Birthdays and Christmas

After we had homemade apple pie for Thanksgiving, Alice decided that's what she wanted for her birthday instead of cake. Right after we got back home from church, I whipped up an apple pie. It was easy because all I had to do was make the pie crust. The apple pie filling was waiting in the pantry from when I made it in October. She was very anxious to do her birthday celebration, but we had to eat our dinner first. But we finally did it. We sang once and she was starting to blow out candles when I realized that I forgot to call Nikki because she wanted to sing with us. So, we lit the candles again after calling her up. She was in the middle of a nap so she didn't stay on the phone long. One funny thing is that Alice asked for apple pie and then she didn't even eat any until the next day, and she only ate one slice out of the entire pie. She did, however, eat some vanilla ice cream. Funny girl. 

It's great to be 8!

Charlotte wanted to light the candles.

Her reaction when she got Super Kitties toys from Charlotte. It is a TV show on Disney Plus.

For her big gift, we used her blindfold from her pin the horn game to cover her eyes while the boys brought it in.

I had it covered with black bags out in the truck.

Barbie's dream house! It's as tall as she is, and I had no idea how big it was when I went to pick it up. It was for sale on Facebook marketplace over in Pasco. I also didn't notice until after I got home that it had a big, cracked area on one of the walls. That's my fault for not looking at it closely before buying it, but it would have been nice if they had told me about it as well. It did also come with some accessories. The Barbie car was one of her new birthday gifts, so it has a garage to park in now. She loves her new Barbie house! The girls played with it all evening.

Finally, Curtis gets to open some gifts. He wasn't expecting anything.

A shirt, a sweater, a movie about Abraham Lincoln (found at Goodwill still new in package), Bananagrams, and Costco size bag of pistachios. He kept saying he wanted to get Bananagrams so I decided it was time.

Alice with her card from Gma Vernie and Gpa Tony, along with some money.

The girls showed Sage she could get on the Barbie house and then later she got on by herself. She approves!

Alice said this was the best birthday ever. It's safe to say she's a happy girl! 

This Christmas Eve and Day was pretty relaxed. We didn't have anyone over, and no family came to visit. It was mostly fine, but I did miss how we used to do our thing Christmas morning and then pack up and go to someone's house to eat and play games or watch movies. We tried to do that with our kids, but they are a little less accommodating. We did play a little on Christmas Eve while dinner was cooking. Right after dinner, the kids wanted to open their pajama presents, as is tradition. Curtis and I had started a Christmas puzzle that day and finished it on Christmas day. We ended up watching two movies on Christmas Eve because it was early enough. We watched Home Alone 2. Then we read "The Night Before Christmas" and the girls went downstairs to go to bed and the rest of us watched "White Christmas". After getting our finishing touches ready for Christmas Day, we got to bed around midnight. 

The girls played hangman with Curtis.

We cooked up some sausage rolls and a salad for our dinner.

I sat down and played a little also.

Time to open pajamas.

In pajamas and settled in to watch "Home Alone 2".

After the movie, Garrett said he wanted to be the one to read "The Night Before Christmas" this year, so Curtis let him.

Santa came and it's all ready for Christmas morning!

Stockings were filled. I love that the reflection of the Christmas tree showed up on the TV screen.

That night was a rough night of sleep for me. First, I couldn't get to sleep because Curtis was snoring louder than heck. He can fall asleep so easily. Some nights like this it's frustrating for me because it affects me being able to fall asleep. Then around 3am or so Charlotte comes in and tells me that she and Alice can't sleep. I tell her to go read books in their room. They leave, but then 2 hours later I can hear them playing downstairs and they were loud. I sent a text message to their phone watch to quiet down and thankfully they did. Then around 7:30 Jack comes in to wake us up. Ugh, I was so tired, but I got up and we did our thing.

Milo got his gift first. It was a portable dog water bottle that we can take on walks or hikes. Charlotte picked it out.

