Lauryn's class and was in charge of the party...it was so much fun and the kids had a great time!

Allie's class played a game where one child on each team dressed up as a Christmas Tree and the kids had to "decorate" the tree with foam stickers! They loved putting stickers on their friend and thought it was hilarious!

They had pizza for lunch, and of course the obligatory mountain of holiday treats! I think Allie had 4 cookies and a candy cane before the day was done!

Mmmmm....candy cane! The funny thing is, neither of my girls cares much for anything minty (which they call "spicy"). But for some reason they will devour a candy cane in five seconds. Makes me a gag just a little.

Eating the Santa cookies Mommy made! I had the bright idea to make 25 of these little cookies and about halfway through started to question my sanity. Luckily my sweet, amazing, gem of a husband stepped in before I completely lost what was left of my holiday spirit and finished the last of them while I quickly stepped away from the kitchen. He knows me so well.

Most importantly, the cookies were a hit and the kids loved them. Well worth it!

After Allie's party we went home for a quick rest and then headed up to Lauryn' s school for her "winter" party. If you haven't read the memo, "Winter Party" is code for "Christmas party" in public school. I might have accidentally on purpose let the word "Christmas" escape my lips a time or two during the party. I didn't seem to get any complaints.

The kids had a fun book exchange and luckily all the books were age-appropriate. I heard through the grapevine that last year someone brought a romance novel for the book exchange. Either some parent had a really strange sense of humor or the kid was left to his own devices to scrounge up a book the day of the party. I'm betting on the latter, unfortunately.

Here we are, waiting "patiently" for the book exchange to start. Get on with it already!

Excited, much!?

I don't know that I've ever seen anyone so happy to receive a copy of The Berenstain Bears!

He was literally thrilled and ran up to give her a big hug! So cute! The kids performed "The Twelve Days of Christmas" complete with dance movements. I believe this was "six geese a-laying".

Look who showed up! As soon as he walked in the room, Lauryn shot me a knowing look and later whispered, "That's not the same one that was at the mall." After seeing a few less-than-realistic looking Santas, we've decided that the impostors are just a bunch of helpers. I mean, Santa is pretty busy this time of year and needs a little help, right?

They played a super cute relay game where they had to run across the room and pick up a red dot with their nose (no hands!). They had a dab of Vaseline on their nose to help out. It was so funny to see several that left the dot on their nose for the rest of the party!

Annnnd the cute craft...decorating the rice krispy treat Christmas tree!

I do want to write this down so I don't forget. Lauryn's teacher told me they have been discussing various holidays of the season (Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas) and when Christmas came up she asked the kids to talk about what Christmas is.

Several said things like giving presents, sharing, and Christmas trees. Then Lauryn raised her hand and said, "Christmas is about Jesus and his birth. Jesus is why we have Christmas." Her teacher (who is a Christian) said she was so happy that Lauryn spoke up (I believe she said her actual thought was, "Preach it, Lauryn!") Those of you who are teachers or former teachers in public schools know how our hands are tied when it comes to religion in schools, especially at Christmas time.

I could not have been more proud of her at that moment!

I hope to find more time to blog in these next few weeks. We are just looking forward to a wonderful two weeks of having no schedule, lots of family time and celebrating the birth of our Savior!