White Elephant Party

We held our 2nd Annual Family Christmas Party this past weekend. It was a blast! It featured, games, prizes, singing of carols, White Elephant Gift Exchange, Desserts, and Appetizers. Since it's a family party, I tried to find games that we could all play from the youngest (well, not quite, Storm couldn't play) to the oldest.

I had read a blog post about a Candy Cane Scavenger Hunt game that a mom used to teach math concepts to her kids. I adapted it for game night, hiding candy canes all over the house. Obviously the person who found the most was the winner - it was Thunder! He found 32 candy canes. We also played Christmas Bingo. I also adapted a baby shower game by handing out jingle bell necklaces to everyone. If anyone was caught saying "Christmas, Thank you, or gift" they lost their necklace. The winner had the most necklaces at the end of the night - congrats Matt!

The food was delicious, the carol singing was enthusiastic, the gifts were creative, funny, and yes, even useful. I've already started searching Pinterest for games to use next year!

Me, Katie, Sunny, Thunder

Dan and I with the grands

Gabe, Sunny, Katie, Thunder

I love these kiddos!

Me and my girls

The winner of the Candy Cane Hunt!!

Matt and Storm

Matt and Shelby with Sunny

Matt brought the best white elephant gift.

It was a can of Pringles and a gold fish - fish and chips!

Sunny and Thunder were ecstatic that they now own a fish.

58!

 I turned 58 years old this past Sunday. Katie had us over for dinner. She and Jessica surprised me with the kids in these terrific shirts!

What a great gift! Katie, Jessica, and Gabe provided a great meal of enchiladas, homemade salsa, and Spanish rice - yummy! Katie baked a cake with purple frosting (purple is my favorite color); and the cake itself was rainbow colored - it was so pretty!

On Saturday we went down to Mesa to see Zach and Skye. After playing for a while at their apartment, we headed out to lunch at Portillo's. We'd never been there before. The food was good and the atmosphere was such fun. As we ate lunch, Skye directed us to all hold hands and then she proceeded to lead us in a round of the Happy Birthday song in my honor. Awww, that's the kind of thing that just melts my heart.

Here's a few more photos from my special day(s):

Gramps, Skye, Grammy

Thunder thought Gramps needed a trim before dinner

He also thought it was time to take Gramps' temperature

Love the purple frosting!

I managed to blow out the candles - quite a feat at my age, haha

See those vibrant colors - beautiful!

I love the way Sunny and Thunder are both holding on to Storm

Yesterday was the first day of school in Jessica's district and she had to go in to teach her AP class so Storm came over to spend a few hours with Thunder and me. Here's some bonus pictures of the boys watching Frozen.

Watching Frozen

Almost ready to laugh!

Meanwhile, Back in Arizona...

If you're a news junkie like I am, you must be feeling pretty overwhelmed these days as I am. So to take our minds off of all the strife and trouble in our world, I thought I'd share photos of recent happenings in my little world:

Storm & Grammy as he turns 24 hours old!

6/7/14: Thunder, Dan, & Gabe at Sunny's dance recital. I'm not sure what look Thunder's going for in this photo!

Gabe, Thunder, Katie

We provided the traditional flowers after the show

It was very bright out and hard to get her to look at the camera

A close-up of her required make up for the recital - she loved it!

This is a sampler I stitched for one of Katie's friends.

I love how it turned out, but it sure took longer than I  anticipated!

Roberta (Abuela) & Sunny at 5th BD party

My nephew Matt & my mom, JoAnne (Gigi)

Me & the BD girl - I think everyone wore the crown but her!

Blowing out the candles

Thunder 

Grammy Summer Camp

Dan & I found this Lincoln Log set at a yard sale.

When we got it home, there was only one piece missing!

It took me 45 minutes to put it together, guess I'm out of practice.

Thunder brought his horses to play in the fort.

I'm not sure what Sunny was doing!

Jessica got Sunny a neat sewing toy for her BD. You stitch the outfits on the doll. She loves to stitch, and did a great job!

We're getting her ready for cross-stitching!

At cooking class we made Root Beer Floats.

When we were finished, Dan & Thunder loved them, but Sunny said the soda was "too spicy" and didn't drink hers!

Me & the kids taking a cool break in the pool

Storm (our cousin Bev sent him this cap - he'll grow into it!) 

Jessica got this idea from Pinterest... it's so cute!

Gramps & Storm

Grammy stealing a kiss

I can't wait to see if he keeps his strawberry blond hair!

Family Photos

Since all of my kids were home for Christmas, we took advantage of the opportunity to have professional family photos made. The results were fantastic as always. If you live in the Phoenix area and are looking for a great family/kid photographer I highly recommend Joanna Polling Photography. You can find her site here. She has a good eye and is easy to work with. Her end results are always terrific. If you do contact her, please tell her I recommended her. Now on to the photos...

me and Dan

Skye

Sunny

Thunder

All of us plus my folks

Gigi and Papa with the great grandkids

Gramps and Grammy with the Grands

Gabe, Katie, Sunny, Thunder

Awww...

My folks with their grandkids (and one great who snuck in there!)

Dan and I with our little family

Adam and Jessica

JD and Janel

Ashley, Skye, Zach

Carl and JoAnne

aka Dad and Mom

aka Papa and Grandma

aka Papa and Gigi

Zach (the youngest)

JD (the second born)

Katie (the third born)

Jessica (the oldest)