Annual Gingerbread Party

Well, another year down. This year was probably the easiest year yet...but still, I think I'm ready to call it quits. I was discussing it with some friends and it's been eight years. Eight years. That's a long run, right? Maybe I'll do it for ten years, a nice round number, and then go out with a bang! Bret said we'll give away a car to the winner!hehe Will anyone be in the market for a 2005 Nissan Altima? It's just that, the older the kids get, the harder it is to leave them out. I thought about doing a separate party for them, but that could very possibly kill me. So I think, two more years, then I start doing it for them.

There. Two more years. Done. It's on the blog, so it's official.

Right, ON WE GO!

First place was, once again, newcomers! Chad and Sarah came into the game with Rapunzel's tower. "Tangled" took first place. Rapunzel was the theme of the night, or so it seemed. Ryan and Tracy took second with, "Let Down Your Hair". Look at the amount of gingerbread on that board!

Third place, "for creativity," Kendra said, was Mike and Rene's "Crapper Can".

I can't decide if it's fortunate or unfortunate that I didn't get a good shot of the inside. It was perfectly disgusting in every way.

A HUGE, GIGANTIC, VERY BIG, THANK YOU to Kendra, Jay and their friends for braving the cold when all the logs had burned out and judging all the houses. You guys are awesome!

Now for all those losers! (I can say that because we were one of them!)

It was Cara and Jason's first show, so we'll let it slide. They didn't bring any candy for decorating so I gave them some of ours. Totally against the rules, but like I said, we'll let it slide.
They may have saved it with the name, though. I present to you, "Section 8".

Here's Tim and Nancy with "Powered by Windmill".

John and Rose came for the first time. They turned in "Hansel and Gretl on a budget".

I think I've enjoyed this more since we've started naming the houses!

Gennifer and Jeffrey brought in the "Sugar Bowl".

..see what I mean with the names! Get it? It's a bowling alley and it's made out of...candy...which is made out of...sugar! I'm quick like that!

And here is one of my favorites. Julie and Preston brought in a whole "Ski Lodge".

I liked the mountainscape in the background with the ski lift. Very creative. I think I liked most how they had it standing up with little gingerbread easels...at least that's what I would call them. It was too cute.

And here we are with "Visions of Sugar Plums".

Julie said something along the lines of "This looked much better in my mind," as they were decorating their house. I think most of us were feeling that way by the end of the night! It's very hard to translate your glorious vision into gingerbread, icing and candy. But I was mostly happy with how ours turned out. We just ran out of time and I didn't get to put everything on that I had planned, so it was rather plain. I did get to make sheets of hard candy from scratch for the first time! It was rather awesome...I just never got to use it on the house! It didn't work for what I wanted to use it on.

Bret made the kids graham cracker houses this year. They were so excited! I guess that's mostly why I think I should start planning their parties instead of my own!

Now I just need to find the energy to help my house recover from all the festivities. Wish me luck!

He Sees You When You're Sleeping...

We were invited to a Family Home Evening Christmas party on Monday. We ate soup and lots of sweets, sang some carols then it was time for the highlight of the evening....Santa Claus!

Grayson is quite enamored by the man in the red suit. He was so excited for Santa!

Mabel could take him or leave him...she was leaning much more toward leaving him.

And I know what you're thinking, "Don't you ever do that girl's hair?" The answer is...yes, in the morning and then anything goes after nap time!

Aiden is pretty sure this wasn't the REAL Santa, so it really didn't matter if he was naughty or nice.

PS-I love that Santa's beard was curled. Too cute!

Teenage Drama at FOUR??

I just had a flashforward to teenage years type of experience with Grayson.

Sadie was over here playing with Gray. Sadie decided she wanted to go home and wanted Gray to come. I told Gray he couldn't go because Tracy (Sadie's mom) already had a house full of kids (seven to be exact...with one of mine). Gray immediately started with the crying and saying he wanted to go, he wanted to go, he wanted to go.

I said, "Sorry. If I didn't already know Tracy had a house full of kids, I would let you. But she has enough."

Gray responded, still sobbing, "But I want to be with her!"

Eegad! That was a little too real for me.

Also, I just wanted to document a funny that Aiden said yesterday:
Mabel was, surprise, surprise, a piggy mess. Bret was telling her to get in the bath tub. Aiden said, "Uh, clean up on aisle Mabel." I thought it was funny. I'm sure he got it from somewhere...just not sure where.

ROAR!!! He's FOUR!

This year Grayson chose his party theme and it wasn't CARS!! He has a new love, thanks to the show, DINO DAN. It was DINOSAURS!

I found a reeeeally easy (but extremely messy!) fondant recipe on the net (marshmallow fondant). Then cut out some shapes and such with playdough cutters.

Almost immediately after this pic, Gray dropped my camera off the island and it broke. No more picture taking by me for the rest of the party. He was lucky it was his birthday...

Luckily, Grandma Yellow always comes prepared! She snapped the rest of these shots for me (THANK YOU GRANDMA!).

We started the party with some grub, hotdogs and hamburgers. (Check out Mabel's hair!! Aunt Kendra said it looks like I just said, "Sorry, Mabel. It's not your special day, so you don't have to look cute." And that may be true.)

The activities began with a dinosaur dig in the ex-garden area...with spoons. I thought it was going to be too easy otherwise.

As it turns out, it may have been a little more difficult than I thought. Bret and I had to dig in and help! Then they had to get the dinosaur "fossil" out of the ice block. Some chose to throw it against the wall.While others took a bit more meticulous approach.Here's Gray with his favorite cousin Talon showing off his ice block.

And lastly, they hatched their dinosaur egg for a surprise inside!

We opened gifts, and opened more gifts...

and more gifts...

Then sang to the brithday boy,
ate cake and ice cream
and called it a party, because Gray was ready to break into ALL of his awesome toys!

Happy birthday, Monkey!

Costume Confessional

I really phoned it in this year, as my sister pointed out. A hand me down and a store bought el cheapo costume. But what can I say? Aiden has his own mind now and he wanted Spiderman. I wasn't about to attempt to make it! So, Wal-mart? You betcha! Gray got the hand me down as per usual. I thought the costume was adorable, but that's just me. He was Mr. Incredible...but if you ask him, he was Jack-Jack. Otherwise, there was no convincing him to wear the thing.

Mabel is still young and maleable, so I turned to my BFF Martha Stewart for a little inspiration, and voila! A baby chick was born. I loved it! Er, everything but the feathers. By the end of the trunk or treat there were feathers everywhere. My house was covered in them as well. Mabel hated getting into the costume, which I must admit was pretty nightmarish, but she looked so stinkin' cute! I only made her wear it to the trunk or treat. She didn't go trick or treating, so it was all good.

Here's us trying to get a good pic of Mabel.

It wasn't happening.

And now trying to get one of the whole gang.

Wasn't happening.

And we had to get a shot of my friend, Cara's, kids (they were a little more accomodating). This is hilarious! Jayce is an illegal, and Evie is obviously border patrol. I couldn't stop laughing!