Garrett got a matching Boise State license plate cover for the front of his car. He also got a tie, a BSU mug, a book set of myths from different parts of the world, a car window shade, chocolate orange, rubber hand (from Alice), and a car that rolls when you pull it back and release. He was satisfied.

She got a light pink headband in her stocking and some pink heart sunglasses from Gma B. They matched her new pajamas perfectly!

Alice got her trampoline from Santa, three new headbands, stickers, a car (like Garrett's), a Chelsea Barbie doll, pink heart sunglasses, a keychain from Charlotte, a chocolate orange with pop candies in it, and multiple things from Gma B- blue dress, hair clips, coloring pages and crayons, pom poms and pool inflatables.

Charlotte got her gymnastics bar, rubber lifelike reptiles (snake, lizard and dragon head puppet), gloves, a blue car (like Garrett's), chocolate orange with pop candy in it, and multiple things from Gma B- pink heart sunglasses to match Alice's, pool inflatables, coloring supplies, a cat pillowcase, and two bags that could be used for makeup or other things. She also got a Book of Mormon from her Primary teacher that they had used the last year to mark and write things in. They added their testimony on the inside cover.

Jack got a new wallet, a necktie, BSU mug from Gma B, gloves, yellow car (like Garrett's), a rubber sticky hand from Alice, and a Lord of the Rings board game. Unfortunately, he learned this game is an extension and can't play it without the original. We went ahead and ordered the original game for him, but it won't come until after school break. He'll keep the extension as part of his birthday gift.

The boys put Charlotte's gymnastics bar together while Curtis cooked pancakes for breakfast.

He made them Christmas shaped pancakes.

Charlotte loves it. It slides around a bit on the hard floor though, so we need to figure out how to keep it from moving.

Working on the puzzle.

Garrett looking at one of his myth books. This one is Egyptian myths.

The gymnastics bar came with a swing!

Jack gave up his old square pillow so Charlotte could put her new cover on it. The pillow was originally given to Garrett when he was little and had a Buzz Lightyear cover on it. You can't even see the picture anymore because it's been washed so much.

We moved the gym bar and the trampoline to the girls' room. Having it on carpet keeps it from moving around. I also helped them organize their room more and Curtis hung new stuffed animal nets.

Finished our puzzle without any help from the kids. It was meant to be a family activity. Oh well.

Our temple light/music box that Dad and Laverne gave us. At this point I still needed to glue the angel Moroni on, but I did that yesterday, so it's on now.

I love that this gym bar can fold up.

It was a nice Christmas this year, but I do kind of hope to have a little more people around next year or go somewhere. 

The Week Before Christmas Fun Stuff

The very next day after we returned from Nampa was Jack's band Christmas concert. It was the whole music department taking turns; jazz band, choirs, orchestra, and other bands. Jack had a solo but his group was up high behind the crowd for that number. You had to crank your head around and up to be able to see them. This happened throughout the performance. Some groups would be up there on either side. Others would be on the main stage, either in the middle or off to one of the sides. It helped to make things interesting and it gave time for bigger groups to set up behind the curtain for the next performance. The orchestra walked around the perimeter with the lights off and had glow sticks on their bows for one of their songs. That's always fun to watch. It was a fun concert, and the girls came with us to watch this one.

All ready for the concert. I'm glad he wore a Santa hat because it made it much easier to find him. Only a handful of people wore festive hats.

He was in the middle in this picture. Still kind of hard to see him way back there.

The girls brought home some Christmas gifts for mom and dad the next day that they had made at school. They were too excited for me to open them and didn't want to wait until Christmas. They also said that I kind of needed to open them before Christmas (since they were ornaments). I love the creativeness that the teachers come up with such cute gifts to give!

We had donated some holiday m&m's and now I know why. They made a cute little candy machine.

And her picture was on the back.

Alice made a homemade gift bag with her gift inside.

