Kiddie Parties

We have found that the best way to get over the newness of an addition is to let 20 kids loose in it! Today was the annual neighborhood playgroup Christmas cookie swap, which never fails to turn into total chaos. Unfortunately a torrential downpour foiled my usual plan of ushering the herd of children into the backyard, so we played inside. The new rooms are completely broken in now--the furniture has been jumped on, the rugs eaten on and the the walls run into. We commemorated the event by taking the annual group picture of the kids we could round up in the new room. Overall, a very fun afternoon!

My "craft" idea of having the kids glue sequins to wood cutouts to make Christmas ornaments was a big hit, although the sequins have somehow made it into every room of the house. Here's Molly working on her ornament with her friend Jack.

I also had signed up to help with the Christmas party for Molly's class today, so I spent an hour making handprint ornaments with 2 year olds. This group picture was a lot easier, and you can see that Molly has abandoned the traditional "line-'em-up-and-shoot-'em" pose for something more "creative."