More Christmas Activities 2009

I just wanted to capture some of the other fun stuff we did in December~ cookie party, playing in the snow, Christmas Spectacular, visiting santa, baking cookies, making ornaments....

Our friends' Cookie Party:


Visiting the Rockefeller Christmas Tree before going to see A Christmas Spectacular:


We got a bunch of snow the week before Christmas:


Painting an angel ornament:


Visiting Santa (Lauren didn't want to have anything to do with him so our Santa pic is with just Jess). This pic was taken while waiting in line:


Making Christmas cookies:

Christmas 2009

This Christmas was so wonderful. We truly have so much to be thankful for this year. I am just thankful that everyone is healthy and happy. I probably should split this up into different blog posts but we'll see how we do with one. Jess was just over 4 1/2 years old and Lauren was almost 21 months on Christmas Day. This year we spent Christmas Eve with Scott's family and we had a quiet (well, I wouldn't really call it quiet :-P) family day at home. We did our pajama car ride to see the lights on the 23rd. I gave the girls a bunch of treats -- candy cane, marshmallows...warm milk...This is definitely one of our traditions. I think I'll do a separate post on some of our activities during the month of December. :-)

Let's take a look at some of the pics:

Getting our Tree: We went to our usual place ~ Hall's Nursery in Berkeley Heights. We got the tree 2 weekends after Thanksgiving since we were in Florida the weekend after Thanksgiving. I think we are going to stick with getting the tree that weekend. The pics of the girls together are funny b/c everytime I tried to take a picture Lauren would do this squealy scream. It was so funny. The tree ended up being so nice. It had a perfect shape and a nice point for our angel.




Jessica had her holiday party at Wesley on the 11th. It was her last day of school before vacation. They sang lots of songs for the parents and had treats. Lauren was happy to be there with big sister.





This is a pic of Jess getting ready for her car ride to see Christmas lights. You can see she's got her milk and treats in her little candy cane bucket...and of course Daddy Lulu is coming too.


And this is the girls hanging out afterward before they headed for bed.


Christmas Eve: We headed to Scott's parents' house and then to his cousin's house for a family Christmas party. At this point, I had not wrapped one present for the girls and Scott had stuff that had to be put together. We left the party around 10 and were up until around 3. But we were in good spirits and had fun making everything special for the girls. It was nice spending time with his whole family. The kids get along so well together...so cute.





Christmas Day: It was a quiet pajama day at home. We came down close to 8:00 and everyone got a little something to drink and we started unwrapping. Eventually I'd like to eat breakfast first but I didn't want to torture Jess. Jess had disney princess paper and Lauren had pink snowman paper. We had a great time opening presents and the girls loved everything. Afterward, we had a pancake breakfast and just hung out for the rest of the day. We made a rib roast for dinner, set a lovely table and just enjoyed each other's company....still in our PJs. We still had some snow outside so it was nice having a white Christmas too. I won't post many pics about presents but Jess loved her American Girl doll and Lauren loved her baby and cradle. They both loved the rose petal cottage and Jess loved her critter house. Lauren gave Jess her first real barbies - from the 3 musketeers and Jess gave Lauren a crawling baby with accessories.

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2009!

Way Overdue Post: Jessica's 4th Birthday Party

It seems I never posted about Jessica's 4th birthday party. I've got to make sure I cover such a special event. We had a My Little Pony party at Watchung Stables. Jess invited all her friends to come see the horses. They were supposed to do pony rides but it rained so the kids received a tour of the barn which was very informational and fun. I was really surprised by how much they covered. The kids had a lot of fun. I was so thankful that Auntie Jenny was able to fly in for the event and help me. They only give you 1/2 hour to set everything up so timing was pretty tight. The room they gave us was a little smelly but I kept reminding myself that it was a stable. We did a little picture frame craft, toured the barn, ate snacks / treats and cupcakes / cake and had a pinata. Jess had a great time. I made my first birthday cake and it wasn't easy. It's tough finding icing / frosting that works well and is allergy free. I did my best. She really wanted a my little pony cake. She was really happy with it and I was so thankful.

First Day of School 2009

Jessica started her 4 year preschool class at the Wesley Center last week. She was so excited. It was a fairly warm day so she couldn't wear some of her new fall clothes but she still had a special outfit to wear, with new sparkle sneakers and a new school bag. I went to school with her the first two days. I love getting to go to school. She has about 13 or 14 children in her class and her teachers are Ms. DeJohn and Mrs. I. They really create a wonderful learning environment for the kids.

I picked up some flowers the night before to have on the table for Jessica's favorite pancake breakfast. She loved the pink gerber daisies. She always appreciates lovely flowers.

Here are some pics from the first two days: