roller skating party

we celebrated lucy's birthday with a good ol' fashioned roller skating party a couple weekends ago.  since her birthday falls during the holiday break, we find we get better attendance if we wait to have the party once school is back in.  luckily our school has a skate club and for a small fee you can have the gym and skates for as many kids as you want.... easiest party ever!  the kids had a blast skating to lucy's carefully crafted dance party music mix!!

........there was a tattoo station for the kids (and our friend steve who is really a kid at heart)

........there was skating limbo.

.........there was cake (or roller skate cupcakes in her favorite shade of blue).

........and presents of course!  (which we ended up opening at home so the kids could skate the whole time.)

.....all in all it was a super fun way to celebrate lucy's 7th birthday!!!

seven

today we officially end our holiday season with the celebration of sweet lucy's birthday.  seven.  what a beautiful bright girl we have.  seven years old!!    she had her entire day planned out.  first on the list was chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast! yum!!

then momo and her cousin ella came to play and have lunch with us.  

the kids jumped on the trampoline with ballons.   

lucy opened presents.... lots of great new clothes for our little fashonista 

and her brother got her a goldfish!! 

her afternoon was spent with her brother and friends, and she had a list of games she wanted to play (sardines, ping-pong tag, etc).  for dinner she requested a pizza movie night....followed by cake of course. 

her birthday party isn't until next week so stayed tuned for more birthday happenings!  but today was a wonderful day for a wonderful girl!  happy birthday lucy goosey!!

happy new year

every year we bake up a variety of finger foods for new year's eve dinner, pour some champagne and sparkling cider and share it with our good friends the glatter/hamada family (steve was sick this year...so sad). 

then we play charades (not sure how that tradition started)..although this year it got so late we had to defer the game til new year's day

  and finally we celebrate the new year countdown with the country whose midnight corresponds with our 8pm (i think it was iceland maybe?) and light off some bottle rockets in the backyard, yell happy new years, hug each other......then go to bed.  it's actually quite a sweet little way to welcome in the new year.  here's to 2014!!

holiday wrap-up

the holiday season was wonderful.   christmas this year was a home-run!  santa came (did he ever!), we enjoyed time with family and friends, lots of good food and drink, and no tears this year (except the happy ones from me of course!)

here is the photo wrap-up.......we made our annual cookies for santa with our best friends jack, mel and lani.   

    .....and good thing we did because he brought the kids a trampoline!!(some assembly required)  

   other favorite gifts were riley's new bow and arrow and a couple of remote control helicopters too!! 

.....as if that wasn't enough they both got new mini-tablets from papa and nana!

.....noses were then buried and we mostly saw the tops of their heads the rest of the day (their cousin ella got one from santa too). 

   don't fear, they managed to put down the tablets long enough to open more presents...some great notepads and new soccer balls from momo and grandpa george!  

 

then grandpa george drove the kids over to my aunt and uncle's house in the golf cart (she just lives down the street from my mom now) to celebrate with the rest of the campbell clan. 

    the hughes boys got themselves some new bearded viking hats....good times! 

and boxing day was all about playing with our new toys...   

and jumping on the trampoline of course!! 

hope your holidays were full of fun and cheer as well!!