To infinity and beyond...4th birthday party

Happy Birthday to my special boy. He wanted to have a buzz lightyear party, so thanks to pinterest I found a lot of creative ways to make that happen. We set up a photo booth for all the kids to have fun dressing up as  a character and taking pictures behind the etch a sketch. 

For the food table I made a watermelon rocket. It was supposed to have melon balls put back in, but they didn't come out as nice, so we just displayed the melon rocket  in front of the sliced melons. 

 The above cake was a pinterest idea. It came from here. It is layered chocolate cake surrounded by kit kat bars held on by icing and filled with little chocolate candies on top.  I knew I wouldn't get it round, so I went square.  Notice the 'moon' pops (4 of them) around the cake.

 For games we found a free printable Toy Story bingo game. The kids loved it and Preston tied for 1st place. It was a fun way to gather the friends and get them in the party mood.  For bingo chips we took the pieces from our connect 4 toy story game.

 We also made a life size Mr. Potato head out of cardboard. We used this for 2 games. The first game was a bean bag toss. We had cut a hole out behind the nose so when we removed the nose everyone got 3 trys to get their beanbag in the hole. Everyone had a GREAT time. Prestons friend Andrew won this game.

 Next we took off all the Mr Potato head parts and blind folded each child. They each got a turn placing the face parts back on the the Mr Potato. We then took a picture of each child with their recreated Potato Head.

Preston wasn't very excited about being blind folded, but loved seeing what his potato head looked like when the blind fold was off.

 Finally I had spent days making a pinata with a balloon and newspaper. I would mix flour and water into a paste and then take little strips of newspaper and put it all over the balloon. I think I got 4 layers on it. I would recomend giving this project a week, I only had 3 days, so it wasn't as dry as I wanted it to be. When it was finished I used the rest of the wrapping paper we had to decorate the outside. I filled the pinata with candy and trinkets. All the kids had fun beating it and Tim managed not to get hit by any of the zealous kids.

 Preston used his woody hat to collect his pinata goodies.

 We all sang Happy Birthday and he blew out his candles. Afterward he opened up his presents. The kids all had fun and so did we.

 To Infinity and Beyond

Before we knew it the day was over and we were exhausted. 

Our Amazing Family Christmas

 My 2 kiddos ( I love saying that) 

 Every night after dinner during Advent we lit our advent candle and put a new advent ornament on the tree. Preston was so excited to light the 4th candle and then the Christ candle. When the new year came and I was cleaning up the decorations Preston looked at me distraught and said, "you are going to throw away the Christ candle?" He just couldn't believe it. :) I have so many fun memories of Tim telling the new story and Preston telling the stories from days past. It really set the tone for the whole season.

 On Christmas eve we had a dessert party. I baked all week and even tried my hand at cake pops. My mom and Tim's mom both sent/brought candy melts so I could make this happen. I wanted to test them out for our dessert party, so I knew if I wanted to make them again for Prestons birthday days later. I don't like chocolate so Tim was the tester, and he said they were great. I learned a few tricks and am sure next time they will be even easier to make.

 The table was set with cake pops, ginger snaps, kringla (thanks GRAM), snicker doodles, regular chocolate cake, special K bars, veggies and fruit. It was yummy and for me would be the last of the baking I did for a while.

 We also went to the Int'l church for a candlelight service and afterward got our only family picture (can you believe it)

 Isabella looked so cute in her Christmas dress from my Aunt and sweater from Amanda Pennington.

 My little boy was not so little any more and it made the season even more fun watching him grow with anticipation for the day we would celebrate the birth of our Savior. I couldn't help but to remember that 4 years earlier we were in Thailand on Christmas eve. I was 4 days overdue and we spent the evening with the Himstedt house Aussie style.

 Christmas morning arrived and I made a cherry kringla for breakfast, thank you pinterest, and a sausage egg and cheese casserole. We skyped in with our families and of course reviewed all of our advent stories.

 Preston received a new train part for his Thomas set and while I cooked Christmas dinner, Tim and Preston put the track together and played.

Among a number of dishes, I also made turkey. It turned out lovely, and with the leftover carcass I made turkey stock. DELICIOUS!

We had a great day celebrating the birth of our Savior with friends. At the end of the day we were tired and full. I love the slow pace of life in Asia, we don't get all the holiday craziness that happens in the states. I love that my children will always remember Christmas as being a time to reflect on the coming of our Savior. It is a much quieter time of reflection and filled with great food and wonderful friends. This year of course seemed extra special.   As we told the story of the little baby born unto us over 2000 years ago, I got to hold my sleepy baby girl born just over 2 months earlier.

I pray your Christmas was as magical as ours!