Party, Party!

Friday was a day full of parties. Both girls had their holiday parties at school.....and then that afternoon/evening was Derek's flight Christmas party. I was surprised, but the kids had a lot of fun there. There was a foosball table set up that they enjoyed playing and they also made some new friends and played a lot of hide and seek. There was a craft table set up for the kids to color and decorate cookies. This was the only picture I took all night.

There were several games played throughout the night. Allie won almost every single one! I guess that tells you how bright Derek's flight is. LOL! One of the games was the guess how many is in the jar, another was a holiday trivia game, and then they had a children's contest......which was not a good idea, but they had each of the kids color pictures and then hold them up in front of everyone and whoever got the most cheers won. Luckily every kid was a good sport about it.

The most recent party happened Monday! The kids invited several of their friends over for a gingerbread house decorating party. I was a little under the weather, but we pulled it off and I think everyone had a good time.

Avery's finished product

Allie's finished product

Blake destroyed his before I could get a picture.

We had several games planned but only got to play one, which the kids seemed to enjoy a lot! Then we did a quick photoshoot before everyone left.

Blake wasn't feeling the photo shoot. He's usually our most cheeky one when it comes to things like this. One of the little girls, you can barely see her in the picture, really likes Blake and wanted to chase him everywhere. I think he had had enough of it by this point.

I have to include a pic of Blake's buddy, Wyatt. This was the only one I got of him because he and Blake were up in Blake's room playing with the" boy toys" pretty much the entire time!

I'll be honest. Late last week I was regretting doing this. I was starting to have anxiety realizing that I was hosting this and would have to be directing the kids and parents. I'm realizing that I feel like I have to have things be perfect for people to like me (which I do believe that is true in some ways...but that's another story). I pushed through the anxiety and did it for the kids...and really for myself too. The kids had so much fun and I do love planning parties and had a great time getting to know the other parents better!

Here are a couple pics from the night before the party. The kiddos wanted to try out the photo booth area.

Last night we went to King's Lynn. I love walking around there.

This is an older pic that I guess I forgot to post. Blake was eating his apple and all of a sudden says, "Mom! Look, it's that Star Wars guy!!"

And lastly, last Sunday Blake started saying something really cute. He was running around calling his sisters "cheeky little ones!" I'm guessing he must hear that a lot in nursery at church. I'm just wondering if Blake is the one being called cheeky or if it's the other little ones. Blake assures me it's not him. :)

One more thing. We all know how much Avery loves her sweets. So, the night of the gingerbread house decorating party I woke up to the sound of someone throwing up. Sure enough it was Avery. I have no idea how many cookies she ate nor how much candy she had while decorating. Plus, during the rest of the day whenever I would go into the kitchen she was either sneaking candy off of her house or sneaking another cookie. That girl! It was extra funny because the next day the kids got cards with money from Mony & Papa and Avery's card said DO NOT SPEND THIS MONEY ON CANDY AVERY ELIZABETH!

"Reading"

This was taken about a month ago but just now getting around to uploading it. Little Man "reading."

Keeping Busy

December is always such a busy month. Better get a blog post in so I don't get too far behind!

Remember the teacher gifts we were working on in the last post (or maybe 2 posts)? **finished product pic was updated on that post** The girls wanted to make a snowflake gift tag for their teachers' gifts out of their hama beads. So we have been doing several hama bead projects!

Yep, that's Yoda. With the colder, darker weather we've been having lots of movie nights. Derek got the kids into Star Wars. I am not so happy about that. I don't like Star Wars. I think it's annoying and nerdy. Sorry if that offends anyone. My kids are all geeked out about Star Wars now and Derek thinks it's hilarious. Thankfully, Christmas movies have started playing and they are preferring those now! :)

Our church Primary organized a Christmas party for the kids. It was held yesterday. Unfortunately, we didn't attend because we had already committed to helping out with Derek's work Christmas party for the kids. Since I am in the Primary Presidency I helped out with the organizing, sort of. The past month during Activity Days, which Allie is a part of, we've been having the kids get things ready for the party. They made the invitations and a lot of the decorations. I was in charge of making one of the crafts. The stuff for it just arrived last week and so I was up just about every night working on it! It was a long process waiting for things to dry.

I did 60 of these!

Last Thursday night was Derek's squadron Christmas party. We got dressed up and actually went this year. Last year Derek went by himself.

