An early Christmas from Aunt Tina !!

Happy New Year Everybody..... One of my resolutions is to blog more consistantly... I have some catching up to do !
Back in November an early Christmas present arrived at our house from Aunti Tina. They were so excited when they found out we could open them right away. I called Tina on the phone while they were tearing into the package.

what could it be....?

It was alot of everything, including alot of chocolate which they could not resist.



Candy, puzzles, little ponies, cars, christmas cd, advent calendars, gingerbread men and gingerbread house kit, chocolates (for mommy), chocolate bar story books. Preston kept saying "Christmas came early to our house, Christmas came early to our house !!"

Thank you Aunti Tina, you sure made two little kids excited and wound up for days.

We made the gingerbread house before Christmas so that Santa could see it when he came to our house.

My Favorite Pirate and Princess

The long awaited day had arrived.
For months they have been waiting for party day, (me too)
Destiny turns 5 and Preston turns 6. That calls for a Big Party !!



The guest list:
after much deliberating this is the list we came up with.
Catherine, Caleb and Elizabeth from Destiny's class , Justin was sick
Kate and Brett from Preston's class, Brennen and Andrew were away.
Cousins Abigail and Griffen (jennifer strights Kiddies)


THE PARTY DETAILS


lets start with the cake...
i dream of being a master cake decorator...so far I am coming up a "little" short. Every birthday I have great plans, i think i have the imagination part almost conquered...but then there is the frosting side of it. I just don't get it. too thick, too runny, won't spread, droops to the bottom...there have been some near catastrophies. So this year i froze the cake before frosting, it somewhat helped. I managed to get the crumb layer on without ripping the cake apart so I left it at that. One thin layer of frosting! I even left my cool piping tools in the drawer. I then constructed a Princess castle out of cake, fruitloop straws, gumdrops and some unediable jewels. Yipeeeee, castle accomplished. I chickened out on the pirate ship and decided to go plastic. Some green dyed coconut for grass, oreo cookie crumbs and skor bits for the island, and a few figurines and voila ! a Princess and Pirate Party Cake. I love it , even with all its imperfections...dont get me wrong I still dream of the masterpiece but in the meantime this will definately do. Even more importantly Des and Pres loved it !




the dressing room...
this is where all the invited pirates and princesses received their party attire.


For the ladies there were sparkling crowns, pink fluffy boas, elegant silver wands and homemade tutus in shades of pink, blue, peach and green.

For the gentleman there were pirate hats, dazzling swords, eyepatches, stolen beads and a golden earring.




The Royal Table ...
The Princesses ... The Pirates ...



The games...
There can't be a Pirate Party without some sort of treasure hunt..and well Princesses are always looking for some gems and jewels...so i made a treasure box filled with shipping peanuts and lots of loot inside for the kiddies to search for.

What fun they had filling some party bags with all their findings, Jen took about 1 million pictures of this because they were so cute but I will only post a few.






Showing off their LOOT !
musical chairs...



Some coloring a a big pirate ship wall mural I bought...
and a few sword fights...

what's a party held at a firehall without a trip down to see the fire trucks..

The Gifts....

Happy Birthday to the two Little People who light my world EVERYDAY! Your growing up so fast.

the day did not end here, no by this time it was only 3pm. We had another family party to put on at 5pm for nanny and papa, grumps, kelly and her family and jen. PS thanks Jen for hanging out all day and helping me pull this crazy day off.
...as you can see the kids aren't tired yet..
i will post more party pics tomorrow....

Dinner for Two

Destiny and Preston decided that they would make Dave and I dinner one night. This is what they prepared...and apple, a sucker and a package of rockets. MMM mmmm mmmmm... just what we were hoping for.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow.....

The day the French/Roach household has been waiting for ARRIVED !
Not the most spectacular snowfall but one that will be remembered by us forever.
Preston's Very First Snow Sighting.... He was so excited. I think I was too. I was at work and called Dave at 6:15 AM to let him know it was snowing, I didn't want him to show Preston until I was on the other end of the phone. I called and told Preston to look outside. "It's snowing, it is finally snowing. I finally see my very first snow" " Can we have a snowball fight?" He went from window to window watching it fall. When he got off the bus from School he dropped his bookbag in the middle of the yard and started exploring. There was just a light dusting on the ground but to him it was a white fluffy playground. I caught up with him on the deck with my camera, He was just scooping up as much as he could and throwing it up in the air...make sure you click on this picture to enlarge it so that you can actually see the adorable look on his face.

He enjoyed watching the tracks all around the yard that he could make... oh yeah, it was a really neat snow, if you looked closely you could see the snowflakes in the actual shape of snowflakes, they were so cool.

I asked Preston if he wanted to make a Snow Angel, he said sure, so I proceeded to tell him how to make one...however I was quickly interrupted and told that he already knew how. I asked how do you know, he learned it from tv.

...and by golly he does know how to make a Snow Angel

>
getting up without ruining her is always the most difficult part.

The Induction into Girl Guiding, I am a Spark

I am a Spark , for honest real.. receiving her certificate
I promise to share and be a friend
sliding down the rainbow slide, that is how you become an official Spark
saying goodnite ...singing twinkle, twinkle , little spark.......little spark say goodnite
group photo You did a great job baby girl