Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let it SNOW!!

Our forecast is looking pretty good right now. If all things line up as the weathermen are saying they will, we will have a white Sunday, and perhaps Monday! It is cold right now, very cold. I say we should turn up the heat, but Richard in his infinite wisdom pointed out, why would that make a difference? Its colder outside but if the heat setting stays the same, the inside will be as warm(or cold) as it always is. Hmmmm....my thinking is simply that if its THAT cold outside, we should have it be a bit warmer inside to compensate. Yeah, not so logical, but I do believe I feel colder just sitting watching the snow fall, it may be psychological, but hey, if I am cold, I am cold, right? So perhaps we will just bundle up really warm, or maybe I can talk Richard into a degree or two warmer, just while it snows! Either way, tomorrow will be hot cocoa weather! Yippee! There is nothing like the first snowfall, especially when it is the ONLY snowfall of the year, and especially when it is around Christmastime. Everything is so beautiful and we get to stay home together. It has a very nice feel to it.

Our day started with a frenzy to get ready for Annalina's Birthday party. I had some last minute things to get from the store and then the party started at 10am. We had about 15 kids here total. They got to decorate their loot bags, then we played some fun games. I am so grateful for the internet, I found lots of great games for this age group, and I never could have been creative enough to have figured these out on my own! First we played hit the target with the balloon. Each child got a deflated balloon. We placed a giant pillow in the middle of the living room floor and the kids went up to the landing on the stairs, blew up their balloons one at a time and let them go! They flew everywhere, but a few managed to hit the target. One try was not enough, they'd run downstairs, get their balloon and run back up to try again. It was fun to watch the
balloons flying all over!

After a while, Annalina found it fun to sit in the living room and be a target for balloon launchers!

Next each kid got a ball of yarn and tied the end around their waist. Then one at a time thy would throw it to someone else in the circle, over and over and over until they were a giant spider web of yarn. Very fun, though this would probably be a better game for kids a bit older, who are better at catching and throwing, but it was still really fun to watch!
Next Annalina opened gifts and then the kids decorated their cupcakes and ate them. Back to the games, I had blown up about 60 balloons the night before, small balloons and stuffed them in garbage sacks. So we had the kids lay down in the living room and Richard proceeded to dump the bags of balloons down on the from the landing. They had to use their feet to keep the balloons up in the air. When that was over we divided into 3 teams and one person put on a large sweatshirt of Richards. When we said go, the rest of the teammates had to stuff as many balloons as possible into that sweatshirt, the kids looked like little hunchback balloon creatures! I love the photos Adrienne was able to get. The best score was 12 balloons. This game was so fun, we played it again until it was time to go, this time one team got 17 balloons in there. The kids left in droves and we were left with ballooons everywhere!

We alternate birthday parties one year and a nice family dinner the next, this keeps us from partying every other month! But Annalina really wanted a birthday party again this year. Part of the deal for haing a birthday party this year was that Annalina's only other gift from us would be a trip to the Build a Bear store. So after the party Richard and I took her to Washington Square(big mistake on a Saturday at Christmastime-parking was insane!)and she picked out a big husky dog whom she named Jake. We stopped at the asian food market on the way home and for dinner Richard prepared a wonderful Sushi meal for us. Jake went to a movie with a friend and Adrienne was off babysitting, so it was just the four of us. Richard and I are very blessed with adventurous eaters. Annalina and Joseph both LOVE sushi and can really put it away. Taking them out can be VERY expensive since they will not just eat the cheap California rolls and edamame anymore. They have exotic tastes and love to try new things. So to save money we got our own stuff and had a wonderful meal of home made sushi! Yum!! It looks like there will be enough to fix more tomorrow! Awesome! Can you think of anything better than sitting watching the snow fall with a plate full of sushi? Perhaps a mug of hot cocoa, but there will be time for that too!!