Sasha's Birthday!

We've been wanting to celebrate Sasha's birthday at home for a while, but have never had an adequate place to invite a lot of kids. We were very happy to finally have a party at home!

All three of us worked on making potholder frames to say thank you to each child:



James especially enjoyed making them!



Mima arrived but unfortunately had to leave on the day of the party. : ( She's now visiting friends in Israel and will be back at the end of the week. She helped us so much by making her speciality "maria" cake, making banana muffins, balling melons, cleaning, playing with Sasha, and so much more!



Temperatures in Houston are very unpredictable. Some days are almost in the 80s, and the following day might be in the 50s.
Here they are warming up by the fire.



The goody bags:



The goody bags contained these crayon rocks and a pad of paper:



Spending time with Mima:








Giving daddy a head massage:



The baking/cooking begins:



Watching all the activity from a safe, fun place:



Sasha was a great little helper:



We got pictures of Sasha with all her guests. These will be printed and put in the potholder frames and sent with thank you notes:










Outside we set up Sasha's wooden frames, with silks for walls and blankets for floors:



And they all piled in to stay warm (temp. was in the low 60s)



Kids played in the hammock:





Played soccer:



Ate in nooks:



Played in the boxes and decorated them (the boxes had "secret" doorways that connected to other boxes!)



Played other games (although these were unnecessary, as the boxes proved to be all the entertainment they needed!)





We also had a craft table with bendaroos and paper dolls:





Some of the food:
James made three dips for fruit (chocolate-orange, raspberry-vanilla, and whipped cream)
He also made lettuce boats filled with chicken, corn and other yummy things. Mima made sails out of skewers and napkins and placed them in the lettuce wraps. James also made mini pizzas with smiley faces and fruit kabobs. We also served mima's bread muffins.



A few of our guests:

Arnie and Mary Carmen:



Jennifer with Oliver:



Opening presents later that evening after everyone had left:



She got beautiful, crafty and creative gifts. Here she is with the gift sent from Grandma and Grampa:




Children's Class:

Last week we had another children's class. Here the kids are acting out a virtue that the rest of the class had to guess:



I told a story using Sasha's little people and animals:



While James and I sang the truthfulness song (with the guitar and bongo!) the kids made their own instruments with paper towel rolls and rice!