Jensen Cookie Bash

 One of my fave things to do around the holidays is decorating cookies.  It's not just Christmas season, I love to decorate cookies any holiday!  New Years, Valentine's day, St. Patricks day... You name a holiday I will bake and decorate cookies.  They aren't the nest cookies! lol but I have fun doing them with the kids.  So I've always wanted to do a cookie decorating party,  I find that Christmas is one of the best times to have one.

Last year I actually had a precursor to this cookie decorating extravaganza.  We had a big potluck for Christmas with our Oki fam and for dessert I brought cookies and decorating stuff.  It was nuts, we had about 15-20 kids {we have a big Oki fam} and no real adult supervision but myself .  The other adults were there but they were occupied with real dessert.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself!  I could tell the kids were loving it.  That's when I decided that we would do the real deal next Christmas .

Fast forward to Dec 2013.  This time we had a party at our house.  I baked about 60 cookies and bought all the fixins to make a mean Christmas cookie.  We had a bunch of kids and my table wasn't big enough for them to decorate all at the same time, so we did shifts.   It was super fun.  I know the kids were having a blast.  All the parents looked worried about sugar overdose! lol  The lil kids mainly were just eating all the decor.  Haha. The kids decorated 2 cookies each.  I did cutout sugar cookies of gingerbread men, snowmen, Santas, snowflakes, and just plain round cookies.  The kids were able to choose the shape of cookie.  Luckily we had enough of each shape and none of the kids were sad they didn't get a certain one.    I made all the kids wrap up their creations and take them home.  They didn't need anymore sugar.  So final verdict,  we will keep this as a family tradition.  It was so much fun and I love seeing the creative side of the kids.  I think next year I will add a hot cocoa bar :)

Happy FIRST Birthday Nolan!!

Nolan’s FIRST  Birthday!

What a momentous occasion! I honestly can’t believe how fast that year went.  My baby isn’t so much a baby anymore.

We moved to an actual HOUSE! {more on that later} So we had Nolan’s first Birthday party at hour new house.  We’ve never been able to have  a party at any of the places we lived because it was always too small.  I’m so happy to finally be in a house that we can have parties at....LOVE IT!

Anyways we had our Oki fam over and it was great.   I was so happy we didn’t have to lug all our food and décor to some hall or park.  It is such a burden.  Having a party at the house was so much easier and less stress, if I forgot something luckily I was at my house! Haha The party was real simple.  Good food + good company= good party.  We had a great time.  We had a Toy Story theme party.  Nolan had a blast, especially during cake time.  

MIA

So I've totally been MIA this whole summer.  With Nolan arriving and Mills taking a break from daycare, I've been a little busy.  Well not so much busy more tired. 

Mills Last day at Daycare and her Bday celebration with her teachers and classmates

Well its official, summer is over and done with.  Unfortunately we did not do as much as we had hoped to do.  I think we forgot how it was to have a newborn.  It's also excruciatingly hot and humid here in Okinawa, that taking out a newborn in this heat is just pure torture.  I really tried to limit my outings with him to few and far between.

This summer we had a number of Birthday parties that we attended.  Most notably we had Mills' 3rd birthday party!  Morgan picked out the theme this year.  He went with watermelons, its a great summer treat and her fave fruit.  He held the party at a multipurpose room at our friends apartment.  The party had a jumpy house, sugary treats, good food, games, and great people.  We had a blast and we know Mills had the time of her life.  I can't believe she is already 3.  Although she kills me every now and then, this age has been super fun and I wish I could just stop time.

Elijah's 2nd Bday

Party Games

July 26, 2012

Happy 3rd Birthday

Another great thing that happened this summer is Mills started gymnastics!  Being here on Oki, the extracurricular activities have super long waiting lists.  I had actually signed her up 4 months before she was able to start the class. I almost lost hope that she would get in a class, I actually signed her up for several classes mostly dance and this was the first class to have an opening.   I was really surprised how much stuff her coach was teaching her and how much she loved it. She is always asking about going to gymnastics and trying to do gymnastics in the house, we don't let her due to safety issues.  I'm glad she is so happy doing gymnastics, and who knows maybe we'll be in the 2024 Olympics :)

First Day of Gymnastics

 Most of our summer was spent lounging around the house or going out to eat and running errands here and there.  Since its been a few months now, I'm hoping that we get our routine going.  I'm a much better person when I've got a routine going.  Now it doesn't necessarily feel like fall, its still pretty warm and muggy out. It does cool down, so hopefully we'll do more now that the weather should be getting better.  Till the next post!

Breakfast on a Sunday morning

Nolan after a bath

Mills First haircut