Thursday Night Crew Christmas Party! |
- We all slept in for a bit this morning-7:30ish. The kids were asking for breakfast like they didn't even know that it was a Saturday. Seriously, all we ever do is feed them...and do their laundry. Anyway, after they ate everyone had baths or showers. We are always amazed when we are down just one child and things run so smoothly. It doesn't even matter who is gone (this morning it was Reagan-sometimes our easiest and sometimes not).
- Graham would have done anything we asked him to do this morning because he was ready to go to his party. His friend Gage was having a gingerbread house decorating party. I obviously did not check the directions before I replied that we could come-it was 35 miles from our house. Eeek! So we did start out fairly early to make it on time.
- The party was at the grandma's house on a farm. As we were getting out of the car, some started walking to see the cows, donkeys, chickens, ducks, pigs and rabbits. Then after everyone arrived, we headed inside to start decorating. This was the cutest party ever-I had as much (if not more) fun as Graham.
- The kids all had placemats with their names on them, the houses were premade and ready to be decorated, Christmas decorations were hanging from the ceiling. And the dining table, we completely filled up with candy in different bowls for the kids to use. They all went to the table to fill their cups with candy and then started decorating.
- Graham had a blast-eating just as much candy as he put on his house. The candy was unlimited-after we finished Graham's house, I told him that he could go and get a few pieces of candy. He came back with his cup full of candy. Finally I convinced him to go upstairs and check out Gage's room with the other kids. Meanwhile, I enjoyed the best cup of apple cider I have ever had (made from syrup from Starbucks).
- Next up was a few snacks and then a hay ride around the farm. One child helped drive so then every-single-one of them had to drive. This turned the hay ride into an hour long event but the kids loved every minute of it. Graham was near the end to drive the tractor and he just grinned from ear to ear.
- When we made it back to the house, I loaded up the house while Graham jumped on the trampoline. Then it was time to leave and as you can imagine, Graham was not pleased with having to leave. But we had to head home-original plan was to go see Santa today but since I had a 45 minute drive home we put that off until next week.
- On our way home, Graham and I stopped by Nonna and Pops' house to pick up Reagan. She stayed busy at Nonna's house and Nonna has even requested Reagan to help decorate her tree next year. Graham was quick to add that he would work as well for Nonna-so she will have more than enough help.
- Back at home, Robby had been manning the fort. The kids had been busy-playing, having a snack, watching a movie and then having lunch. When we came home, we started working on our Christmas tree brownies for the party tonight.
- The kids loved squeezing the icing and sprinkling (or dumping) the sprinkled on the trees. Everyone did good-even Campbell. Her last few, I would have to take the icing away because she kept squeezing and kept squeezing icing.
- Robby and I worked on changing the kids sheets-what a horrible job that is. Afterwards, I needed a nap! So we made it rest time for everyone for about 30 minutes and then it was time to start scurrying around for our evenings Christmas party (our only scheduled Christmas party currently-we are open to all invitations!)
- We were at the McGuires house and our little Christmas parties have grown and grown over the last few years-really just the amount of kids. There were 11 kids there this year! (and almost half of them were mine-eek!)
- There was lots of yummy party food (our favorite food). My kids could hardly eat any real food because all they could see were the yummy desserts and we let them graze on the desserts pretty much all night long. After a bit of playing, it was time for the kids to open presents.
- The boys received similar spiderman cars, Reagan opened some Legos, Campbell had a big cardboard house to set up and color and Keaton had Legos. They were so happy with their presents but didn't really need them because they were so content playing with each other.
- Before we knew it, it was after 9 and we started putting on pajamas and loading up the car. Keaton fell asleep on the way home and everyone was a bit tired when we finally got upstairs to get into bed. Today was a great way to start off our December!