We decided to have a little Christmas-themed playdate at our place! It was lots of fun and Elizabeth was a great help at making cookies and helping decorate the house and tree with all our Christmas things.
Here she is helping with the Gingerbread Men in preparation for our party! Adding the finishing touch w/redhot buttons! And of course I let her lick the spoon of icing (below)!
It was funny, because the day before I told Elizabeth that we would be having a little party with her friends. She was very excited and asked if it was her birthday party and if she could have a birthday cake. I explained that it was a Christmas party to celebrate Jesus' birthday, and instead of cake, we would have cookies. She was very excited about that! Then we got into a long conversation about God and Jesus, which started with her question: "Where IS God?" To which I tried my best to explain that he lives in Heaven but he is also all around us watching over and and that if we ask him he can come live inside our hearts. The next morning, she then told me, "Mommy, God lives inside my tummy." I said, "Oh really? Do you mean he lives inside your heart?" To which, she insisted, "Nope. Tummy." :)
Pictured below: Anna, Savannah, Liam, and Braeley. As you can see, Liam was not a fan of being put down. Not pictured is little Ava Elizabeth, only 1 month, who spent most of the party in our little bouncy seat! If your remember from our Halloween post, we went trick-or-treating w/Laurey and Rich and their daughter Katherine (friends from our neighborhood). At the time, Laurey was a few days past her due date for baby #2. Anyway, long story short, after the night of trick or treating, the next morning we got a call from Laurey, saying they'd had the baby and they were back home! We couldn't believe it! Just a few hours before we'd been trick or treating and she was pregnant, now they'd not only had the baby, but were back home! Needless to say, an almost-full moon, and lots of walking, really seemed to help! Lol! It was SO nice to see little Ava again!
ANYWAY, Not long after the kiddos arrived, I put Mr. Fussy down for his nap, and he surprisingly slept through the whole party, despite lots of yelling, crying, and a few tantrums in the playroom right next door! What a good sleeper he is!!! Hopefully that means he will do great back in Kansas with our very loud family gatherings! Haha!
One of Elizabeth's BFFs, Caroline (Anna's big sis)! I loved the matching pigtails and Christmas outfits!!! And I love watching them play together... you'd never know Caroline is about 4 months younger! They are VERY similar and play so well together!
And another BFF, Katherine. It was cute because when they first arrived, Elizabeth grabbed her hand and marched her straight upstairs to the playroom, which was surprising, because Katherine is usually a little more reserved so we were surprised she went right up! I guess there's no saying no to Little Miss Bossy.
I set up a craft table for the kiddos to decorate little ornaments and door hangers. Elizabeth thoroughly enjoyed the glitter-glue! Seated next to Elizabeth is Luke--he's in Elizabeth's Sunday School class, along with his brother Andrew. When the boys were set to leave, Elizabeth said, "Bye Luke! Bye Andrew! Kiss-Kiss" and then proceeded to kiss each boy goodbye. I have no idea where she learned this, but it was pretty stinkin' cute!
Brother and sister in their Christmas outfits!
In case you can't read the shirt: "Who needs Santa when I have grandma!" Aint that the truth!!! We are VERY spoiled by lots of grandmas and great-grandmas! And not just Elizabeth!!! :) We sure wish our grandmas (and grandpas) lived close by to celebrate Christmas at our house this year and every year! Thankfully, we have met and made some nice friends in this area, and so it was VERY nice to have everyone over for a little festive fun!
Decorating the tree. I bought the shatter proof ornaments from Walmart on Black Friday. You can literally bounce the ornaments and they don't break. Believe me, Elizabeth tested that out!
Our Christmas tree turned out SO pretty, even if it isn't real (we are WAY too frugal to waste money on a real one every year). The only thing missing is a topper, as our star from last year broke. I wish the camera would get a good pic of the tree... it looks much less fake than the picture seems to convey!
Anyway, it was SUCH a fun day! And we are so excited about a few other parties we have planned at the house! In case you haven't guessed, my latest philosophy (now that I have two kiddos, which makes getting out of the house rather challenging) is to bring the party to ME! So much easier that getting out! OH, and it's lots of fun!