The art project that I helped her class with. When I helped they were only at the stage of painting the background and the fingers for the snowmen. It turned out so cute!

On Thursday the 19th, Sister Gale and I took our other activity day leader, Toni Diaz, out to lunch for her birthday. Sister Gale offered to pay, and she took us to one of the expensive fish restaurants called Anthony's. Curtis and I had eaten here before. We all ordered the fish and chips. The fish and the fries were really good but none of us liked the coleslaw. It had a weird flavor that we think is from the ginger they put in it. Anyway, they brought Toni a dessert afterwards and we got to taste it, but we were all stuffed. We had to use the restroom before we left, and this was the first time I had ever been in this one. We were all surprised to see that each stall had it's own mirror and sink right there by the toilet!

It was weird but kind of cool to have it right there after you finish so you can wash right away and have the privacy to check yourself in the mirror without others looking at you.

After we finished our lunch, we decided to do some shopping because I still had a few small items to try to find for gifts. We went thrift store shopping to a few places in Richland. By the time we finished, it was very close to time for the girls to get out of school. We started heading back to drop off Sister Diaz when I realized I could call Garrett and have him pick the girls up from school, so he did, and I could relax. It was fun to go out shopping with friends for a change.

Saturday the 21st, was the day of Alice's friend birthday party. I did not plan what they were going to do until a few days before. Curtis bought Alice some party invites the week before and Alice filled all of them out by herself once she had the right information. She passed half of them out before our trip to Nampa and then the rest when we came back. The morning of the party, we did some decorating and cleaning. We rearranged the basement so it would be more open and have lots of space since Alice invited 11 friends. While I was vacuuming that floor, the girls had a little fun with Milo and tied him with yarn to the office chair like he was a reindeer.

They even made antlers out of paper and a headband. He did not like it though.

Charlotte was helpful and took charge of playing some games with the girls while I was upstairs getting food ready. They did some fun YouTube exercise videos and Charlotte created a laser maze with red yarn connecting from the couch to the ottoman and folding chair. We had them come up and eat after that. Instead of pizza, I decided we would have meats, cheeses, crackers and fruits like we did at activity days. After they ate, we sang happy birthday. Instead of cake this year, Alice asked for apple pie. Not knowing how many people like apple pie I talked her into just buying a mini one for her for singing to and then get cookies or something for everyone else. She was fine with that and ended up picking out a gingerbread cookie decorating kit that had 16 cookies in it. So all of the girls got to decorate their own cookie. After cookies, we went downstairs again to play a few more games and then open gifts. They played pin the horn on the unicorn, Limbo, and Charades. Some girls really loved playing Limbo and did it several times.

Not all of her friends came but they still had a lot.

Decorating their cookies.

Pin the horn on the unicorn.

You can see the tape on the floor where they tried to play tic tac toe but it didn't work very well.

Charlotte and I took a turn after all the other girls went.

It was a good party, and I think the girls had a lot of fun. I'm thankful it's over now. I told her that next year it will just be a family party only. We can't do a friend party every year. It's just too much. The main reason we let her do it this year is because she is turning 8 and getting baptized.

The next day was her actual birthday and also our ward Christmas sacrament meeting. We had to be there early since Charlotte and I were singing in the choir, but we managed to wake up early enough to make some French toast for breakfast beforehand. There was Sacrament meeting only that day so that people could spend more time with family before the Christmas holiday. On the way home, I told everyone that we needed to get a family picture and not to change right when we got there. Thank goodness for the tripod Curtis got me.

Got a picture with her by the big yard sign right after church. I'm glad we were able to use it again.

Family picture

Having a little fun with Sage. Ha ha!

Catalina Diaz made this for me and her sister-in-law Toni (from activity days) handed it to me after sacrament meeting. Such a cute idea!

The kids started eating it before I could get a picture with it, so I had to cover part of it with my hand.

This post is a little long so I will continue with Alice's birthday celebration on the next post.