Holiday Au Pair/Kid Party

I had this great idea for Oliver to have a mini-holiday party and am so glad we were able to make it happen last week.  Originally, I was thinking the kids could decorate gingerbread houses, but I thankfully came across a link (ah, pinterest) for a toddler-friendly version -- decorating Christmas trees (aka sugar cones).  Since last week was Pauline's last week working, the party was also an opportunity for a final visit with some of her au pair friends/host kids.  

 

I am loving these icing containers that I bought.  I put all different colored sprinkles in cut up egg cartons, so each kid had their own assortment of sprinkles and chocolate chips.  

Table prepped and ready for guests

 

While Oliver had fun decorating, he had infinitely more fun eating cookies and chocolate chips before lunch!  After the decorating, everyone stuck around for a delicious lunch spread that Pauline had prepared.  It was high effort, but I thought it was totally worth it.  And, we lucked out -- the babies slept the entire time everyone was decorating cookies and making Christmas trees!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom - feel free to stop reading now, since you think I write too much!

My Alternate Post Heading for this party is "Damn you Pinterest!"  For those of you that don't know, pinterest is a website that allows you to "pin" (save links) to things you find online. Mostly, people pin recipes they will never make, pin cool things for houses they will never be able to afford, and in my case, pin arts & crafts projects we will never get around to making.  It is also littered with cool party themes, home organization ideas, photography tips, and amazing photographs.  In the days before Pinterest, I would have been very impressed with our party -- not bad for a full-time working mom of 3 youngin'! But instead, I was a bit bummed that there weren't any decorations or cute goodie bags for the kids.  Keeping things in perspective, the kids had a blast - there was sugar in multiple forms, what else do they really need?  Besides, I view this event as a starting point - it will be easy to do similar events down the road (Easter, Halloween, etc), since its easy to whip up some cookies from pre-made dough and add food coloring to icing.