Keeping Up With The Bandermann's

Recently my friend Ashley planned an awesome Christmas Party for several mamas and kiddos.  She ended up getting super sick the night before the party, so Kristal hosted instead.  (But Ashley you did AMAZING at getting everything together!)  We had so much fun visiting with our friends and getting our kids together to play!  I am LOVING stuff like this!

Happy Birthday Jesus cake with the nativity set on it...so cute!

One of the things we did was decorate Gingerbread Houses...obviously Brynn wasn't a master decorator, but she had a lot of fun watching the bigger kids!

Wyatt and Frankie were doing great!

Maksim was doing great all by himself so Heather got in a little Brynn time.

Brynn's gingerbread house is on the left...haha!  I was holding Brynn in one hand and trying to "decorate" with the other hand...I don't think we did too bad!

After some playing and eating everyone took on project number two...handprint pictures.  This was SO FUN!

I do projects like this with my kindergarteners all the time, but painting an 8 month old's hands and getting her to put them on the canvas was quite another story.  First, Kristal had to help me.  Look at Isaac.."what are they doing?"

HAHA!  After we got a "good" handprint on the canvas, Isaac decided to try his hand at painting!  It washed right off and we were ready to try again!

TA-DA!  Oh my gosh, this just makes my heart melt!  I am putting ribbon around the top and sides and using this to hang our Christmas cards on.  I just think it is the most precious thing ever!

Mom...why do we have to paint my hands so many times? 
She LOVED having the paint on her hands...she kept opening and closing them and looking at the green paint.  She also put the paint in her hair, eyebrows, and near her mouth! AHH!  It was fine though...and SO WORTH IT!

Heather, Kristal, and Sarah putting the finishing touches on their kids projects...

Playing away...

We lit the candles and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus!

What a fun day with friends!  These are such special memories.  Even though Brynn is too little to understand what Christmas is all about, and won't remember "playing" with all her little friends, we had such a good time celebrating!  Thanks Ashley and Kristal for such a fun day!