Christmas Tea

On Saturday my mom held her annual "Christmas Tea". Back when she owned Annie's, she often catered "High Tea" parties. Using the same concept, a few years ago she started the tradition of an evening of fun for the kids. She invites all the grand kids and my pseudo-siblings, the Hayes kids (my cousins).

The night started with a scrumptious meal: Chicken and Rice Soup, Ham and Swiss Croissants, and of course, tea! Okay, not really tea. It's actually a cider/herbal tea mixture. Pinkies were extended, nonetheless!

Here is Malia exhibiting her excitement. Note the band-aid. Earlier in the day Malia had bonked her head on the hard basement cement floor and Mom indulged her desire to "make it better".


In order to maintain some semblance of order, the kids picked partners (the bigger ones helping out the little guys). Malia and her "best friend" Andrew (turns out Malia has SEVERAL best friends!)...


Ben and Nathan...

Cassie and Adam...

Marissa and Abram...

Alex and Johnathan...

"Mom-Mom" and Nora...

{As a side note, we are in the process of packing up mom's basement. Thus the boxes and chaos...}

The whole crew enjoying some "tea"...

Fine grub was just the beginning of the fun. Next, decorating cookies!

Malia once again enjoying the addition of sprinkles to her creations... As her "buddy" adoringly looks on...

The boys got a bit carried away with the frosting...

The goal became to see who could make the tallest frosting globbed cookie...

Even Abram got to partake in the fun! He was pretty excited. Usually he can't snack on what the other kids have because of his allergies. We found one that was in the clear and he went to town...

On to story time... "The Christmas Sweater" by Glenn Beck...

What holiday activity would be complete without BINGO?!?

Malia really got into it. It helped the markers were M&Ms!

The final activity was watching a Christmas classic, "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas"...

A bit later the oldest Hayes, Alyssa, showed up with her man, Drew. It was nice to chat and catch up. They've been at school in Utah...

As you can see Malia wanted to dress up her pajamas with her purple tutu. Why not?

Malia showing off the goods she won in BINGO. A "Finding Nemo" jump rope, an apron (reading "Baker in Training") and chef's hat, and lip glosses. As you can see, pleased as punch with her haul...

A fantastic night of fun for the kids. I love that my mom gets into it so much. She is so thoughtful in planning out all the food and activities for the kids. I know it is something Malia and Abram will love to attend in years to come. Well, the years that we are back in Iowa for the holidays. Good time, Mom. Thanks!

Gingerbread House Construction

The fun indoor activities just keep coming! Mom got us a gingerbread house kit to do with the kids. As you can tell, Britt is beyond excited to take part in the fun.... :o)


Malia eagerly waiting for the construction to begin...



Nora all smiles...

Britt pretending to have a blast. This is one of those activities we decided to do around 7pm. It was one of those deals where we got done with dinner and couldn't believe there was still an HOUR to bed time! So even though our patience was maxed, we tried to play along...

The super exciting part for the kids... the candy...

Mali sampling some of the frosting... YUCK! The candy was just as nasty...

The mommy take over... Mom kept yelling from the kitchen that it was supposed to be an activity for the kids...

No worries... the kids kept busy with either eating or destroying our decor... Why wouldn't you soak the candy in water?!

The finished product...

And then the deconstruction the next morning...

They were making little animal figurine footprints in the "snow". Then of course licked the frosting from the feet. Gross! Although it made an amazing mess, it was overall a good time.

Santa's Little Helper

The kids and I headed over to Cedar Falls the last couple days to spend some time with my dad and Sharon. Malia was a little disappointed that the dogs were at Sharon's boys, but soon got over it and enjoyed all the attention she was given. Sharon tried her best to get some pics of Malia, but she was being her quirky self. I stole this one from Sharon's blog. She truly is a "cheeser". Abram was again sicky-face so we opted to limit the photo shooting to the oldest ham. Now Malia also has a nasty cough. Ugh... I wish my kiddos felt better.

A Visit to Santa

Last weekend the kids and I were strolling Walmart (surprise, surprise) and they announced over the loudspeaker that Santa was there and you could get a FREE picture with him. I'm not one to pass up anything free! When we got over to the Christmas area I was afraid we would have to wait in line, but there was only one other person there. In our journey across the story Malia was super excited and was babbling with all of the things she was going to ask Santa for. Once there, however, it was an entirely different story. As soon as she sat on Santa's lap, she shut down. He tried joking with her and asked if she wanted a tank for Christmas. She looked at him like he was a moron. Next he asked if she wanted her driver's license for Christmas. She did perk up at that but still wouldn't take her hands away from her mouth or make eye contact. Then he asked if she wanted a baby doll and she nodded her head emphatically. Then we tried to take a picture and well... you see...a LITTLE bit of an attitude.


