Christmas 2013 Part 1

We had a great Christmas this year. I don't feel like we went overboard, so it was nice and low-key. We did visit Santa, and everyone talked to the boys about him, but I'm still not sure how much they understood the concept. Everyone kept asking me if they were excited, but I don't think that'll be for another year or so when they can understand and anticipate that it's coming up. I definitely enjoyed all the other stuff, like decorating the tree and making cookies, etc, so that was fun to create those memories.

The boys' main present from us was a train table. We'd had a starter set of tracks, so I bought some extra trains and tracks and the table for their big gift. It has an awesome drawer, too, so the tracks can be all put away and we use it for a Lego table too! We got several DVDs since we don't have cable, and some books. I got them a stamp set, some puzzles, a few new dinosaurs, and a new set of hat and gloves. (Along with a few other little odds and ends. Opening stockings was rough since I had put a lot of treats in there that they wanted to eat right away!) Lanore got a new toy to chew up, which she really enjoyed as long as the boys weren't taking it away from her! Poor pup.

We went to my parents' house Christmas evening, after nap. Presents there were more of the same, lots of DVDs and books, and just a few toys. I feel like we already have so many toys for this age, so books are always good! It was really cute to see them opening their own presents, and passing out presents to everyone and "helping" them open, as well! We had our yummy lasagna dinner and just enjoyed time with the family. Definitely a nice Christmas! We are lucky to have both families so close and not have any major travel plans.

The Henry and Holden ornaments that I make each year

Christmas Eve 2013

Christmas Eve I decided to get crazy and let the boys decorate sugar cookies. We pretty much were staying home in our pajamas for the morning/afternoon, so I wasn't too worried about a mess. I cleared off the counters and set up the sprinkles and dough, knowing I'd want to take pictures. Only afterwards did I see how messy the rest of the kitchen was!! Sigh. I should have at least closed that cabinet door behind them...Hopefully you won't notice that too much since the boys look cute! They definitely had fun, and even shared the sprinkles pretty well. Henry kept trying to eat the raw dough and then cried when I told him he couldn't. (In his defense, the play date cookie decorating had already baked and iced cookies, so they could eat them right away. This was the roll of dough, though, so I didn't think eating it before baking was a good idea!)

"Excuse me, mind if I reach across you..."

"Yeah, Henry! Use those sprinkles!"

The finished products before going in the oven. I know you'd eat those...

After nap, we headed over to my mom's house for our usual get together. Alex had a music gig, so he didn't come with us this year, but we had a fun time with Grandma, Papaw and Aunt Lauren and Uncle Evan. I tried to get shots of the boys all dressed up, since they looked so cute! But it's impossible to get both of them to hold still and/or look in my direction. Oh well! We snacked on all our favorite foods, ran laps around the kitchen, and read some books together before heading home for bed!

 

Giving Grandma her present

Handsome boys! (Eating crackers)

Reading the Night Before Christmas

Play Group Christmas Party 2013

We had our second annual play group Christmas party, and it was a lot of fun! One of the moms used a large room from her church, and we all brought some big toys for the kids to share. It really was a huge room, so the kids could really run and ride! It was cute to see them pushing each other in the wagons, or going down the slide and crashing into each other. We always do a pasta pitch-in, so we had plenty of yummy things to eat.  (I brought dessert and made salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars and mint Oreo truffles. Both were hits!) We also do a mom secret Santa, so we have a good time exchanging presents. The kids were super interested in the opening part, so we think we will do a little exchange with the kiddos next year, too.

 

We always try for a group picture, so here are the ones we managed! Holden sat down in the empty chairs while we were getting set up. Thought that was kinda cute! The next are the several attempts at getting all the kids together (this always makes several of them cry, not sure why but it always happens!) Then we got a whole group picture, which wasn't great since it's hard to be able to see that many people, but it's fun to document. (There will be at least 4 new babies in the next Christmas picture! Ha!) And of course, a moms only picture! I didn't do a great job of taking many, since I had to eat, socialize, and open presents! :) But it was a really fun night and I'm so glad we can actually get everyone together like this. Looking forward to next year already! Love these moms and kids so much. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Henry and Holden At Two

I should do this type of post more often, and I always say that! They change so quickly, I know I'm going to forget a lot of the cute things they do that we love. So here are some things to remember right now.

