Celebrate!

We've had a fun morning getting ready for the New Year!
First, we talked about the months of the year, and what exactly a new year was. Then we traced the words "Happy New Year."

Next, we used stickers, pens, and sticky gems to decorat these 2010 glasses. I printed, cut, and glued them last night to get ready. You can find the pdf file from Family Fun here.

We also made some old party hats into Happy New Year hats!

(They fit better on adults, but the kids had fun decorating them!)

Finally, we decorated these sugar cone "party hats." Again, my inspiration came from Family Fun. However, we used frosting rather than dipping them into chocolate. I knew that leftover Halloween candy would come in handy!



And, English muffin pizza's for lunch! (With 2010, of course!)

Looking forward to more activities tonight! I'll keep you posted...

Picnic in December!

There are times when I wish we lived in the midwest... we could enjoy the seasons, buy a larger house, and frolic in the snow. Other times I wish we were in Northern California... cooler temps, and closer to grandma and grandpa. However, most of the time I am so content right where we are. If we want snow, we can drive to the mountains. We do have fall.. it just comes a little later than in the midwest! Grandma and grandpa visit often. And, frankly a bigger house just means more to clean! Besides... who can beat a sunny, gorgeous, 57- degree picnic in December?

Centerpiece dillema

Daniel's been back to work the last 2 days, so I was officially on my own! Last night the girls were super hungry, but dinner was a good 20 - 30 minutes away. So, I asked the girls to set the table and find a centerpiece. With all our decorations put away, finding a centerpiece was not an easy task. What occurred next blew me away! They found an old milk carton, some tissue paper, and some glue and made the centerpiece... On their own, that is... Totally their idea! That's my girls!

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009 was WONDERFUL! My mom actually made the above nativity set out of bread dough 20 years ago! She recently re-painted them and brought them to us. Am I the luckiest, or what?!? I LOVE it!
Daniel used the nativity as he read to the girls from our family Bible, preparing our hearts for Christmas. The girls seemed to enjoy this, and understood quite a bit!
Cozy robes from Santa!
Listening to Papa...
Playing with new gifts...

Cuddle time...
What a face!
A favorite gift... pretend make-up!

My Hello Kitty purse from Daniel.. LOVE it!!


Well... I tried for a sweet sister shot. Maybe next year!!

Our table setter!
Flying fish roe and uni (sea urchin) rolls. What?!?! You didn't have the same thing?





The "tongue" shot. Until next year... Merry Christmas!

My Girls

Christmas is over... (though, as promised, I will still blog about it!) But, today it was back to a "normal" day. The new normal, that is! Just me and my girls. We played tag outside, baked cookies, and of course did crafts. As much as I loved Christmas and especially enjoyed the help and company of my family, it was so nice to just have a "normal" day. We're getting ready for bed now. The big girls are "babysitting" Sierra in the other room as I blog. I am so blessed. What a beautiful day! I am loving the new normal!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

I've obviously been a little behind on my blogging! Ok, WAY behind! But, I can't skip some of the fun Christmas stuff... So, even though we cleaned the house of all traces of Christmas today, I am going to let it linger on my blog a little longer! Firs, let me tell you about this AWESOME birthday party for Jesus...

First, the kids all had to brainstorm what Christmas is about by coming up with words from each letter of the alphabet. When my girls wanted Jingle bells for "J" rather than Jesus, I knew this was an important party for them!!


The next activity was to talk about all the Christmas things that were on the door, but anything about Jesus was missing... so, the kids had to search he yard for letters that spelled out "Happy Birthday, Jesus!"



Next, Kelley gave each of the kids a figure to hold while she told the birth story of Jesus. As their part came up, they got to bring their figure to the scene!


Just for fun, we had candy cane relays...

...hot cocoa and cider...


...and fake SNOW!
We ended with lunch; sandwiches cut into Christmas shapes, and of course a birthday cake. Each kid went home with a candy cane and the story of the candy cane tied to Jesus. It was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!! Kelly, you are UH-mazing!!!