Family Night: Holiday Cheer

If I wait to decorate until after Thanksgiving I feel that I have waited too long, especially if I'm going to climb all over the house to put lights up, I need more than a month to enjoy those labors. I think I've made the official decision this year that after Charlie's birthday it is time to turn up the Christmas music (the radio stations luckily agree) and start thinking about decorating. It doesn't seem early when you realize that Costco was putting out Christmas decor by the end of August! Christmas is really the only holiday that I've been consistent with decorating for. We don't really own any other decorations yet besides a pumpkin candy dish for Halloween. That being said, I wanted our indoors decorated by Thanksgiving, so that is what we did for family night tonight.

I get excited with each new holiday as Charlie grows seeing how he will participate more each year. Last year, he was afraid of the Christmas tree until it was nearly time to take it down. This year he got excited about the tree and ornaments but didn't have much interest in putting the ornaments on the tree.

He was working on putting his "baby's first Christmas" ornament on the tree. This was the closest he actually got to putting an ornament on the tree.

 And here are some of our other decorations...

Please excuse our cords and other cluttery items. 

Charlie liked the finished tree but then kept pulling ornaments off to play with. I guess many of them do look like toys.

And here is an awkward family picture with my massive 22 week pregnant belly.

Later this week I hope to get the lights on the house, not that anyone sees the lights unless they are actually coming to our house. 

Also, in order to get our small living room ready for Christmas we had to rearrange and remove some furniture which was quite the task that Max tackled with his brother Justin, who is currently staying with us. They not only moved furniture, they cleaned out the garage to make room for our large book shelf, removed all the books, moved them to the shelf in the garage and rearranged a variety of other items that were taking up space. Our living room is now a little more spacious and festive. 

Another Tacoma Visit

We just can't get enough of our cousins so we took another trip up to Tacoma. The real reason we went was  because Max has been called back to the Seattle Fire Department for an interview. That's kind of a big deal. He was narrowed down from 5000+ applicants to 2000ish applicants (all for about 60 jobs, yeah, it's competitive) Anyway, we didn't go for the actual interview which will be in January (actually on Gwenevere's 5th birthday so it will be fun to be in town for that) we went up for an interview orientation put on by the Seattle Fire Department where they teach you tons to prep you for the actual interview. With such fierce competition, we figured every little bit helps. But we also just love to visit our cousins. First of all, Hooray for Max and his accomplishments! That being said, the rest of this blog will mostly be about playing with cousins.

We arrived in Tacoma late on Wednesday night, everyone was asleep so we put Charlie in his bed then curled up on the large bean bag and went to sleep. In the morning we woke up and sent Max off. We all ate breakfast then walked to the library for story time and to play at the park. When we arrived at the Library, we realized that they didn't have story time until the holidays were over but we still had tons of fun anyway.

Everett slept on the library floor. I thought it would be funny to put a book on him to make it look like he fell asleep reading. He, of course, woke up from that but still looked just as adorable.

Happy Boy!

Gwenevere enjoyed some storytime.

Grace worked on the puzzle. But actually, she was throwing pieces on the floor.

Elizabeth is a super-mom. I get so scared of having two kids and she is making the 3-kids look easy! I know it isn't easy and she works hard to raise her kids so well and you can definitely notice the fruits of her labors!

Charlie liked the LEGO table. 

 When we got hungry we went outside for a snack and to play on the playground. It was a pretty cold day but that didn't slow these kids down. I wanted to take pictures of more than just Charlie but he kept doing crazy things so I had to stay close by him at all times.

These are the things that scared me. He is such a climber!

 Elizabeth took Everett on his first slide ride!

 Charlie was a fan of the fast twisty slide!

On our walk back, none of the kids wanted to be in the stroller. Near the end of the walk, Charlie was getting grumpy and having a hard time listening (nap time) he kept running off onto peoples' driveways. He also saw this puddle and got wild, excited eyes so I just let him go for it.

 When we arrived home Elizabeth and I made soup and bagels for lunch and Gwenevere got Everett all changed.

While we were eating lunch the UPS man came and brought an exciting surprise. 

Elizabeth has talked about getting matching stockings for as long as I've known her and this year she finally did it. So we had to do a photo shoot of the kids with their stockings. It was so exciting to see the girls so giddy about them. 

Grace loved her ballerina stocking!

Gwenevere picked out one that said 1st Christmas because she loved the reindeer. It will be her 4th Christmas but I think it will be a cute story for her to tell in the many years she uses her stocking!

The adorable Roemhildt children. 