Henry is the repeater. He repeats everything you say, and it's so cute. His school teacher has mentioned it, too! He likes to point out everything, including eyes, nose, eyebrows, glasses, if my hair is wet, buttons on anyone's shirt, letters on anyone's shirt, etc. He LOVES to run and loves to be chased. He and Holden both say "Mommy get you" to get me to chase them around the table. They also both say "Mommy up" or "Mommy hold you" to get me to hold them. Both boys like to help put the sound machine away, make and stir my coffee, and throw things away for us. He calls bananas "me-ahs" which I don't think is very close but Alex says it is. They both call clocks "tick tocks" which is super cute.

Holden is probably talking a little less than Henry, but conversing more. Alex thinks he wants to communicate with us, so sometimes his "conversations" include more babble that is harder to understand. He does speak in more sentences I think. He counts "1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10" and I have no clue where that came from! He wants to do things on his own. More and more he says, "I do it, Mommy." This can be good and bad! The other day he cried the whole way home from school because I didn't let him push the handicapped button on the door (because another little kid had just pushed it.) He was so upset because he wanted to do it himself!

They can be great helpers or completely stubborn. Their school teachers have said they're the best at helping to clean up after activities, and sometimes they are great like this at home too. But if they don't feel like doing it, forget it!

They both sing more songs now, Twinkle is their favorite, but they also like to do the motions for wheels on the bus or itsy bitsy spider. Holden can sing Baa Baa Black Sheep really well and I have no idea where he learned it! They like their music class but don't ever sing in class. They do like using all the instruments and playing ring around the rosie!

They are watching more videos now and love to push the power button on the TV and DVD player. Their favorite is a Gymboree video with songs about transportation and the DVD that goes along with the book Room on the Broom. They still love books, including all the dinosaur and construction ones, and still the little blue truck books.

They like to play with their Lego Duplo sets and build towers or cars. I'm excited for them to have these and be creative. They are doing more creative play, where they will go shopping with the cart or cook dinner for us in their kitchen.

Eating is still hit or miss. They still like a lot of "kid" foods like nuggets, pb&j, macaroni and cheese, fruit, etc. Sometimes they'll eat a lot and sometimes they won't touch anything. I think that's pretty normal for this age so I don't worry about it much. They definitely have a sweet tooth now that they know what candy, cake and cookies are and Alex thinks they are holding out for dessert (which they probably are.)

Farm Party Details

I decided way back that I wanted to have a petting zoo. We have a big yard, and I knew that would be the main "entertainment" for the party. I mean, what kid, especially 2-year-old, doesn't like animals? The boys weren't into any particular shows or characters, but they loved the books Little Blue Truck and Moo, Baa, La La La, which both have farm animals. I think the petting zoo turned out so well. They brought two ponies, two goats, two chickens, a rabbit and two sheep. Most of the animals just roamed our yard munching on the grass! We have some funny pictures with the goat chillin' in the background. The kids loved the bunny; she was probably the most popular!

So once I the petting zoo set up, I started browsing Pinterest for more ideas. My biggest problem is not going overboard. I love every idea I see, but it's just not possible to have them all in one party! I'm happy with the things I decided to do. I saw lots of cute game ideas, but figured for kids this age, just free time to play and eat was plenty. And it was, it was very laid-back and enjoyable.

