The Girl's Birthday Party

Ally's birthday was last week and Madison's is this week. I will do a post about each of them in the days to come. Yesterday we had a joint birthday party. It was a costume party. The girls had their hearts set on being Asian princesses. We are studying Asia this month and I loved that they were excited about it. Because of that I decided to go with an Asian theme for decor etc..

My friend, Andrea, taught me how to make these amazing tissue paper"'flowers." I originally saw them online used in an Asian themed party. I love them!!

On the counter there is a homemade cherry blossom branch. It was made with a branch from my back yard, hot glue and pink tissue paper...

Asian parasols topped the cupcakes...

Brightly colored to-go boxes held the party favors...

Each box had a paper fan, a pencil sharpened, a little parasol, chopsticks, and a decorated fortune cookie that each child made during the party...

The birthday princesses! Allyson - just turned 9...Madison - days away from being 12!!!

Even though she looks a little like an Asian showgirl I think she is so beautiful!!

Ally borrowed a real Korean Hombok from some friends of ours and another friend got Madison's dress somewhere in OKC's Asian district for us...

I did say it was a costume party - here is the rest of the crew (I do not know why I didn't just take a picture of them all together to post - here there are one at a time)...

Pip the ladybug...

Colson the handy man...

Tyson the football player (making the meanest face he can)...

Carson as Luke Skywalker (I was going to tease about how pale he looks but bless his heart, he comes by that one naturally)...

And Wilson the fireman...

Party guests included.....

A brilliant author...

Linus from the Peanuts gang...

A butterfly and a princess...

A bunny, colonial girl, and Davy Crockett...

A fashion designer and a movie star (the indian princess was missing)...

A Twister game and a snow princess...

Another princess, a knight, and a doctor...

And the mysterious birthday girls...

The kids danced and danced and danced. While they were doing that I had them come over in groups to dip fortune cookies in chocolate and then in sprinkles...

After that I pulled out a game from my youthquest days called "House Party." Basically, to go with the "costume" theme this game has "guests" have to act like something until the "host" can figure out what they are. I was about to explain it further but then figured I'd spare you details. the kids LOVED it. They were so cute and some of them really good at it. They wanted to play it over and over and over. Finally, I had to stop them so we could do cake and ice cream before they got picked up!

Ally blowing out her candles (the wig finally ditched)...

Madison blows out hers...

Enjoying treats with our sweet friends...

Opening presents while the parents arrive. Man, they got the best gifts! My friends are great b-day party gift picker-outers!!

They let friends know only a few days before the party that if they had not purchased a gift yet they could give cash instead as a gift to Haiti instead. They got $30!! They have been working extra chores for days now trying to raise money for Samaritan's Purse's Haiti relief efforts.

This was one of the best birthday parties we have had and I think it was the least expensive too! We had so much fun. I HEART these girls so, so, much!! They are so precious. I will gush my love for them in future posts.

New Years Eve

We had such a fun New Years Eve. I totally stole this idea from my friend Rachel. She is Miss Amazing "I do awesome stuff with my kids all the time" Idea Girl. We originally were going to have friends over but they got sick. My kids kinda didn't know what to think about doing New Year's Eve without having anyone over. Madison kept saying "Can't we PLEASE email all Continental Kids (our co-op) and see if ANYONE wants to come over??" But we ended up having a wonderful time together as a family.

Here are the bags... There is a bag with a little rhyming poem I wrote to be opened/read every hour leading up to midnight. First of all, you should know, we set all the clocks in the house AHEAD one hour! That way, not only do the kids still get in bed a little earlier but we get to "bring in the new year" with the East coast which means we can watch the ball drop in NYC. No one caught on but this might be the last year we can pull that off. :)

Everyone if holding up "10" fingers...
An example of the little poems - this is from the 12:00 bag - which we open a little early...

6:00 - fun paper plates, napkins and umbrella straws in the bag and the note revealed we were having pizza for dinner...

7:00 - puzzles in the bag and the note revealed it would be a boys vs. girls race to get them put together first...

The boys won!

8:00 - Wii game in the bag - we all played and had a little tournament...

Pip is already getting sleepy and cuddled up with me to watch the Wii playing...

9:00 Catch Phrase in the bag - we played as a family. Lots of fun!

Still showing signs of sleepiness, Pip is holding her ear and trying to cuddle with Sissy...

10:00 - A movie! We all cuddled up on the couch and watch Battle for Terra (Pip went to bed shortly after the movie started.)

11:00- Bowls and spoons and toppings in the bag - note says to pause the movie and make ice cream sundaes!

at 11:15 the movie was over and we had a time of praise and worship. We sang and talked about our resolutions as a family - how we could honor the Lord better in 2010. I wanted to get a picture of Jason praying with the kids but they saw me get the camera out and so the little smirks and perfectly folded hands are certainly for the camera...

Oh yeah - the twins fell asleep right before the movie ended...

11:55 the 12:00 bag is opened and has noise marker horns and party poppers. We watched the ball drop and then ran outside to blow the horns and do the poppers so we wouldn't wake Piper up. :)

Happy New Year one and all. May we all grow closer to the Savior and seek to advance His Kingdom in these next 365 days. Let's not waste our lives and make the most of even the most mundane things we do on a daily basis. I long to be a wife and mother who glorifies God in every minute I am awake. If only I could be mindful of Him every minute. Just like the bags - perhaps I need something to pull my attention back to Christ every hour on the hour. Not a bad idea. Maybe a fruit of the Spirit to focus in every hour? A name or attribute of God? Sadly, I need something tangible like that to keep me from getting too caught up in my own self and responsibilities. Perhaps this year will be different. Oh Lord, make it so!!!

Pictures from Christmas

It seems like it would just take too long to write all about our Christmas. So I'm opting to go with photos and comments.

This is Christmas Eve - Pip really loved snuggling with her Uncle Joby while he was here...

On Christmas Eve the kids opened a gift from Nana and Papa. Guns for the boys (which the were really wanting)...

Here is what Pip would do every time the boys would say stick em up...

The girls with their sweet treats in their new pj's...
On Christmas morning the first gift opened was Piper's kitchen from our flock. She kept saying in the sweetest little delighted voice "It's mine kitchen!!!"

Flock got all the kids cool art stuff...

Cole and his new Kinnex...

Tyson with Little Einstein toys (shocker)...

Wilson's new punching bag...

All the kids got new coats and hats and scarves...

Carson built something with his Kinnex immediately...

Ally got a baby and baby gear - exactly what she wanted...

We got record snowfall here and Carson took advantage of his new coat...

Madison and her new Webkinz, "Pepper."

Just a cute pic of Pip on our way to PF Changs - a Christmas tradition...

The boys playing with their awesome racetrack from Grandma and Grandpa...

We played Catch Phrase with the kids - which they thought was super fun - but the best was Wii boxing with the grown ups. We were EXHAUSTED from trying so hard to punch like crazy. It was really funny. Here and Jack and Joby going at it...

Uncle Jack couldn't get in Christmas Eve due to weather but he finally got here Christmas night. On his last day here he took the kids out for lunch and for frozen yogurt...

I wish I had gotten a picture of my Grandparents who also came and spent 2 days with us. It was a wonderful Christmas. SO many lessons about the body of Christ and God's great love were learned. I am so thankful for my precious family - and this guy is my favorite gift of all...