Pie Book Club Party

One of the new things we've started this year is a monthly Book Party with friends.  Each month we use either the Arrow or Boomerang book and all read it and then have a party!

 

 This month, the book was Pie!  We had a lot of fun trying new pies, including the buttermilk pie pictured above!

 For the party yesterday, Jack made a lemon cream pie.

 Alice went with blueberry.

 All of the kids with their pies!

 Pizza pie for lunch

 Then it was time to taste all of the treats.  We were stuffed by the end!

 The kids voted on different categories and everyone got a medal.

 Alice won Best Presentation!

 

 Jack won Most Unexpected!

 Then the kids wrote jingles for their pies.  Jack's:

Lemon cream is like a dream

When you see it you'll scream

Any person, deaf or blind

This is the best pie you can find

Alice's:

(For clarification, they had the instruction to name their pie, and Alice named hers Suzanne Jamie Rae.  I didn't ask.)

Suzanne Jamie Rae

I happened to make her today.

She's yummy, she's sweet,

She's nice to eat.

For me, for you, for him, for her,

She'll make your little kitten purr.

As always we had so much fun and can't wait until the next party!

A Visit to Narnia

 This past fall we started reading through The Chronicles of Narnia and Friday we finished up The Last Battle.  On Sunday the kids got to go see a play of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which was fun!

 Saturday the kids finished up the Read Aloud Revival Challenge and as their reward, we visited a new to us bookstore so they could each pick a new book.  To get to the middle grade and YA books, you have to go through the wardrobe!

 Alice chose Sisters and finished it before dinner.  She loves graphic novels!

Jack chose Four Three Two One.

I always love hearing my kids read to me and I'm excited we've found a new fun bookstore!

Happy 2020!

 We kept up our New Year's Eve bag tradition--we started this in 2009!

 A few years ago I started printing pictures from throughout the year and now we decorate with lots of them!

 Ready to start at 5:00!

 The first bag had the photos for a photo scavenger hunt, interviews, and 2019 trivia.

 At 6:00 we played NYE Pictionary.

 This was the drawing Jack did trying to get Alice to guess "champagne."

7:00 was dinner.  We did appetizers this year.

 

 We also did some soda testing.

 We ranked different kinds of cream sodas.  We all had a different favorite, so it worked out well!

 Of course there were breaks to take pictures of the cats!

 The 8:00 bag had Minute to Win It games.  We started with Breakfast Scramble.

 Next was Penny Drop.  You have to get the pennies out of the feet of the hose using only your hands.

 Noodle Pick Up requires you to use spaghetti (and no hands) to pick up ziti.

 Obviously this was fun to watch.

 Pudding Put Down--a race to see who can finish the pudding first using only a straw.

 Hats Off--using ping pong balls to knock the party hats off the table.

 9:00 was Mrs. Doubtfire!

 At 10:00 we took a break for brownies.

 11:00 was games--Loopin' Louie and Guitar Hero.

 12:00--candy and a new bingo game for January!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

 We had a great Christmas this year!  We started off Christmas Eve at Jay's parents' house with gifts and dinner.

 We finished the evening at the annual gathering of Jay's old neighbors.  I think this is the first time we ever thought to take a group selfie!

 We didn't have to be anywhere early on Christmas morning so the kids actually slept in a bit, which was a first.

 Pretty sure it doesn't get much sweeter.

 Alice loves to give gifts!  She works really hard to come up with ideas she thinks the person will love.  She's great at it!

 A new OU sweatshirt

 A HUGE book on one of his favorite topics

 She saw Quigley Down Under for the first time a few months ago and loved it!

 Who doesn't want a giant box of Nerds?!

 A new Julie doll!

 Beckham got a new (larger) bed.

 Neville got a kick stick--which Seamus took over.

 Seamus got a fountain, which he isn't too interested in.

 Tycho got a new toy, which they all love!

 We watched A Charlie Brown Christmas while I cooked.

 Time to eat!

 I was so excited to get this Nest Egg!  Also, the kids surprised me with The Waltons Board Game.

 Later we went to my mom and dad's for gifts and dinner.

 Alice painted gifts for my mom and dad.

Wrapping up the evening with a game of Murder.