Alex always likes to grill some large hunk of meat, so barbecue beef sandwiches were the main event. But it was easy to add "farm fresh" veggies and fruits, watermelon pops and deviled eggs to the mix. The watermelon pops ended up being a great idea; it was so easy for the kids to grab and eat and made for cute photo ops! I also did mini mac and cheese cups again like last year, but I used a simpler recipe. They turned out great and all got eaten before I could taste one! (So I'm assuming that means they were yummy.)Lots of other goodies, including hay stacks and hay bales (Rice Krispie treats), chicken feed (chex mix), and the amazing farm animal cupcakes rounded out the  food table. It was fun to make the little food labels and come up with ideas for the names. For drinks, I made my own milk bottles out of Starbucks frappuccino bottles. I removed the labels (used Goo Gone for label adhesive and nail polish remover for the ink) and ran them through the dishwasher a few times. I spray painted the lids silver and drilled a hole in the middle for straws. It didn't take too much time, and now I have a set for future parties! I made chocolate milk for the kiddos and had tea and lemonade for grown-ups. Of course we had to use our mason jars and striped paper straws, since it's such a fun look (and they're nice and sturdy for drinking outside).

For decorations in the house, I made the printables based on designs I used on the invitation. I printed them at Office Depot and used a circle cutter to make the happy birthday banner. I found the farm animal cutouts at a teacher supply store, so I hung those on the front and back doors and along the mantle. I used a red foam board, black poster board and white electrical tape to make the big barn on the mantle. I had a red tablecloth and bought a few other checked ones. We set up some tables outside, and since the weather cooperated, we ate in the backyard. It was easy to match anything red or checkered with all the decor, including some cute party cups I found in red designs, red straws, red and checkered plates, etc. I actually bought some crates at Jo-Anns and some farm theme trays and decor at a home goods store but don't think I really needed them. Hobby Lobby has the apple crates I used in several places. We bought some plain balloons to tie up as well, since that's always a hit with the 2 year old age group! I set out all of our farm-related toys and books in the living room, which the kids played with when the boys opened presents.

I created a little photo area in the back by our storage barn. We stacked hay bales and hung some cute pennant banners from Oriental Trading to create a cute backdrop. At the farmer's stand near my house, I bought some pumpkins, gourds and the corn stalks to decorate with. The animal cutouts (cow and sheep) were a totally random clearance find at Hobby Lobby! For a craft, I ordered a foam barn picture frame that kids could decorate with foam stickers from Oriental Trading, and I found some farm coloring pages at Michael's, so I set those out too. I don't think many of the kids wandered over there to do any projects, though. It was such a nice day, and we have plenty of ride on toys and the climber that the kids pretty much enjoyed the animals and the back yard!

For favors, a friend gave me the cute little galvanized buckets, which I thought were perfect! (I see similar ones all the time in the Target dollar aisle.) I found the chalkboard stickers to write kids' names at Hobby Lobby, and filled them with farm-themed goodies. I found cute farm themed board books, and fun little stuffed animals. Then I bought some pig, cow, carrot and strawberry shaped gummies online and put those in a little baggie and added a Cow Tail caramel, and that was it! I made a little thank you tag to hang on them, and I thought they turned out really well.

The cupcakes and cakes were all home-made! I was really proud of myself for doing the cupcakes. I thought they turned out so cute, and they ended up being easier than I thought! The hardest thing was finding pink marshmallows for the pig. I browsed lots of Pinterest pictures for the animal ideas. You can find the candy eyeballs at a craft store, and I've even seen them now at Target. The chickens were yellow icing and sugar, and then candy for the feathers and eyes. I bought a black icing tube to decorate the cow's face along with some brown candies. The pigs were pink icing and pink marshmallows (cut in half) for the ears and nose and candy eyes. The sheep were the hardest for some reason! The marshmallow part was easy, but deciding how to draw the "face" was difficult. For the boys' smash cakes, we made 6 inch round cakes and just decorated them like we did the pig cupcakes. Worked out really well! Alex made a barn-shaped cake for the rest of the guests.
 

It was such a fun day, and I enjoyed planning all the details. I think everything came together, and we had a gorgeous and fun day with the boys and all their friends. Click here to see my other post and pictures from the day. Hope this inspired you if you're looking for a farm themed day! Feel free to ask a question if I left out any details. And now I can't wait to start dreaming up ideas for their third birthday!! Any thoughts?