Santa Claus is coming to town...plus a dinner party

We had a great Sunday!

It was our annual Christmas brunch and Santa visit at my inlaws clubhouse. They have the best Santa, it has been the same one for all 10 years we have been going. We have pics with him starting with Evie when she was 10 months old. He's the best, so loving and engaging with each child and takes his time, and the photographer is great, too...taking a couple digital shots for the photo package, and then also a polaroid for each child to take with them.

We also gorge ourselves on an incredible food spread...cheeses, salads, fruit, shrimp, crab claws, belgain waffle and omelet bar, salmon, breads, kid cuisine bar, ham, steak, chicken, fish, desserts, ice cream, all kinds of side dishes...you can easily have a 12 course meal. We always enjoy eating to our hearts content and then rolling ourselves out of there.

I can't believe I didn't get any pics of the kids with grandma and grandpa! They are a little camera shy, I kept saying I wanted to, but it never happened. :(

The girls were so into seeing Santa this year! When we first arrived, Grandpa was standing with his back to us in a room next to where Santa was. We told Gracie to sneak up on grandpa and as she headed for him she saw Santa and runs right into the room where other children were on his lap and a picture was being taken and goes right up to Santa. We shoo'd her out and told her we'd see him after we ate.

"G" with Santa Claus

Grace told Santa that she wanted the American Girl doll "Roofie" (Ruthie) and when we were leaving she says "Hey! Where's my American Girl doll??" We laughed and teased Santa about why he doesn't have her AG doll in his back pocket! He laughed (Ho-ho-ho) and told G he'd see her in a couple weeks. :)

"E" with Santa...

Evie told Santa she wanted a Nintendo DS for Christmas...she seems a little too certain that that is what she is getting. :)

Sweet "M" with Santa...

My sweet Madeline...she patiently waited her turn for face time with Santa. She told him she wanted a Littlest Pet Shop.

"S" with Santa

Silly Sarah strikes again! As soon as she got up on his lap she looks right in his face and gives him a big "HO-HO-HO!" I sure hope she had brushed her teeth that morning! She told him she was an American Girl shop and as we were leaving she informed me that it was good to ask Santa for what they wanted because then he would bring it to them and then we wouldn't have to spend any money on their presents! hmmm, sounds good to me.

MY FOUR GEMS

Wacky posing with Daddy

Mommy and her girls

Later in the day, when I was still stuffed from brunch we had a dinner party to go to. This was with my Bible study girls and their husbands. I am the most blessed girl in the world to be in the presence of these four women each week. This is our third year together in a small group, but most of these girls have been in my life for 5-10 years and I love them so much! Even though I didn't think I could eat another bite until next week, I totally enjoyed the delicious food we all put together. It was a great evening.

CJ and ShelMy girls...

4th grade girls Life of Faith kickoff!

This is the 3rd year at our school that an all 4th grade girls Life of Faith group (based on http://www.alof.com/club_overview.html ) has been started by moms at our school. It is a group that's primary focus is to foster friendships and love for one another and the Lord.

4th grade is the year that friendships become tighter and cliques begin to form and people get left out and feelings get hurt. The goal of this 2 year group is for this class to bond together and get to know and love one another for the individuals that God created each of them to be and to always show kindness and respect to one another.

Friday was our kick-off with an after school Christmas party. Starting in January, we will meet once a month at rotating houses where there will be food, fellowship, games, craft, and lesson. Guess who's craft mom for this group? Go ahead, guess...yep, yours truly. :) I got to do the ornament craft for this party and will get to come up with all the crafts for this group. I'm excited!

We have a very small private christian school...about 500 students total in K-8th grade. All of the 4th grade girls total about 37 (spread between 4 fourth grade classes). At the Christmas party 31 of the girls were able to come. It was great fun. The girls changed into festive clothes after school and we dove right into the craft. They enjoyed making the ornaments and did a good job with them (see Crafty Mom post for an example of the ornaments they made).

Part of the goal of the group is to get the girls out of their comfort zones and get to know girls outside of their core friendships. To that end, the girls were assigned tables of 5 to sit at. It was interesting to see that this was initially really hard for some of the girls, to not be with their closest friends and having to branch out to get to know better the girls at their table.

Each girl brought a wrapped christmas mug to exchange and then have hot cocoa in. I don't think I saw one duplicate mug in all those 31 girls! They were all such cute and fun mugs!

There were sweet treats and an overview about this group starting and some conversation starter questions. All in all, it was great fun and I am excited to get to know each of these 37 girls better. We are blessed to be part of this school and the wonderful families in it!

Here are some pics of the fun! My E is in the red sweater with the snowflake and elf hat.

Crafty Mom is at it again!

I have been busy-ing myself with lots of easy to do crafts these days. I feel so peaceful and calm when I am crafting...well, when I am doing it with my girls it is a little more stressful, but I do want to instill in them a love of crafts so it is worth the mental insanity of glitter and glue everywhere for what will hopefully turn into a lifelong love of creativity for them.

This first picture is some practice ornaments I did for the craft I am leading for all the 4th grade girls at Evie's school (about 35, its a small, private school) on Friday for a christmas party some of us mom's put together for them. It's a glass ornament that I put ribbon on with double stick tape and then glitter in between the ribbons. I looped a little candycane charm on it and hung it by a ribbon. Easy and cute...I think the girls will enjoy it. I got all the supplies ready this morning, this is surprisingly on top of life for me! Here is the simple teacher gift I am having the girls make. It is a box letter of the teacher's last name. The girls painted the sides, decoupaged paper on the front and back, and then decoupaged christmas words on it...the B is Mady's and the E is Sarah's. I think they turned out cute and they were a pretty easy project for the girls to do all on their own after I prepped it with the cutting.