 Gwenevere loves her baby brother! She takes such good care of him.

 We then attempted nap/quiet time and Charlie eventually went down for a nap while the girls watched some shows. Gwenevere and I did a puzzle which was super fun!

Max came home at the end of quiet time and he watched the kids while Elizabeth and I prepped dinner. We made Venison fajitas made from the deer Max caught. YUM! After dinner we helped clean up a bit and were getting close to leaving when we decided to throw Charlie in the bath with the girls. I think the pictures speak for themselves but these kids are definitely water lovers!

They are all so excited here!

 We then got Charlie out and got him in his pajamas and got in the car to go home. It was another fantastic visit with family. We are always so spoiled when we venture up to Tacoma.

Party-Time

This handsome little boy turned 2 this week and had a blast at his construction party this weekend. 

I have a hard time planning parties. It's especially difficult when there are so many people you want and should invite. We have this dilemma with so much family and so many people that love Charlie! Not really a bad problem to have but sometimes overwhelming. Last year we did a strict family-only party. This year we felt that Charlie would really enjoy having a bunch of friends and kids his age instead of a whole bunch of older family members. So that is what we decided to do, luckily, Charlie has quite a few cousins now so we got some family too. Our house was quite a mad-house but nobody seemed to mind. 

I took a stab at my first themed party ever. We did a construction/tool theme...and although I wasn't super consistent with all our games and decor, I feel like it came together quite nicely

Instead of cupcakes we made this mud pudding for our treat! I was pretty proud of it!

My little helper was there by my side the whole time trying to help. He loved smashing the Oreos.

These aprons are FREE at home depot. Every child got an apron and hard hat to use during the pinata.

Our creative game of pin the hammer on the nail. No blindfold was needed for a bunch of 2-year olds

Charlie's cousins Grace and Gwenevere (along with Grandma) were the first to arrive. They were great helpers with blowing up balloons

All ready for a construction party!

Our food table, We had Crackers, cheese, meat, fruit, and muddy buddies (in a paint tray)

More guests started to arrive

It was fun for us to see Charlie do the pinata this year. Last year he wasn't even walking yet so it was much more difficult. This year, he not only walks just fine, but we were giving him permission to hit something really hard and he was definitely a fan of that!

I pulled the tarp out to set up under the pinata and immediately 4+ kids were there to help me put it down. It was probably one of my favorite moments. I love when little kids are efficiently helpful!

August made sure all the wrinkles were out before we could put the pinata up. 

The kids had fun hitting the pinata but it seemed to be quite the task for the little ones

Addie

Dayton

August...he had definitely done this before. 

Gwenevere gave it some good whacks

Shadow

We were thankful for Brayden who showed us how it was done

I think this was Madeleine's first pinata. She did great!

After all the little kids had a couple of turns we gave Brayden the big bat and unlimited turns to get the pinata open. 

I forgot to take pictures in the madness of kids rushing for candy so it was mostly cleaned up here. They used their apron pockets to collect their treats.

I meant to take a picture of all the kids against the wall outside but then I forgot and instead of herding them all back out, we took this one. I think it turned out pretty good. The best part of this picture is what you don't see. Max was jumping around making crazy chicken sounds to get the kids attention and to make them smile. You gotta love that man's confidence!

Sweet little Lacey

I love this picture of August and Charlie at the piano even though it is blurry. Such cute cousins!

We then had dessert time. Gwenevere was waiting patiently to eat her mud!

We never really realize how small our living room is until we invite a bunch of people over. It was definitely busy and crowded but the kids didn't seem to mind.

At one point during the party, Charlie ran to the utility room to play in the dryer, maybe he was getting overwhelmed with the large crowds :)

And then Charlie got spoiled with some gifts. He really was excited about his gifts...maybe just not as much as his cousins! (and dad)

I love when my boys explore together!

Charlie was so excited to get his own Elmo shirt from his cousins. He tried to put it on immediately!

Of course we had to take a picture of Charlie and Grace in their matching Elmo shirts. 

Overall I think the party went well. I know Charlie had fun and I think all the other's had fun too! I didn't feel too much stress so that must mean it was a win/win/win!

Our Guest included:
Grace and Gwenevere (with Grandma Sharolee)
August and Brayden (with Lisa)
Madeleine (with Parents)
Addie and Dayton (with parents)
Shadow (with mom and Grandma)
Lacey (with parents)
Tali (with parents)
Tommy and Maddie (with mom)
Justin

Thanks to Lisa for also taking lots of pictures. She was able to capture more of the party as I was hosting it!