Picture a Day

 So we have decided to do a picture a day blog this year.  The kids have been asking for awhile and I keep forgetting.  But if you go to our WhitneyBobby blog, you will be able to see the pictures from January.

Hannah Turns Three!

 Obviously, I am a bit behind because Hannah turned three a month ago.  But we had a fun party for Hannah the day after Christmas.  Hannah picked Mickey Mouse themed.  I loved it.  Such a cute theme for little kids.

I thought these Mickey cupcakes were so easy and turned out cute.

Other foods included Daisy's veggies; Daisy is the gardener in the show.

The kids loved the idea of cheese and quackers from Donald Duck.

And there has to be hot diggity dogs at a Mickey Mouse party.

We decided the order for the party games based on which Mickey Mouse character was found first.  I hid several characters and the kids had to look around for them.  Hannah found Donald Duck first.

For Donald Duck we played Duck, Duck, Donald.  Which is pretty much a copy of Duck, Duck, Goose.  Hannah's cousin Kat was able to play at the party with us.  That made it extra fun.

The kids had fun chasing each other.

Then came Daisy Duck.  Daisy likes to wear jewelry. So we decided to make edible necklaces.  This required a lot of adult help but the kids had fun.

It was challenging finding lots of food with holes in the middle, but we made it work.  The necklaces had a nice variety.

Some kids pretty much ate their necklaces immediately.  

Then came the Toodles game.  Will got to be our Toodles pinata.

The kids would have to chase him and yell 'Oh Toodles' when they touched him.

Then Will released some candy for the kids to grab.  All the kids got lots of candy.  I think this was everyone's favorite game.

For Goofy we passed around a hat and whoever was holding the hat when the music stopped would get to pick a paper with something goofy to do written on it.

The kids liked making goofy faces and beeping a neighbor's nose.  

Pluto hid lots of bones in the dirt (flour).  The kids took turns trying to find as many bones as they could in thirty seconds.  Each paper bone could be exchanged for a graham cracker bone (Scooby Snacks technically) 

The little kids had bigger paper bones to find and the older kids had to search for little bones.  This was a little messy but a definite hit.

Our last game was Minnie's game.  The kids each decorated a paper bow.

Then we played pin the bow on Minnie.

Lots of pretty bows for Minnie's bow-tique.

I think the food was loved.

And I know the presents were loved.  

Will made a Mickey Mouse puzzle for Hannah. 

Happy Birthday Hannah!  It is hard to believe you are already three years old.  

Christmas Pictures

 My sister and her husband took some nice pictures of our kiddos.  Here are a couple of them in front of the Christmas tree.

Don't we have super cute kids?  

As traditional, the kids opened their stockings first.  There were Pringles and cereal and beef jerky and a 2020 Christmas ornament.  It is always fun seeing what is inside the stockings. 

The kids were all very excited to open presents.  Hannah got pretty absorbed by her new books.

Whitney got a new bike.  That was awesome.

Adam got some costumes from different Mario characters.  He and Hannah wear them quite often.

Megan shows off her new Hogwarts shirt.  Megan has been steadily reading all the Harry Potter books.

Rachel checks out her Hatchimals.  Megan got some too so they have been playing with them together.

I did not get much pictures of Christmas dinner.  But here Hannah sits next to her cousin to enjoy the pre-dinner.  AKA chips, veggies, and different kinds of dip.

Many, many thanks go to my parents for hosting Christmas every year.  We had a wonderful day.

Graham cracker houses and a simple feast

 And some more Christmas pictures for your viewing pleasure.

My mom made graham cracker houses for the kids to decorate.

Whitney did a good job decorating.

Hannah required a lot of assistance, but she had fun.  It is not everyday you get frosting and candy galore placed right in front of you.

Megan took her time making her house look just right.

As did Rachel.

Adam's house was pretty sparse.  He kept sneaking the candy instead of putting it on the house.  The kids enjoyed sneaking candy off their houses over the next couple days.  

We did something new this year and had a simple feast for Christmas Eve.  My parents put a lot of work into the feast.  It was suppose to remind everyone about Jesus.  And everything was amazing.

A simple, yummy potato soup.  

There was even a homemade honey butter and cinnamon butter for the homemade bread.

We sat together as families to enjoy the meal. 

Enjoying dessert.

My dad read the scripture verses that went with each course.  It was a good, reverent meal.  I am glad we did it for Christmas Eve to get us into a proper Christmas spirit.  

Craft Day

 We decided to dedicate a day to crafting.  Everyone loves making Christmas crafts.  The kids borrowed grandpa's paint shirts.

My mom had some wooden figures to make a Mary, Joseph, and Jesus Nativity.

Some of the kids worked slowly and carefully to make sure each figure was perfect.  Some children just loved using all the paint.  I didn't get a final picture of the Nativities, but they turned out cute.  

The craft I planned was to make Christmas trees.  You take a green plate, cut it into three pieces of unequal sizes and staple them together.

The kids liked gluing on the cotton balls and pipe cleaners to form Christmas tree decorations.

The kids also got to pick and paint a tree topper.  I had bells, angels, stars, and snowflakes.

We took a little twine and hung our Christmas trees on the Christmas tree. 

My sister planned a star craft ornament.  

The kids made baby Jesus lying in the manger.  Those also got hung on the Christmas tree.  I think the kids had a lot of fun crafting.  Some of the younger kids ran away and took breaks in between crafts.  They all turned out really well.  We will have to keep crafting each year.