Valentine Party

The treats

Waiting for party!

Bingo....love Daniel's excitement!

Tic-tac-toe

Boys!  They spent 30 minutes playing with this.

The art!

More art!

The girls were busy!

Love bugs!

Today we had a great Valentine party. Daniel decided he wanted to be at this one, and though he was a little bored, he did a great job playing with the kids.  We played Valentine Bingo that I found here (thank you Pinterest).  It was perfect for my 3-6 year olds.  We then played Tic-Tac-Toe that I found here.  The girls moved on to our art projects while the boys kept playing their version.  Daniel made it challenging by going way far away from the board.  I really didn't pay too much attention to exactly what they were playing....all I know is they had a good time and Jamison was having fun.  A co-worker had given me a container of Love Bug stickers.  I had used the die cut machine at work and cut out a bunch of hearts from some of my stash of scrap book paper (making sure I had a few sparkles in there).  I had the idea for them to make creatures (thinking Jamison would like that) from the heart shapes, but the girls were more interested in just making pictures.  I printed off this for the kids to use the Love Bug stickers.  We are going to do this for preschool too.  The last art project was painting with a mixture of shaving cream/school glue/red paint.  It makes it puffy.  Jamison did do a little art project using the hearts and making monsters with lots of googlie eyes and large mounds of glue for the nose and mouth. 
We came upstairs and had grilled cheese sandwiches on heart plants, their choice of chips and special soda.  I bought the half size Wal-mart brand lemon-lime soda, opened it and put one drop of food coloring in it and it made it pink.  They thought that was cool. 
Yesterday I made some treats.  I took a double heart cookie cutter, made rice krispie treats, adding some pink food coloring and molded them.  I used this idea, though I didn't use strawberry marshmallows, for marshmallow pops.  The favorite was the pretzel/Hershey Kiss/M&M treat.  Everyone went home with a ballon, marshmallow pops, their plates and cups.  It is so much fun being Yaya.  It is always a little bitter sweet.....I don't get to do these things with my Utah Brewers.  I think a "Party in a Box" needs to head their way this week.  Daniel was upset the littlest Bell didn't come but I made sure she had a ballon, plate and cup.  We will include her in our Easter party.  Happy Saturday!

Second Annual Gingerbread House Party

                                                                     The Process

                                                                        Proud Paige

                                                               He was excited!

                                                                The back side of Sisi's.

                                               Papa had pictures to describe his creations.

                                         Jill had the "real" gingerbread house - cool roof.

                                                                        The Village

We decorated gingerbread houses last year and we enjoyed it so much I decided I want to make it a tradition.  I still haven't figured out how to include our Utah Brewer's in the fun, but I am open to ideas.  I fixed invitations and handed them out on Thanksgiving.  The goal was to get my single adult kids on a day they wouldn't be working and catch Jason in town.  We figured on the second Sunday in December.  The grand kids asked me every time they saw me was time for the party yet.  I made a made list of the candy I thought we would like and still forgot plenty.  I am saving on the computer and adding the things we wished we would have had so hopefully we will do better next time.  I spend several weeks, everytime I went to the grocery store collecting the candy. 

I used Wilton boards I bought at Joann's in a pack for the base.  I believe they were 10" circles.  I used 2 boxes of graham crackers for the houses, but wished I would have gotten 3 because I had to piece a couple of walls in a few houses.  There is always breakage in the packages.  I used Royal Icing from Wilton for the cement for my houses.  I doubled or tripled the recipe, and we almost ran out.  I need to quadriple it next year. I built all the houses the night before.

Everyone came straight here after Church that day, we had a quick, but nice lunch of French dip sandwiches, chips, and a salad.  Rick asked what dessert I was fixing....who needs dessert when you are going to be decorating houses and eating candy?

The best part was, though we missed her, Zoë slept through the whole thing.  16 month olds and a project like this, just don't mix!

Hint:  I don't every decorate- though I keep planning to do mine ahead of time- you really need one person to be the helper, especially with the children.  The parents helped the children too, but I like watching and seeing everyone...plus someone needs to document the fun!  Merry Christmas!