Fun with Brandon…and Carter too

I LOVE volunteering in Kindergarten classes and wish I had a kindergartener every year. Brandon had his class party the day before he got out for winter break, and I got to be there to help. Brandon had lots of fun decorating his gingerbread house and he did a mighty fine job at it too.

That night we drove around as a family to look at Christmas lights. This house is one of my yearly favorites. They have a 30 or 40 minute show they do twice nightly with awesome lawn decorations that sing and dance with the music. Some songs even have "snow bubbles" shooting from the roof. 

The next day I got to go back to school for Brandon's award ceremony. He got an award for excellence in writing and I could tell he was so proud of himself. I was too.

 Carter has been so good and patient with all these award ceremonies lately, so I decided it was time to have a little fun and took him to Chuck E Cheese for an hour or so. It's amazing how cheap it is to go there with just one kid. He's definitely gonna be one lucky last child for a while.

And then that night, Brooke had her yearly "Homemade Christmas Party" where everyone brings a homemade gift and white elephant style we come home with a new one. I had a couple of awesome gifts stolen from me including those scarfs in Tina's hand (eh hem), but I was pretty darn happy with what I ended up with.

 I made a recipe box this year with hand stamped recipe cards and I even painted the box since I couldn't find one already finished. It wasn't hugely popular, but oh well. Hopefully the person that ended up with it liked it enough. I'm determined to one year come up with something that everyone loves. Curse my not terribly crafty self.

Me and my cute Callie. I talked her into coming with me. We whipped together a homemade gift for her to give out so she could participate too. It was sure fun to have her there and made me excited for the day when my girls are teenagers too. Hopefully they'll want to still hang out with me.