Monday, December 19, 2011

Cookies with Santa!

With Maeryn getting more and more excited about Christmas this year,
we decided to host a little cookie decorating party for all
the little ones in our cul de sac.

Maeryn helped get the cookies ready for the party... 

 
Then she took a breakfast break with Kevin.
  Some of the pre-party details...
Each little girl had her own spot at the table with plenty of icing and sprinkles,
and an elf hat for extra fun!

 We had tons gingerbread and sugar cookies to choose from.
 and hot chocolate with their choice of marshmallows
or whipped cream with pepermint chips... YUM!
 Shocker.  Maeryn sitting at the food table!
(making sure everything tasted great before her guests arrived)
 Everyone arrived right on time, and the CHAOS... I mean decorating, began!
The two oldest girls (twins) Kara and Kelsie, age 9.
Their cookies turned out AWESOME, giving me hope that this idea
is not a lost cause down the road for the little girls who's "art"
consisted more of the moms attempting to keep the icing spreaders
out of their mouths (and off their clothes), and the sprinkle
dispensers from being entirely dumped over onto the plates at once!
 Hey, they had fun though and the mess was temporary (of course
because as Kevin kept telling everyone, my "cleaning crew"
would take care of everything later!)...
 Olivia (20 Months) and her mom Meaghan
 Sophie (2 yrs)
 Maeryn's cookies :-)
 Addison (3&1/2 yrs)
 Piper (1 yr)

 After the girls finished decorating their cookies, we heard the doorbell ring
and all of the girls ran to see if was the much anticipated guest of honor...
SANTA!!!!
 Everyone took their turns sitting with Santa and telling him
what they wanted for Christmas - Sophie started it out, she did fantastic,
and afterwards she told him that he needed to take a shower!!!  LOL!
 Some of the girls were NOT thrilled about this idea.


Seeing these kiddos squirm was not helping our cause with Maeryn either,
because for whatever reason Santa is great from across the room,
but she wanted no part of the whole sitting on his lap thing...
Here's me trying to convince her he was cool.
I guess seeing that he didn't harm little 2 month old Clarke was evidence enough...
  We finally got her to as least talk to the guy, but there would be no sitting on laps!
 She told him what she wanted for Christmas and he told her to make sure to leave
out cookies with "ice cold milk", that must have convinced her he was one of
the good guys because she dove right in for a big Santa hug!
After Santa spent a little time with each of the kiddos he really stole the show
with his reading of Twas The Night Before Christmas...

(Video will not load... I will try again later)

The party was a huge success and everyone had a great time.
I'm pretty sure we will need to book Santa for next year right away, 
I know his schedule is VERY busy this time of year!  

The Christmas card photo that never was...

This one didn't quite make the cut for the Christmas card...
Maybe next year! ;-)

Monday, December 12, 2011

The mother of all dollhouses!

Nana's Christmas present for Maeryn this year was the Majestic Mansion Dollhouse.
This thing is AMAZING.
3 stories of 9 fully furnished rooms, including a baby's nursery,
a sunroom, an elevator and a garage!
Nana had it shipped to us last week and Kevin put it together yesterday,
so Maeryn got to have round one of Christmas 2011 a couple weeks early.
(mostly because I couldn't contain my excitement)

We had Nana and Bob on Skype and got some video of 
Maeryn's first reaction to her early gift...


Here it is, in all it's glory!
 The family of dolls we bought to go with it... 
 Kitchen
 Dining Room
 Bedroom
Bathroom
Nursery
Sunroom
Garage - look at the "tire marks" on the floor!
The happy girl!!
Yes, it really is that tall!

This was how she put all of the dolls to bed last night!
She had to make sure they were ALL in the same room (even the pets),
and notice, one of the little girls is sleeping on a coffee table!
Thank you Nana, we love it!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

We are having so much fun this year, enjoying everything that this season brings...
We took a drive through Tilles Park the other night to see all the Christmas lights.

Taking "quality" pictures while driving, in the dark, with my sub-par camera,
is MUCH easier said than done.  Here are my best efforts...




Can't believe Maeryn let us get away with not going
on a carriage ride through the park... Next year for sure!

 Sunday was photo with Santa Day!
We pumped her up for this event all weekend, reminding her to tell Santa about all
the toys she'd been asking for and to find out what kind of cookies he likes, etc.
On the day of, she was still all smiles as Kevin and she killed time
(while I waited in line) checking out the huge fish tank and the train set 
and riding on the carousel at Bass Pro.
(again, sorry for the poor picture quality, have I mentioned I hate my camera?)

The nice ladies I was in line with let me jump out to get this (crappy... but cute) pic.
 Bass Pro has really cornered the market on the Photo with Santa thing.
They have games and rides, a coloring/letter to Santa writing area,
a really cute workshop, and the best Santa around!

The excitement started to wear off and the closer we got to the guy in red,
and finally... as soon as she was face to face, Maer freaked.
(although, I must say, Santa looks a little scared too)
If only we had more time.
 
 She was just starting to warm up to him...
(and him to her)
 and BAM.  Turn around and smile kid.
...yea right.
There's always next year...

Wait, didn't I say that last year???