The party started at around 5:00 when Aaron and Erika and company arrived and Eric was home from work. It was a pretty low-key time focused around celebrating Jesus' Birthday as a family. Earlier in the day I picked up a few birthday party plates, hats, etc. to go with with the theme and then simply added some party decorations to the already festive dining room.
The agenda for the party was minimal...especially on Friday. Basically we just visited and let the kids play and then had a grilled dinner by taking advantage of the warmish winter temps.
Video: Ninja Dance Party
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| The kids table for 4: Asher, Hudson, Caleb, & Avery. The oldest and the youngest got to sit with the adults. |
When dinner was over we did a craft with the boys. My mom had had the idea to start a tradition of decorating ornaments each year and add them to the tree they purchased. To keep with the Birthday theme, I found a simple ornament online that had a popsicle stick star and a baby Jesus. The ornaments turned out pretty cute, but unfortunately they needed to be hot-glued and therefore required more adult assistance than I would have preferred...which basically means that Erika and I did most of the work.
Video: Gabe's Ornament
When the ornaments were finished, the boys all headed back downstairs where they put on the pajamas that Grandma and Papa got for them and then put their ornaments up on the tree. Then we set up some beds on the floor and they all settled in for the Alvin & the Chipmunks movie, some popcorn and then their slumber party in the basement with Grandma and Papa (Eric, Erika, Aaron, Gabe & I all got to sleep upstairs).
I wasn't sure how it would go having 5 boys ages 7 and under sleep in the basement with Grandma and Papa, but it went surprisingly well. We let them stay up watching the moving until about 8:30 and turned it off so they could go to sleep. They were all out quickly and from what I heard only Avery had a trouble sleeping (and ended up in bed with Papa for the night). Everyone else slept pretty well and was up bright and early Saturday morning ready to continue the party.
We had some breakfast finger foods early in the day and then snuggled into the living room couch to finish off Alvin and the Chipmunks.
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| Good thing we have a big couch! |
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| Avery & Gave dancing to Alvin & the Chipmunks |
Once everyone was awake, we headed back into the basement to have our "Christmas Morning". Erika and I had purchased some fun little prizes for the boys and made a Saran Wrap ball so we did that first. They had a good time unwrapping the ball and collecting the prizes...including some stick-on mustaches!
After the Saran Wrap ball game was finished we took all of the boys back upstairs while Grandma and Papa got out their gifts for everyone. Then back into the basement we went to continue our "Christmas Morning".
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| Enough reindeer stockings to pull Santa's sleigh! |
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| All of the 'kids' and grandkids with our stockings from Grandma & Papa. |
We opened up our stockings all at once and then took turns going from youngest to oldest opening the gifts that Mom and Dad got for us (Thank you again Mom & Dad/Grandma & Papa!).
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| "It's a Box!" |
After Mom and Dad finished sharing their gifts with us, we got to give them our gifts to them.
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| Gabe, Hudson, Micah & Caleb made this handprint/footprint picture of the manger scene for Grandma & Papa. |
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| Grandma & Papa with their 6 Pack! |
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| When my dad worked at Ansul, there was a distributer that would always send him some specialty chocolates for Christmas. They were delicious and to keep the rest of us from eating them he would try to open the wrapping paper inconspicuously so that we would think it was still wrapped and not eat the candies (he didn't fool us though)! Now that he has retired he has mentioned a few times that he misses the chocolates and won't get them anymore. For Christmas this year I decided to get him some. I had my mom track down the company (turns out he had saved some of the boxes from the candies) and then I found them online (www.hannakrausecandy.com) and ordered him a box...and this year I encouraged him NOT to share them with anyone! :) |
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| Gabe giving the bear mug a kiss. |
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| Papasaurus Rex |
When the presents were all opened, we shared a pancake breakfast together and then enjoyed more play time together. Then we finished out the party by letting all of the kids decorate their own cupcakes to celebrate Jesus' Birthday together. The cupcakes each had so many sprinkles on them that the kids were crunching when they chewed but oh well...they had fun.
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| Singing Happy Birthday to Jesus! |
The kids ate their cupcakes and then Eric took them for a quick (& chilly) run to burn off some energy while Aaron and Erika loaded up their van to head home. Then we took one last stair-stepped (literally) cousins picture and said our goodbyes before heading to bed for some much-needed naps!
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| 7 (Micah), 6 (Caleb), 5 (Asher), 4 (Hudson), 3 (Avery), 2 (Gabe) |
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| This is what you find after a party with 6 little boys! |
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