~Catch up From Christmas Post!~

Wow, I totally missed doing a post from our Christmas!  I can’t believe it.  Anyhow, we had a great Christmas season, we went to the Festival of Trees Teddy Bears Breakfast with our friends The Smiths and The Dombroskies.  It was a fun time however a bit complicated as we arrived late and couldn’t get a table to sit altogether.  Here are some pictures from the day!

View Full Album

We had a great time decorating the tree!  I bought lots and lots of new little things for it this year…I think it was my favorite so far! 

View Full Album

Randy and Ethan had their Annual Gingerbread House decorating Day!  This year they went ‘untraditional’ and made an Angry Birds camp!  Ethan had seen an Angry Birds design at the Festival of Trees and had his heart set on buying it…we didn’t bid on it as it was already over $200 and it was a bit rich for my blood.  Instead I suggested to Randy that they make their own…I think they did a great job, what do you think?

View Full Album

 

We had a fun time at Ethan’s Christmas concert this season!  We arrived a bit close to the time though and ended up in the VERY back of the gym.  I had only brought my one lens so we didn’t get very good pictures being so far back…it was a very cute performance though and when the newsletter came out in January our little man was featured prominently in many of the pictures singing his little heart out!  We were bursting with pride!

View Full Album

Our Christmas Day was just the three of us…we had a great quiet day at home.  We started out with our stockings of course and then quickly dove into our presents!  We loved watching Ethan open his presents as usual, lots of “Wows” and “Awesome” coming from his camp!  We had alot of fun wrapping his trains up….we bought him 90 assorted Thomas trains and freight cars…they were (thankfully) the highlight of the day and he still plays with his trains more than he did before!

View Full Album

View Full Album

View Full Album

 

It was a nice Christmas.  We were sad that we didn’t have any family here with us and that we couldn’t travel but it was nice to spend the time just the three of us before we add a new baby to the mix.  Randy had almost 2 weeks off and it was wonderful for all of us to have that uninterrupted time together.  It’s been awhile!  We are hoping to travel home next Christmas to spend it with family and share baby’s first Christmas surrounded with them. 

~Easter 2012!~

We had a great Easter weekend this year!  We were all home and Ethan & I were just starting our weeklong holidays.  We put out our Easter decorations the week before and made treats for all the kids at school.

We had planned all kinds of fun things but in the end we fit in what worked for us.  Ethan really ‘got it’ this year and was so excited to look for eggs!  The Easter bunny did a good job hiding all the eggs and dropping clues to find the basket of goodies.  The Easter Bunny even left bunny ears for Ethan to wear!

Easter 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Easter Decor 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Randy and i also made a slew of treats for the Preschool class and Daycare before Spring Break.  We made little bunnies for the kids and Chicks for Ethan’s ‘Chicks’ his teachers!  They were very cute…next year I think I’ll make them a bit earlier than the day before though!!!

 

Easter Treats VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

~Annual Gingerbread House Building~

The boys cracked out their house building skills and made a mansion last night!  We had two kits for some reason so they combined them to make a bigger house.  All had fun, the real story is in the pictures!

House Construction VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Marshmallow Snowman VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Decorating VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

The Final Product:

Gingerbread House 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I think this was by far the best year yet!  We actually read the instructions this year, LOL!  We’ve had a few epic failures in the past so it was nice to roll out one that worked!  Ethan was right into it this year and was so excited to be decorating the house.  It was fun, fun, fun!

~The Grounds-Rogers 1st Annual Christmas Party Details~

So the party was a smashing success!  So much fun that the camera didn’t even make it out to record it, LOL!  It had rained the day of the party so a few people couldn’t make it due to road conditions but we still had 7 adults and 4 kids. 

I set out a huge spread of food, Randy’s boss bought all the booze and the kids had fun things to do.  I made Gingerbread Men and bought icing etc and let the kids decorate cookies.  There were coloring sheets and a kids Christmas movie to keep them entertained too.  I have to say, given they were all boys from 19 months to 7 years they were really good.  They had so much fun, I’m sure they all slept like rocks that night!

As for the adults, we sat around and BS’d all night.  The plan was to play some cards or games but we just never got around to it.  Everyone said they enjoyed just talking and enjoying the company and the food.  From all accounts (and the massive hangover I had) it was a good party!  We’ll be doing this every year!  Next years date?  December 15th, mark your calendars, you won’t want to miss it!