December cont.

For Barrett's birthday, we invited several of his little friends, plus our good friends who are like family. All of his friends have a sibling so we had a housefull but it was fun. Being that many of them were around 2, I didn't plan too many activities. I had a craft planned in case playing got boring, but they kept themselves pretty entertained. Birthday express had a cute 2-year-old farm theme and the cow and 2 balloons that came with them were pretty cute too. I love that I can just give our cake lady the invitation and she'll copy it. Darren grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and we had a good time.

Waiting for the guests to arrive Notice in the upper right hand corner, Barrett got his fingers in it Because we were leaving for OK the next day, we had our Christmas that night. I really debated whether or not to have birthday and Christmas in the same day. But, for one, I didn't know when else we could do it; two, I figured he won't remember doing them both in one day. I will definitely try and separate them most of the time, or maybe start doing a half birthday in the summer, we'll see.

December

How many times have I said this, but time really does fly. There are not enough hours in the day or days in the week to accomplish everything you want or need. So, I'm just now getting around to birthdays and Christmas.

The first weekend of December, we had our first annual Breakfast in Bethlehem event at our church. I stole the idea from a church in OK and our kids and parents loved it. We had snowman donuts from Krispy Kreme, told the Christmas story, and made clay pot nativities. Not everything went smoothly from my standpoint (I forgot my bible and Christmas story, some of the craft didn't go as planned, etc), but from everyone else's viewpoint, things went great. The craft was so neat, I don't know if we can find as good a one for next year. I guess I have all year to find one. I could always steal another idea. :) We got them the day before so some were melting The next weekend was Becca's birthday. Her actual birthday was on a Friday so we let her pick 1 friend to something with. She chose her friend Dominic and to go to McDonalds. The next day, we had her party at the Roller Dome. In the back, they have a ball pit and things to climb on so it's a great place for all ages. She really like Fancy Nancy (it's a book series for kids) so a our cake lady made us a great cake.

Love the 3 dimension Trying to skate Some of the guests The next day we went to a friend's birthday party and it started snowing. They actually closed the place early; it was a little slick driving home. So, we got our first snow and sledding in early. We took Becca's best friend with us. By the time we got there, the place we normally sled was well worn by others so we went to another hill. This was also Barrett's first time sledding.