two straight lines

I'm always envious of people whose kids have summer birthdays.  Planning a kid's winter birthday party can be tricky and often, expensive.  With Elliot's birthday in the middle of December, and Lucie's in March-- which is warmer, but still not reliably nice-- we're pretty much stuck renting some sort of facility, or limiting the number of kids and doing it at home.  We've tried both, and it's always been successful, but this year we decided to embrace the weather and host an outdoor winter birthday party.

Because Elliot's birthday falls during the last week of school before winter break, for the past three years we've held his birthday party in early January. It's a good time because people are mostly available, and during Michigan winters, on a typical Sunday afternoon, you're pretty much dying to get out of the house.  For a free activity, well, that's a huge bonus.

This past Sunday we had a sledding birthday party for Elliot, and I suspect that it may be the first of many spent in the great outdoors.  We packed up our SUV with a nice little tailgate set-up and headed out to our favorite local sledding hill, at a local elementary school.  I wish I had some photos of the sledding hill, or of actual sledding taking place, unfortunately my iPhone did a little sledding of its own after Lucie and I took a spill. (Word to the wise- don't sled with a white phone, with your pocket unzipped) I was only able to capture photos of the first few minutes, which only includes the tailgate.  I don't haul my Nikon to events like this because I much prefer to be involved in the moment, enjoying my friends and family.

It was a beautiful sunny Michigan winter day, almost balmy really, with plenty of snow.  You couldn't ask for much more than that.  Except, well, the company was exceptional, and the food, that was pretty tasty too.  I can't say I didn't like the stares from the bewildered sledders, but just maybe I felt a tiny bit bad for them too.

This is the second time I've used the One Bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Book (it's not the same one on their website).  They're perfectly moist and I love that it yields about 28 cupcakes, although the recipe says 24.  This year rather than sending home a bag of favors for the parents to manage for the next month, I opted to make these cute Melted Snowman cookies.  My piping skills were somewhat lacking (I didn't have enough icing to fill the pastry bags enough to control the flow), but I still think they turned out pretty cute.  Here's a link to the original tutorial, but I found it via OhDeeDoh.

One other idea I had for a winter birthday party- a Solstice hike would be fun on December 21st.  I'd love to hear any ideas you have.

 

I'm struggling to get back into the swing of things after a wonderful winter break. We had weeks filled with family visits and also quiet time with just our little family.  As my kids get older, I am enjoying this time more and more because they play together better, and also entertain themselves better, so it isn't quite so necessary for me to keep them occupied every minute.

The pictures in this post are of my kids' winter program, which is always such a sweet way to say goodbye to our school friends for a few weeks and greet the holidays.  Lucie's class did a few poems and sang "Over the River and Through the Woods."  I was pretty much bursting with pride to see her on stage the first time because she is such a little character and hammed it up, complete with bows.  She had been practicing her curtsies the week before, which I'm assuming she learned in preschool.  She nearly falls over when she curtsys because it requires more coordination than she currently has, which is pretty adorable.

Elliot's class performed the African folktale, Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock, which was equally cute.  I had the chance to help with the costumes for this one, sewing a basic felt hood for each animal and providing a bit of direction to the other parents.  We have a pretty crafty crew of parents, though I doubt they'd admit that, and I am always impressed with what they come up with.  Elliot is the waving elephant below.

I have a few things to share with you this week.  I was pretty successful with my holiday making, and hope to get some photos of that stuff up in the next few days.  I also have a birthday party to share, and a book review.

I'm hoping to figure out a way to simplify my blog so that making a post isn't as tedious.  When I place the borders around my photos it requires some Photoshop work, and I have to use my desktop for that.  There are times when I would like to post, but can't spend that amount of time in our office working on the desktop.  I'm hoping to figure out how to post more quickly, so that I can share here more often. 

I'll be back soon!