Go to Candy Mountain, Charley....

Recently, our ward (church congregation) had a big "Candyland Christmas" party. Different rooms in the church were set up to represent different places in the children's game Candyland. It was very cute and well done, and I didn't actually get any pictures of the actual party because I forgot to bring the camera that I had carefully laid out. Charles was in charge of painting and decorated the Candyland Castle, which some other men in the ward had cut out. He did a great job, as you can see in the pictures.

I think kids are often reluctant to go to bed at night, because they are sure that their parents are doing exciting and fun things without them. I wonder if in their wildest dreams our kids imagined that after they went to bed their parents were decorating a big castle with gum drops and gum balls. Charles and I laughed together as we spent an evening hot gluing many pieces of candy onto this castle. I understand some of the candy was pried off and eaten by a few of the many children at the party. I'm hoping that hot glue is not toxic.

Juliet's 3!

Can you tell from the picture above that Juliet is 3? Well, you can tell she was excited about it anyway. December 9 Juliet had her third birthday (Yes, I know I am behind on posting). This was much anticipated birthday this year. Cole, Charles, and I have our birthdays within a month of each other in the Summer. Juliet's cousin Lyna also shares a birthday with me. This year, as each of us would celebrate another birthday, Juliet would ask, "When will it be my birthday?" We had to assure her that it would come in a few months.

Here's our happy girl posing with both of her parents.



These pictures are of a small family party we had, where her favorite part was finally opening gifts, and as you can see from the picture below, Cole's favorite part was the cake. We did manage to A) not have Cole blow out the candles and B) not have Cole directly lick the cake. These have been problems in the past, so we considered this a success.








Here is Juliet wearing a cute Sun Bonnet sue hat from her Grandma Marian. Thanks Grandma!


We also incorporated a birthday theme into Juliet's playgroup earlier in the day. Here are the children playing and eating the cupcakes that they had decorated. I had the children color their own crowns to wear. The boys did not initially get into this, but eventually did deign to admit that they wanted crowns too. One snaffu that occured is that I had baked cupcakes for the play group and cake for the evening gathering the night before. I used a from scratch recipe that my brother makes and which is one of my favorite cakes. I don't know what I did, but the cake had a bit of a bitter aftertaste to it. Luckily, the kids had piled their's with candy and frosting and did not seem to notice the problem too much (kid's generally just eat the icing off cupcakes anyway), but I ended up throwing the cake away and sending Charles to the store for a cake mix. It turned out fine and we all survived. I don't want to make another cake for awhile though.

Christmas Joy...Finally I post

Can I tell you how excited my kids are about Christmas! They were so overjoyed decorating the tree. Charles and I spent the next day subtly shifting the forty ornaments that were hung on the bottom branches upward so they covered the tree. Every time Cole comes into the house he exclaims "Christmas Tree!" Juliet likes to make small changes to the tree and then call everyone into the room to look at the christmas tree.