Friday, March 2, 2012

Benjamin's 7th Birthday

For Benjamin's birthday, February 17th, 2012 I made cupcakes for him to take to his class for snack time.

I forgot to bring the camera, but I did get pictures of the cupcakes I made:

Benjamin's birthday was, of course, Spiderman themed again!

I made an actual cake for the big birthday party on Sunday the 19th, so for his actual birthday (and subsequent parties) we just had decorated cupcakes.



(Spiderman foam frame craft kit)


(Spiderman bubbles)


(Spiderman mini-notebook and markers)

(Spiderman foam Frisbee)

(Spiderman fabric he had seen at JoAnn's and asked for,
I'll make something with it later)


(Spiderman kite)


This year, we let him invite a few friends over for a low-key birthday party/play day. He invited 5 kids: one was sick, we didn't hear from one, and three came (Silas, Ian, and Raya). His friends came over on Saturday the 18th.

We bought little wooden magnet kits 2 for $1 at JoAnn's for the kids to color. This is Ian acting silly with his magnet:


Opening the gift from Silas (Spiderman helicopter)

Silas wanted to stand beside Benjamin when he opened the card to point out that there was a Spiderman mask inside the card.

Opening the gift from Ian (a collectible yellow car).

Raya forgot a gift (I had said they weren't required) so she gave Benjamin her Spiderman magnet:






Later that day, Grandpa Orange came to celebrate Benjamin's birthday with us.


Benjamin being silly with a tissue paper "collar" posing with the huge balloon from Grandpa Orange.



After church on Sunday, the 19th, my [Michigan] family came for lunch, presents, and cake & ice cream.

From the Dempsey family

From the Woodard Family

From Grandpa and Grandma

CAKE!


Thursday, March 1, 2012

Christmas 2011

Christmas Day, 2011



This year my side of the [Michigan] family came to our house for our Christmas get-together.



My niece Emily with my Little Orphan Annie reborn.











After the family get-together was over, we did our family gifts.




The older two kids had a "Christmas Shoppe" at school, so we gave them each a few dollars to spend. They got gifts for each other, Peter, Daddy, and me.

Benjamin's gifts:




Anna's gifts (she also had a couple hand-made ornaments)




We let Peter pick a gift from the Dollar Store for Anna and one for Benjamin:


My "stocking stuffers" to Jason

Christmas this year was almost entirely "brought to us by" Toys For Tots. I was very very grateful that we qualified, even though the wait to pick out gifts was a couple hours long!





























Even though we don't believe in Santa, we got a "Santa" hat from the dollar store. We created a new tradition: Whomever is giving the gifts gets to wear the hat. It was fun to take turns giving gifts and wearing the hat! Peter absolutely LOVED it when it was his turn to wear the hat!