If you know me, you know that I really enjoy planning parties, and organizing little get togethers. I first stumbled upon my love of this sort of thing while I worked at Comcast. I was in charge of a team of collectors, and usually ended up working the late shift with them. After 5, when a good deal of the call center employees had packed up and gone home, my team was still there plugging away. It was the witching hour...they were tired, bored, and just wanted to be home. So to pass the time, I tried to come up with things to entertain them. We did a lot of contests, things like coloring contests (they colored pictures at their desks and at the end of the night we would set up an art gallery and award a prize to the winner) and games that were based around the money that they collected. I remember one that I did shortly before I left for maternity leave (never to return - ha!) that involved them each having a little skier on the white board that was set up to look like a snowy mountain, complete with little trees and chair lifts. They raced each other down the mountain, gaining speed with each payment they collected. When they crossed the finish line at the bottom of the mountain they would win a prize. Our games really broke up the monotony of the night, kept everyone motivated and having fun, and were a great way to build team spirit. We always had such a great time, and the ability and freedom to be creative in my job is one of the things that I miss the most about it.
I left my job right before I was due to have Rowan, and the only job I have had since then was at the horse barn. Not exactly a place where creativity runs wild :) So these days I satisfy my need for creativity by planning parties and events with our friends and family. Of course we do big birthday parties, Killian's this year was a camping theme, and next month Rowans birthday will be a Luau party. But those only happen twice a year, leaving me with a lot of months to get creative with. So in October we had a Halloween party, which was so much fun that I cant imagine it not becoming a yearly tradition. That's neat to think about, because I can see it taking so many different shapes over the years as the kids grow up.
We also decided to have a party this weekend to celebrate the Christmas season, and all the craftiness there is this time of year. We invited some of our friends and their kids over, and had an ornament making and cookie decorating extravaganza. We all had a lot of fun and it was only slightly overwhelming having so many kids in the house. This is the only time I ever wish our house was bigger!
We set this party up much like the Halloween party, with different stations around the house. I decided to do the cookie decorating because the cupcake decorating at Halloween had been so much fun for kids and adults. It was the first station that filled up, the kids each grabbing a cookie, and smearing as much frosting and as many sprinkles on it as they could.
In the back we had a table set up with some wooden ornaments to color with markers, some stamping to make wrapping paper, and an area for the kids to paint small ceramic ornaments. The older ones did a really good job of making designs on the ornaments, while the younger ones like Rowan just slopped on as much paint as their brushes could hold! Stephanie and Tanya helped keep the table under control while paint and markers were flying:
Killian painting his Christmas tree:
We had another area set up in the dining room for the kids to make little wreath ornaments. It was a kit that I found at the craft store, just some beads and wire that was simple enough for all the kids to make on their own, but still really cute. There was also a station set up to wrap their presents up to take home. Here are Killian's finished ornaments:
I like that the kids have a great time at our parties, but am also always pleasantly surprised that the grownups get into it too! Inevitably while watching the kids make cupcakes or cookies, they get the uncontrollable urge to do the same. Its fun seeing how those ones turn out! Matthew always impresses me, he made a couple really amazing cupcakes at Halloween, and this time he made some cute cookies:
I didn't get a picture of it, but Tanya also made a super cute stocking for Steve, who was home sick. I was busy running around and didn't get a chance to make any cookies during the party, but ate my fair share afterwords!
We really have such a great group of people in our lives, and I so enjoy spending time with them. This was the last party that I planned for this year, other than a wrapping party this Friday. After that, and Rowans birthday in January, we probably wont do anything until Easter when we will do our 2nd annual Easter egg hunt. We are going to wait for better weather, and then the fun can begin again! We haven't been doing our monthly game nights since September - we have had too many other parties happening these last few months. Plus it just got really hard to have so many kids in the house once the weather turned cold and rainy. So I am looking forward to starting those again in the late spring/summer. To hold us over I think we are doing a few adult nights out. 99% of the time anything that we do is with our kids, and I wouldn't ever change that. But its a very nice treat to go out and have some grown up time. I think a night of bowling is next on the list...I haven't bowled forever so it should be great fun. It always makes me happy to have so many things to look forward too, I have so much hope for this coming year. I think its going to be our best yet :)
I left my job right before I was due to have Rowan, and the only job I have had since then was at the horse barn. Not exactly a place where creativity runs wild :) So these days I satisfy my need for creativity by planning parties and events with our friends and family. Of course we do big birthday parties, Killian's this year was a camping theme, and next month Rowans birthday will be a Luau party. But those only happen twice a year, leaving me with a lot of months to get creative with. So in October we had a Halloween party, which was so much fun that I cant imagine it not becoming a yearly tradition. That's neat to think about, because I can see it taking so many different shapes over the years as the kids grow up.
We also decided to have a party this weekend to celebrate the Christmas season, and all the craftiness there is this time of year. We invited some of our friends and their kids over, and had an ornament making and cookie decorating extravaganza. We all had a lot of fun and it was only slightly overwhelming having so many kids in the house. This is the only time I ever wish our house was bigger!
We set this party up much like the Halloween party, with different stations around the house. I decided to do the cookie decorating because the cupcake decorating at Halloween had been so much fun for kids and adults. It was the first station that filled up, the kids each grabbing a cookie, and smearing as much frosting and as many sprinkles on it as they could.
In the back we had a table set up with some wooden ornaments to color with markers, some stamping to make wrapping paper, and an area for the kids to paint small ceramic ornaments. The older ones did a really good job of making designs on the ornaments, while the younger ones like Rowan just slopped on as much paint as their brushes could hold! Stephanie and Tanya helped keep the table under control while paint and markers were flying:
Killian painting his Christmas tree:
We had another area set up in the dining room for the kids to make little wreath ornaments. It was a kit that I found at the craft store, just some beads and wire that was simple enough for all the kids to make on their own, but still really cute. There was also a station set up to wrap their presents up to take home. Here are Killian's finished ornaments:
I like that the kids have a great time at our parties, but am also always pleasantly surprised that the grownups get into it too! Inevitably while watching the kids make cupcakes or cookies, they get the uncontrollable urge to do the same. Its fun seeing how those ones turn out! Matthew always impresses me, he made a couple really amazing cupcakes at Halloween, and this time he made some cute cookies:
I didn't get a picture of it, but Tanya also made a super cute stocking for Steve, who was home sick. I was busy running around and didn't get a chance to make any cookies during the party, but ate my fair share afterwords!
We really have such a great group of people in our lives, and I so enjoy spending time with them. This was the last party that I planned for this year, other than a wrapping party this Friday. After that, and Rowans birthday in January, we probably wont do anything until Easter when we will do our 2nd annual Easter egg hunt. We are going to wait for better weather, and then the fun can begin again! We haven't been doing our monthly game nights since September - we have had too many other parties happening these last few months. Plus it just got really hard to have so many kids in the house once the weather turned cold and rainy. So I am looking forward to starting those again in the late spring/summer. To hold us over I think we are doing a few adult nights out. 99% of the time anything that we do is with our kids, and I wouldn't ever change that. But its a very nice treat to go out and have some grown up time. I think a night of bowling is next on the list...I haven't bowled forever so it should be great fun. It always makes me happy to have so many things to look forward too, I have so much hope for this coming year. I think its going to be our best yet :)