Deck the Halls

A couple of years ago I started a tradition of having a fancy candle light dinner at home on the night we decorate our tree. It's a fun one and the kids especially love to help set the table.

Another part of the tradition is opening a new ornament. This year I picked out felt animals, which I thought were very fun........but the kids were not as into them as they were their princess and star wars ornaments from last year.

Combo Party

Last year I told the kids that they could have a friend party every other year. This year I was off the hook! Instead we just had a small family celebration for Aaron and Charlotte.

I served soup (Stephanie brought butternut squash) and bread and let them each choose their own cake for me to make. Very Simple.

Charlotte set up special "present opening" chairs for Aaron and herself

I found these two pictures on the camera in the middle of all the party pictures. I think the self photography pics I find are my favorites.

Charlotte's cake: cherry chip with pink frosting and pink sprinkles

Aaron's cake: Funfetti cake with rainbow chip frosting and Christmas sprinkles

Aaron's 7th Birhtday

This may be a record for the most pictures I've ever posted at one time.

On Aaron's birthday I copied an idea of giving cards for each birthday activity. (ex: presents, breakfast, surprises, ect.)

His first card gave him a clue to where his first present was hiding

Nick and I were tired and tried to stay in bed as long as possible....letting the kids in our bed means that we can stay there........but certainly not sleep!

The next card was for donuts!! I loved how excited he got about each card. I think the anticipation made the surprise even more exciting

The next card was his big surprise........ a ride on the train!!!

He could hardly believe it

"You mean a REAL train??!!"

The big boy even got to learn how to pump gas on his big day

Our train was about an hour behind schedule (something that would have been nice to know before we got there) which ment that we weren't going to be able to catch our planned train back home. And the next train back to Fresno wasn't for 4 more hours. We did some schedule re-arranging and it all worked out.

The train was very comfortable and it was a 30 minute ride each way. Just the perfect amount of time with 4 small kids.

With all that time to kill we went and had happy meals before the real reason for the trip..........

and then we paused to play with some toys............

....and then finally we went to try the ice cream at Superior Dairy that everyone always raves about.

it was sooo good.......... each scoop was about the size of Lila's head......this is what it looked like when we were finished. Next time we will get 3 scoops.....and there will be a next time

We still had about an hour left so we walked around and slowly headed back to the train station.

My uncle Frank always has a day after Thanksgiving BBQ and we went there for dinner. After that we went home and Aaron opened his last card which revealed the hiding place of the rest of his presents.

super excited about his spongebob computer game

Happy Birthday Aaron!!