school Christmas parties

One of the things you will notice about this entry is that there is no documentation of Maddy's parties.

That is because Maddy is in middle school.

Maddy is too cool for school (or, rather, too cool for her mom).

I jest.

There is no possible way she is too cool for me.

I'm just that cool.

And really, she doesn't treat me that way either.

I just wanted an opportunity to reiterate how very cool I am.

So I made up an opportunity.

But they just really don't make a huge deal out of the parties for middle school and up.

Which, while I want them to be educated, I think it stinks.

Just because they are older doesn't mean that they don't want fun parties.

Or maybe they don't.

What do I know.....

First, Cade's big bash.

Fairly goofy that guy is.

While it seems like his party started with coloring a stocking picture, as seen above, you would be deceived if this is what you believed.

I didn't bust out my camera (I was too enthralled with a new craft his teacher taught be before the party started.... in the other pictures you'll see some big white staryish-snowflaky thingys hanging from the ceiling. They are really quite pretty and she showed me how to make them.) Anyway, I didn't take pictures of Cade showing off.

He was doing flips, handstands, walking on his hands, etc. in the classroom.

He really was quite awesome

(and I only say that with a teeny-tiny bit of sarcasm, because he really was impressive).

More stuff he learned from the Casa G. boys.

Cade was quite taken with the snowman cupcakes from the other party, so I made them again.

The parents that were there were quite smitten with them as well.

I mean they are cute and all, but really not that hard to do.

I didn't quite get how much the swooned over them.

Each child brought in a stocking and every child was supposed to bring in a little something for each classmate.

Apparently, according to Cade's teacher, stockings are not something that they typical do here.

(Which I really do believe as today, I looked high and low for stockings for the Casa G boys. I found a grand total of 2..... I might be sewing 9 stockings.)

They played "Santa says" (as in, Simon.....).

Cade won the first round.

That means he became Santa.

He had them do some more extreme things -

like have them raise their chairs above their heads.

The teacher didn't even seem to mind too much.

Then they played "stick the ornament on the tree", as in "pin the tail....".

Mrs. Ayala spun the kids around three times first....

Cade fell flat on his booty.

Then stocking time.

Cade gave each of the boys one of his hot wheels cars.

He gave each of the girls one of the flower clips that I made.

The girls really liked them and kept coming up to him and giving him hugs.

He was having a good time!

And finally, Mrs. Ayala opened her presents.

We made her a shirt, because, of course, 1st grade rocks!

Mia had a party too, but it wasn't quite as entertaining (for me, that is) as Cade's.

Mrs. Bulmer, her teacher opened her gifts.

Notice the Canada paraphernalia? (.... once again, thank you spell check).

Okay, well, it is just the thing around her neck.

But she is Canadian.

It makes me like her even more.

We made marshmallow treats for her class.

They look nice, but personally, I'm not partial to marshmallows.

Mia's friend, the only other gringa in the class (and who is from Winnipeg!!!), seemed to enjoy them.

They watched Rudolf and did a few other things.

But I didn't really spend much time there.

They also did stockings and Mia got quite a haul... as did Cade.

Lucy's party was sweet.

It was all a birthday party for Jesus.

They started with making sparkly trees.

I made some cupcakes with little signs on them.

And amazingly, all they had to eat were those and some oreos.

And they drank milk.

As a mom, I love it.

As a child, I might have been ticked off when I found out all the stuff my siblings had at their parties!

Miss Ortiz lit a candle and they all sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.

And then they had the cupcakes.

They didn't do stockings or exchange gifts, but Lucy didn't want to be left out, so she gave all her classmates a gift.

The boys got hot chocolate packages that we had left over from the sale.

The girls also got flower clips.

Here is Hillary modeling hers.

And Miss Ortiz also got a shirt.

Because, of course, Kindergarten also rocks.

Ya, okay, I couldn't figure out what to put on the shirts.

At 11:00 there was a school wide assembly - a bit of a Christmas program.

It was nice....

but a little long for a few kids I know.

It was a very fun morning -

I thoroughly enjoyed running back and forth between parties and seeing the smiles on the kids faces.

And I'm glad to have the kids home for two weeks.

It will be a wonderful Christmas.