Merry Christmas!

Sweet Aprons and First Gingerbread House

Can you see the apron lighting up?

Here is Aaron's apron lighting up.

Both boys with their aprons ON with the Christmas lights.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! A delicious meal, and we enjoyed spending the day with Grandma!

Donovan's Ninja Birthday Party

For Donovan's sixth birthday party, he invited 3 girls and 4 boys (plus his brother) to his party. He wanted to have a Lego Ninjago birthday party. Since this is a rather new Lego line, I was on my own for decorations! The above cake is a delicious chocolate cake with vanilla frosting from our local grocery store, and we applied an edible cake topper to it (purchased on etsy.com).

The birthday boy!

Aaron and Donovan. (Apparently I need to rethink Aaron's pant size! These fit him in September! I guess he's had a bit of a growth spurt!)

The ninja headbands. (I stenciled each child's name, then folded and hand sewed them a bit so they would not unroll.)

2 ninjas in training waiting for their friends.

Posing!

I love this one of the two of them with their "ninja moves."

Happy Birthday banner I made.

The kitchen ready for the guests. The first thing the kids did was to color both sides of a ninja throwing star.

Ninja target game. The kids used the paper throwing stars they had decorated, to try to knock the balls off the tops. (I took empty Pringles canisters, covered them with red crepe paper, then covered paper towel tubes and toilet paper rolles with black cardstock, which I used a glue gun to stick on to the Pringles canister. We used ball pit balls for the top. I had first made two holes in the bottom of the Pringles cans, put a pipe cleaner through and secured them to a wooden board. This prevented the canisters from tipping over each time they were hit.)

Donovan getting ready to throw his. THIS WAS SUCH A HIT! THE KIDS LOVED IT.

 The green ninja pinata. (This was purchased on etsy.com.)

Donovan taking a swing! (It took about 45 swings total combined from all the kids to begin to have candy fall out and about 15 more before it was empty. It was GREAT!)

 Donvan takes another swing (and I quickly get out of the way).

Donovan hugging a friend. (This friend gave him a Lego Ninjago set, Cole's vehicle, and Donovan was ecstatic. It was the first thing he built after the party.)

Aaron enjoying his pizza.

Donovan and friends eating pizza and veggies.

Donovan with his red and black balloons before the party.