And this is just for Wordless Wednesday humor...i walked in to the bathroom to find this:

Yes, those are polly pockets drowning in a sea of water and hair elastics! Hahahahahaha! I have no idea why, I decided not to ask. :)

Hi! To the Newcomers!

I thought I'd say "hi" (waving frantically) to the newcomers popping up on my blog. I see several new cities and states arriving for a visit. I am assuming you are finding me from my christmas card where I shamelessly promoted myself at the end with my blog address. :)

Don't be shy, leave a comment, it really makes my day! It's easy, just click on comments (it probably says "0 comments" at the end of a post, because that is how many I usually get!) You can post as "anonymous" and just sign your name in the body of your comment, or you can do "name/open irl" and type in your name. No one is going to come knocking on your door or begin cyber stalking you and stealing your identiy for leaving a comment on my blog, I promise! :)

You can navigate through old posts on the right. In October I described my children, how we ended up in Atlanta, and why we had 11 animals at one point this year. You know, things you are dying to know about me and my family! :)

I hope to hear from you! Don't be anonymous strangers! (that means you, too, dad!)

Celebrating Childhood Friendships

This morning Evie, Madeline, and I hosted a "Christmas Tea Celebrating Friendship" for each of their closest friend, Molly and Elizabeth, and their moms. It was such a lovely time, more special than I could have hoped for or imagined. I don't know where life will take each of these girls, but for now, we celebrate the sweet friendships they are enjoying with one another. I love these girls as part of our family, just as I know my girls are loved as a part of their families when they are with them. The moms embrace my girls and also love and support me continuously, and it was a high honor to be able to celebrate the sweet friendships between our daughters this morning.

I set a beautiful, red, festive table and planned a menu of crab quiche, broccoli quiche, monkey bread, fruit and best friend iced coffee frappe. I even tried my hand at homemade chocolate candies made in Wilton molds and was quite pleased with the results! They were delicious!

The girls and I each read a note we wrote to each friend and their moms. It was a sentimental and emotional time. They are such sweet friends.

Mady reading to Elizabeth and Mrs. Brockob and giving Elizabeth a gift she made her...

Mady and Elizabeth...soul sisters.

Evie reading her notes to Molly and Mrs. Tatgenhorst, and giving Molly the gift she made her...

Evie & Molly...BFF&e&e&e&e...

The lucky mom's of these precious girls: Susan, Michele, Phyllis

Two GEMS to Bragg About!

My older two, E & M, amazed me this morning.

Typically, school mornings are a wee bit stressful, what with getting a 4th, 2nd, and kindergartener ready and off while simultaneously dealing with a whiney, morning cranky three year old.

I won't name names, but one of these school girls is notorious for getting side-tracked every other minute, and one is notorious for having a variety of clothing breakdowns most mornings.

But somehow...

This morning, I woke early as I typically do, to steal a few quiet moments to myself, and who should arrive on the scene but a fully dressed eldest daughter who is preparing her lunch in the kitchen. Am I in the wrong house? Who are you and what have you done with my E?? Upon quizzing her on the variety of things she needs to have done and prepared before going off to school she check, check, checked off each one of them! I tried to praise her in just the right way that would instill pride in herself and a desire to repeat this performance come Monday!

She actually told me that she wanted to "beat" M, because M is one of those children that just does what she is told to do without actually having to be told to do it(...it is amazing to have one of those kids!) M is notorious for being up early and ready to go without any parental freakouts from moi. :)

M awoke and quickly readied herself and since there are 45 minutes to kill before carpool arrives, I have rewarded them with breakfast in the basement and a SpongeBob episode.

The "clothing issues" child does not have school today, but she came down dressed in a party dress for a play date...(I'll say it again, who are these children and what have you done with my daughters?!) We almost had a meltdown when the bow that tied around her was not laying "properly". We could not tame the wil-da-beast that was the offending bow, and so had to tie it on the side in some wierd way that satisfied the "clothing policewoman".

And I live on decaf coffee in the morning, people!

So here I am, getting to do a morning post while my children are enjoying a morning reward downstairs. Bliss. There is hope yet. God is good to give us morsels that show us that what we are trying to instill in our children might just eventually take root...even if its for just one blissful Friday morning.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

My inner craft girl is on full throttle these days. I have the girls making crafts for friends and teachers, I am crafting, and we are decorating. Here is a taste of some of the fun we have been having...

I bought these little trees with tiny ornaments for the girls to decorate for their rooms (G & S share). They had so much fun putting them together. I managed to stay hands off and not micro-manage. :)

G placing the star.

E concentrating on the fine details of her decorations.

M putting on some finishing touches.

G wearing a christmas headpiece creation of hers.

S enjoying her tree.

Working hard.

This is a birthday poster for Sarah's kindergarten class that I told her teacher I'd make at the start of the school year. Finally got it whipped up last night. Better late than never, right?....right??

I got an early birthday treat when we decorated our tree and house on Sunday. CJ knew I'd love to feast my eyes on this all month and so I got my birthday present (Dec. 16) a couple weeks early.

The willow tree nativity. I LOVE IT!!!!!!

In position. It is gorgeous with the twinkling lights and sparkly trees.

Trimming the tree.