North Pole Party

It's no secret that I love any reason for a party.  Birthdays? Party. Super Bowl? Party.  NFC Championship game? Party. Random Thursday and I feel like having a party? Party.  So when December rolled around and I finished up the candle light services and I had a second to plan, I knew I wanted to put together a little Christmas party. At first it was going to be a holiday potluck, but the ideas kept coming and I got more and more excited... And I transformed the reception room into the North Pole.  It was magical!  We've made a lot of new friends this year.  Through nursing support group, preschool, random hang outs at the park.  And we've formed a really fun group of friends.  There are about 6 families that get together and most of us have kids between 2 and 4 years old, and most of us also have a baby.  So we have lots of fun together and our kids have even more fun.  So I knew a Christmas party would be a blast.  Most of the parents wore ugly sweaters, and the kids all wore jammies.

I made two kinds of soup, salad, bread, jello, and mac n cheese for the kids. I made a couple desserts as well. 

The kids got to frost and decorate cookies.  I bought alphabet cookies from Trader Joe's and spelled each child's name out.  I got little paint trays in LA for sprinkle holders, and each kid had their own set. Each spot each had little cups of four colors of frosting as well. I love how this table turned out and the kids loved it as well.  And I felt that giving each kid their own set of everything contained germs too.  It was ok if they licked their fingers and knives because they weren't sharing anything.  I also had a craft table set up.  Strips of paper on a piece of wood to make a tree, pine cones and pom poms, and thumb print reindeer on pieces of mini tree branch stumps.  The moms got into the crafts too.

 

I also made a reindeer food bar.  This was a HUGE hit! Each kid got to make their own mix of food in a jar to sprinkle on their driveway for the deer on Christmas eve. Oats, Cocoa, cookie crumbs, confetti sprinkles, colored sugar, and white glitter sugar.  The amount of glitter and sprinkles we swept from the floor the next morning was astounding.

We also had north pole ring toss and a decked out roller coaster set up for the kids.

It was all so much fun.  The kids left with boxes of cookies.  The moms left with keepsake ornaments.  Everyone left with full stomachs and leftover desserts. I'm so excited about this tradition, and hope to keep it up every year even as our families evolve.  It was maybe my favorite part of the season.

Halloween (and everything leading up to it)

Now that we've entered the preschool chapter of life, Halloween became way more than just one day. Parades, harvest fests, trunk or treats, parties, carnivals, etc. By the time it was actually Halloween, Addie's costume was in major need of repairs and Garrett was over Olaf's head. But it was sure a fun and busy month.

We started the month with a field trip with Addie's class to Tanaka Farms.  My friend was letting her boy miss preschool that day to join us, so I let Garrett miss too.

The two girls are in Mommy and me together, and the two boys are the preschool ditchers.  The two kids that aren't mine also have a baby sister Charlie's age. Their mom and I 'get' each other.  But she was smart and brought a helper to the farm, so I was the only crazy one from our class by myself with three little kids.

A few days later we went to my favorite pumpkin patch Irvine Railroad, with the White's. 

 

Then Garrett had a grocery store/pumpkin patch/picnic field trip. 

We had an apple tasting party. If I remember right we had: 9 kinds of apples, 5 kinds of Apple juice, 2 kinds of Apple chips, 5 dips, Apple nachos, 4 kinds of Apple candy, caramel apples, homemade apple sauce, and even a jar of Apple baby food. Honey Crisp won by a landslide. 

Garrett had a harvest festival and parade at school. 

Then Addie had a party and trick or treat parade. 

We had a carvin' party. 

We babysat our friends' little girl for four days at the end of October so we did a couple halloweeny crafts and cookie decorating. 

And finally! It was Halloween...

On Halloween day we were at the park with friends and decided to have a little party at our house that night with dinner and fall crafts. But first, we met some other friends and did a little trick or treating. 

It was a really fun (really hot) month with lots of great friends and class mates.