Christmas fun

Our Christmas party was filled with giggling girls 

with tons of energy and excitement!

Every SuperGirl was able to make it to our end of the year party.

While we waited for everyone to arrive the girls picked out their favorite ornament on my tree as my son Jess requested that I write down their choice for him to review later.

Then they made me a Christmas picture.

We decided to eat at the dining room table by candlelight. I was going to switch up our usual menu of pizza but when I mentioned making something different, I was reminded that all of the girls love pizza so why change it? Good point.

While Peyton cleaned up the table and switched it over to our craft table, the girls and I gathered in the tv room and we talked a little about the Christmas story and then we watched a really cute video with kids from New Zealand acting it out. 

They thought the little kids dressed as sheep were adorable. I had to clarify that the little girl who played Mary had a pillow stuffed in her shirt and she really didn’t have a baby.

Our craft was to decorate a cigar box. I told them they should think through what they chose to put on the box and really take some time with it as they could keep it for a really long time. 

They could put things like jewelry, or special pictures or letters in there.

I envisioned boxes completely covered in papers and pictures. 

That isn’t quite what happened  

(they wanted to dance and open presents)

but they did a great job and each box showed their unique personality. 

They can always add things to it with some craft glue.

Next, the girls drew numbers to pick a gift from under the tree. 

They had fun opening it and were so good about saying thank you and telling the others that they really liked their gift.

Peyton and I gave them their SuperGirls necklaces. 

They were especially made by Mrs. Coughlan, a first grade teacher at Deerwood. 

We picked a different colored bead for each girl, although pink is always the most popular.

It wouldn't be a SuperGirls party without some dancing!

Time for ice cream and cookies! 

(thanks to Greta for bringing individual cups for everyone)

Headband goes from holiday to disco!

Nina hiding in a corner with her ice cream!

And, then it was time to gather up all of their goodies and get ready to head home.

I think our next party will be on Valentine’s Day.

Have a great holiday and we’ll see you in 2013!

Halloween Party

It's hard to believe that after an entire summer together we are celebrating Halloween!
The girls had great costumes and we had a ton of fun.


We had the whole group: Ella Greta, Mia, Lily, Nina, Isabel, Angolina and Traci.

Attending the party were a couple of vampires, two zombie prom queens, Padame from Star Wars, a pirate, a princess and a spider queen (my mini me for the  night).

First on the agenda was to make a Halloween picture frame. I took some group photos and I will send them in the mail this week. We kept the craft pretty simple so we could move onto more games.

Next, was walking down the basement which didn't go so smoothly. There were a lot of comments and questions:

I don't wanna go!
Are there fake monsters that will jump out?
I'll stay upstairs.
I'm scared!

With a little coaxing and reassuring that it was just decorated with normal Halloween stuff we all went down. Peyton actually carried Angolina as that was the only way she was going to go.

Once we were downstairs their fears subsided until they heard the creepy music with moaning monsters and that needed to stop asap!


Time for pizza which Peyton and I brought down and served to them with some fruit punch. Once everyone was talking and laughing they forgot that they had been scared and then it was like a regular party.









Cupcake decorating was next. We mixed up some orange and green/gray colors and had bugs and bones and black and orange sprinkles.

We decided to have a contest and vote on who had the best decorating skills. There were some really good ones but #4, Lily's cupcake one. She won a red, sparkly spider necklace that went great with her costume.

Somehow the dance music always gets turned on. They weren't really interested in the Monster Mash so they danced to One Direction, did the Cupid Shuffle and belted out Taylor Swift's "We are never ever getting back together". It was very fun to watch.

It was time to get back to the basement for our next game. They lined up and were blindfolded one by one before they went into the fort where Peyton had some things for them to touch. Brains, eyeballs, guts with fingers and mud filled with slimy worms! We had three brave souls, Lily, Nina and Ella who went ahead and felt everything. Otherwise it was "no way!" or Greta who always says "no thank you". They got the blindfold on, climbed into the fort and then when Peyton took their hand they changed their minds. We revealed what was really in the bowls with the lights on. Jello, peeled grapes, noodles with peeled carrots and mud with gummy worms.  A little vegetable oil added to the gross factor.

Time was running out so we played a round of Halloween themed Pictionary.  Even though I told them the words were all about Halloween, they were guessing things like jelly bean and butterfly. The Sparkly Unicorns won the game by only one point.

Parents were about to arrive so we gathered picture frames and some treats to take home.

Next up will be a holiday party with Christmas cookies and non-scary basements.

Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Pizza and a bonfire

It was a wild night with nine high energy girls!
Thank goodness Peyton was there to help.


Attendees were:
Isabel, Ella, Greta, Mia, Lily, Angolina, Traci and two guests
Lexi and Sadie.

We started off by making personal pizzas. And by that I mean, watching the girls put minimal sauce on the dough before adding a mound of cheese. A few chose to add pepperoni but plain cheese won out. I thought we'd get some interesting crust shapes but only Isabel made hers into a heart.

While our pizzas were cooking we headed to the craft table to turn pinecones into various creatures, animals, Christmas trees and feathered ornaments. I had made an owl and a mouse as an example thinking the girls would copy them but they created something unique on their own. 

I should have known better!

Having such a big group made the craft table a bit chaotic but it was neat so see everyone asking for things with a "please" and sharing and helping each other.

Time to eat our pizzas on blankets, picnic style, on the living room floor. Here we talked about how school was going for everyone. We went around the circle and the girls said what their favorite thing about school was. Some mentioned making new friends and then the topic of mean kids came up. We talked about ways to deal with the mean kids, like trying to walk away or saying things like "sorry you feel that way" if they say something that isn't nice. I also told them that if it's a real problem that is making them sad or distracting them from learning, that they need to tell their teacher or their parents.

After our pizza we ate some homemade brownies that Mia brought!

 We were going to stay inside for a little while but the screaming and running made the bonfire outdoors look pretty enticing so we bundled up and laid out some blankets and brought down a bag of marshmallows.

It was just getting dark and it was very chilly so it was really perfect once we got the fire going. The girls were very good about sitting down or standing away from the fire and not running near it.

After we blew out 20 or so marshmallows that started on fire, we got out the flashlights and did some exploring down by the wooded shore of the pond. Then it was time to play hide and seek and a couple of games of kick the can.


After quit a bit of screaming and running, we sat down to tell scary stories by the fire. Peyton broke the scary tension with a story about a family of marshmallows and Lily added her story about a family of gummy bears living in the forest. Then we told a few jokes.

Our time was coming to an end so we headed upstairs and gathered up crafts and danced in the living room until all of the parents arrived.

It was fun to see everyone again and see the girls be so carefree and bonded together as a group.






Our next gathering will be near Halloween.

I'll send the details soon!