Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

The annual Ugly Sweater party has come and gone. It truly is great fun wearing those amazing sweaters. We ate, we drank (Eggnog), and were quite merry...in an uplifting way of course.


Chad's special table

playing pin the square on Bill Cosby's sweater. Derek was elated when he won a "grown up game"


Christian and Katie won the ugliest sweater prize this year

A game of Christmas trivia

Thank you to everyone for coming and bringing such holiday cheer, we had a great time...and it appears you did too. (photos from our "photo booth")









"I'll see YOU next year"

"The Candyland Party"

Posting a month later...not too bad.
Pre-Candyland Departure
On the actual day of Audrey's birthday Mom and Dad made her (and her brothers) German pancakes in bed. They savored it while watching cartoons. Does it get any better than that?




Candy Land or Bust, would be an appropriate title.

Audrey and I had planned her (and Chad's) "Candy Land" party for months! I spent weeks ahead of time preparing all the fabulous details {how to space and size the construction paper spaces to fit our 60'x30' cement court, layout of tables, cake design, Candy Castle and its delicious spread, cardboard cutout characters and landmarks, other games and accessories, invites and thank you note designs...}

However, nothing seemed to go as it was so fabulously planned. The week before the party I kept getting vertigo, and fell quite far behind on the detail preparation. Two days before the party I resigned to the fact that it was not going to be the grand Candy Land adventure I had been preparing for. Until, Mom called Melinda and asked for help for me. Melinda came up on Friday (my birthday) to help do all things party; I must say the list was quite long. Between Christian, Melinda, and myself we were able to color, glue, tape, and decorate all night and day to have everything ready to go with 3 hours to spare before the party started.

Just when I thought all was well and the grand party was saved...a thunder storm rolled in! we pulled all the characters and signs in so they wouldn't get ruined. Then...as we watched the rain soak our yard, and began cleaning the house up for an indoor party, Derek started puking. He threw up on the carpet, then the sink, then the couch pillow. I'd say this was the point I realized the huge dream party was unraveling pretty fast.

Then came another turn in the story. The rain poured for 2 1/2 hours, but stopped 30 minutes before party time. As a team we decided it was all or nothing; we were laying out the Candy Land board whether it was going to rain again or not. So, Christian got out the leaf blower to dry off the court as much as possible. Out went the decorations. Out went the candy table. I dried all the linens that got soaked. Out went all the cake and snacks, and we started taping squares down as fast as we could. Since we only had a half hour to set everything back up again we had to shorten the game board, but it worked out just fine.


Children came. We played "Licorice, Licorice, Lollipop" (AKA duck, duck, goose), Gum Drop Hopscotch (which Audrey and I made gumdrop shaped bean bags for), and then Candy Land! It was so much fun to watch all the kids excitedly working their way toward Candy Castle. No one was more excited to play than Audrey! As the big kids played the game all of Chad and his little friends were running back and forth from sneaking licorice at Candy Castle, to the Lollipop Woods balloons, to the "Castle tower" (a kid sized circus tent), then back for more licorice-adorable.

Derek looking a little green still at the candy table & the cute b-day girl with the treat bags.

After the mad rush and pure thrill of filling their bags with as much of their favorite candies as they wanted, we headed over to the cake and present tables. Audrey and Chad both blew out the candles on their beautiful Candy Land cake.

Audrey opened presents first and got all things Hello Kitty and Barbie. She was LOVING it. A while later we convinced Chad to open his gifts. He opened first a big bouncy ball. When he saw what it was he said, in his adorable little voice, "oh, its awesome." All the adults that heard laughed and Lynette Bodell said, "I have never heard a 2-year-old say that while opening presents at their party!"

Other highlights of the party: Chad's pants kept falling off, and even tripped him a couple times. Tristen, who is potty training, decided that the blue square just past Lolli was a good place to poop [that went over well with the 5-year-old girls].


All in all it was a great party, despite all the setbacks. We shared cake and treats and fun with lots of friends and family; we didn't get rained on; Audrey had a great birthday celebration and was so happy to be with all her friends and cousins.

Picture Details {a document must for me}

our favorite life-size (if you are 5) Candyland characters

Welcome to the Island of Sodor

It is hard to believe my little boy has passed up the 5 year milestone and moved on to 6! I figured this would probably be the last year of his Thomas infatuation, so I had to go all out...no detail left undone.
I sent out these custom made invitations tucked into really cute ticket envelopes (didn't get a picture of those)

Guests were welcomed to the party by the Island of Sodor welcome sign and fun balloon tunnel/arch.

While guest were arriving the children played with tracks and trains at our first station, "Great Waterton station."


After playing with trains we traveled to Braithwait Station where we played "Sir Topham Hat Says." Christian (aka Sir Topham Hat) got a kick out of making all the kids scream.

Our next stop on the island of sodor was a quick run to Tidmouth Sheds (the dessert table) to gobble up the melting treats. I decorated the "sheds" with my new favorite pendant banner made from scrap material from the quilt I made Derek (so he could hang it above his bed after the party), and the awesome picnic tarp that Aunt Natalie sent Derek from Japan. They made the table quite festive.

The Otter Pops and Rice Krispies were the ones melting all over the beautiful dessert table, so they were the first to be eaten.



After all the children were refreshed we went to the Center Island Quarry to play toss the bean bags into the silly freight cars. Every one did a fantastic job.

Shining Time Station was next. There we decorated picture frames with favorite Thomas and Friends characters, Sodor sayings, and railway signs. I also took pictures of each child with Thomas to fill their new frames (they were sent to them later as thank you notes).

A few more snacks and some pizza...

Then, we moved along to Knapford Station to play "Pin the Party Hat on Thomas."

Lastly, it was cupcake and present time. Derek was thrilled about ALL of the presents; thank you to everyone!

As our friends traveld home from the Island of Sodor they took these cute favor bags with them. Each bag had a CD of Derek's favorite Thomas songs (with custom CD label), a train or star cookie cutter, a star straw, a Thomas notepad, and sucker. Then the children could fill their bags with the candy from the jars on the dessert table.