The next day Allie had a field trip. I was lucky enough to be able to go with her class. It was a trip to Cambridge to the theatre to see the Aladdin pantomime. Patomimes are huge here around this time of year. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but I enjoyed it. It was really funny though there were several times where I felt that I needed to cover my 3rd graders eyes. Kinda raunchy and a bit foul languaged but that is the norm here!

One of my favorite lines that summed it up....."A joke's not a joke unless you have tears running down your legs."

Saturday was the children's Christmas party for Derek's squadron. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures. We had Mr. Marvel, a magician, come to entertain the kids. He seemed to like Allie as he was always picking on her and having her come up to do things. Derek and I were relieved to have that happen because Allie really wanted to go to the church Christmas party instead. Blake thought Mr. Marvel was hilarious. It was so cute!

Tonight we made some cookies for the Airmen Cookie Drive tomorrow. Another very busy week this week and lots of fun things planned for Winter Break! Stay tuned for more pics!

Thanksgiving Trip to York

The holidays without family close by is always tough. Good friends are always nice to have around for the holidays when we're so far away. Unfortunately, we don't have any good friends here. I guess we are just unlikable or too picky ourselves. Last year was great having the Barkers here. So much fun! Derek invited his entire squadron over, while it may have been a little awkward, I was kind of looking forward to a house full. However, not a single person rsvp'd. Sooooo, we decided we might as well take advantage of the kids being out of school and go somewhere. Bonus: the Brits don't celebrate Thanksgiving so things wouldn't be crowded. We decided to have another go at York. We went last November with Natalie and Alex but we went to Castle Howard first, which is north of the city, and by the time we left the castle it was dark so we never actually stopped in the city.

We actually stayed in Leeds as the hotels were much cheaper. We found a fun place to take the kids and went there first.....only 2 1/2 hours from the house. It is called Xscape. It has indoor skiing/snowboarding/sledding, miniature golf, arcade, laser tag, rock climbing, etc. Our plan was to do the snowboarding/sledding but once we saw the slope and the price we changed our mind. Instead we did the glow in the dark golf and had an amazing lunch at TGI Friday's. I am usually not a fan of that place in the states, but this was SO GOOD! And funny thing, Derek got a few calls/texts while we were here asking where we were! A few people showed up at our house for a Thanksgiving meal.

We then went to the hotel to check in. Our kids love hotels. So, they entertained themselves while Derek and I took a quick nap! Then we went to Leeds city centre and walked around. They had their German Christmas Market set up. I love Christmas Markets!

 It was fun to walk around and we all had a hard time deciding what yummy goodies to eat! The kids decided on German sausages and fries. They all liked it, especially Rudolph.

Derek ended up with a German burger and I had potato pancakes. Then the kids and I had donuts for dessert. Derek had a waffle with loads of Nutella. I also got a yummy hot chocolate. The hot chocolates over here are amaze balls, plus you get to keep the souvenir mug!

We ended the night watching people pay £8 to get in this snow globe where "snow" was supposed to blow around you....but didn't do much at all. And then we let the kids play one game. Blake picked out a car, Allie got a duck/fishing game and Avery picked out a police set.

The next day we were off to York. First stop, the National Railway Museum.

We had lunch at Byron's Proper Burgers. They were proper indeed! Of course, the kids ended their meals with ice cream.

That guy outside looks really familiar!

After lunch we went to visit Clifford's Tower.

Then the York Minster, which we heard is better than Westminster Abbey. Though we didn't actually tour the Minster because as soon as we went in two of the kids started fighting for whatever reason.....so we left.

Then we were off to the Shambles. A now popular, touristy street in York. Such a quaint area, with beautiful buildings dating back to the 14th century. I wished it hadn't been so crowded so we could have got better pictures. I guess Black Friday has started to catch on here.

Next, we went to an old church.

St. Mary's Abbey

Walking the walls surrounding the city

Ended the evening at the St. Nicholas Christmas Fayre.

Sunday we were able to have a traditional Thanksgiving meal. It was yummy!

Then, we even got the Christmas tree put up and the house decorated for the season!

I am loving my new entry way piece that we found for just £10!

And, how could I forget, just about the best news of the whole trip. Blake went on our first big outing with only underwears!!!! And he had NO accidents!! Plus, I only remembered one diaper and no wipes.....and he kept it dry every night.....and has been dry every morning since. He is a rock star now!!