Abram on the other hand played along. He just stared at him when he was talking. I'm pretty sure he was strategizing how to pull his beard off in one single motion. When it came time for pictures, my little man was all smiles...

I can't get over how grown up he looks. Abram, that is. He was 9 months on Thursday! Time is going by so quickly. Abram is super proficient at the army crawl and occasionally gets in position for the more traditional crawl. He has his third tooth coming in up top to add to his two bottom teeth. He is a super sweet boy, even with all of his sicky-ness and allergy drama. I just love him to pieces.

To be fair, a little on Malia. She is as sassy as ever! Her newest pastime is playing computer games online. She still LOVES anything to do with painting, in fact that is the game she plays most often online. She is obsessed with determining the timing of everything. "Where we going tomorrow?" "What are we doing next?" "We did that last week (more often than not, we just did it that morning)". She is so loving and constantly tells me that she loves me. And EVERYONE is her best friend! She just got to go to her first official birthday party this morning and loved it. I am so grateful for her loving spirit and the assured laughter that she brings to the day.

5 weeks from today! David said I couldn't count days because it makes it seem too long. I was however given clearance to measure in weeks. :) I can't wait to see my man. I miss him and love him SO much. Just five more weeks!

Snow Day Activities

Blizzards are fun! Especially when you are trapped inside with some of your favorite people. Britt and the kids came over Tuesday knowing that the weather was going to get crazy. Nothing but fun ensued...

Best buds... Nathan and Abram. Nathan dotes on Abram...

Malia and Nathan passing some time playing computer games... Note some of Malia's drawings in the bottom right corner. Just these last few days she has been drawing actual people. She was even drawing a picture of David and asked, "Does papa have eyebrows?" and proceeded to add eyebrows. Quite the artist!

Today we braved the outdoors for a whole five minutes! Needless to say Mali was pretty excited to go out...

Nora and Malia showing how much snow we got in 24 hours... We went from nothing to pure craziness!

Making the long awaited snow angels. She got to stomp around and make her footprints too. We tried making a little snowman but it just wasn't packable snow...

On to decorating cookies... as you can see Malia was pretty stoked about this...

Mali got a little crazy with the flour...

Adding her favorite part... the sprinkles...

Ummm... A bit much! She was the first to use the sprinkles... over half gone!

The finished product and the proud artist...

All in all, a great time. It was fun to see how excited Malia got about the snow. She took forever to settle down last night because she couldn't wait for the snowfall. I hope she got her fill of angels and footprints in the snow. Love that all of the cousins get to spend time together. Malia kept saying that Nathan and Nora are her best friends. Sure do love those kids! Mom and Chris were trapped at home also. Lots of fun just hanging out with family. Good times!

National Mississippi River Museum

Today the kids and I took a "field trip" to the National Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque. It's actually a Smithsonian affiliate and pretty impressive for our area. I was a little disappointed they didn't offer a military discount. At the same time, if I was staying in the area longer I think I would go ahead and get the year pass. Malia had a blast checking out fish, otters, frogs, snakes, lizards, ducks, alligators, and craw fish. She still, however, wants to see animals but will just have to wait until we get to Phoenix.

The kids checking out the frogs...

Abram and the BIG fish. Malia was acting terrified of them but Abram just thought they were funny...

Malia actually took this picture... An aspiring photographer...

At the learning center they can "pet" the craw fish... Malia wasn't so sure...Abram touched the craw fish before Malia would even think about it!

After sometime she gave in. Later when we were telling grandpa about the day I said that she "pet" the craw fish. She countered, "No I didn't. I just touch it with one finger. Just one finger!" Glad we got that clarified!

Abram and his cheesy grin...

Malia checking out the microscopes in the learning center...

At the end we got to watch the Rhinoceros Lizard get fed. The kids thought that was pretty cool...

It was a great day. I wish we would have gone sooner. You think I'd learn with moving around as much as we do. It's always a good idea to find a museum or zoo in the area that you know you can enjoy repeatedly and go ahead and get the season pass. With kids, especially mine, and their desire to be out and about, it's great to have something you can do any time and is well worth your money. Any suggestions for the Phoenix area my friends?