Favorite Things Party 2015

This is my third year throwing a Favorite Things Party for my friends, and every year it's so much fun! (For last year go here, and for the first year here). Favorite Things Parties have been around for several years now, but the basic premise is to choose one favorite thing at a certain dollar amount (ours is $5), bring a certain number of them (we bring 4), and then we all share what we brought and draw the names of four people who get to take our item home. Just as a sidetone, we have found that drawing the names before we get started works out better!

Anyhow, like I said...it's nothing new, but I like to take pictures every year so I remember it. I keep it super simple. Less stress equals more fun!

Costume Party Fun

One of our neighborhood friends celebrates her birthday in October, and this year she had a costume party. It was the perfect way to celebrate and get a little more use out of our costumes! Max and Ben are Transformers Rescue Bots this year (Bumblebee and Chase), and we had two Elsa's as well. It was pretty adorable when we put the costumes on them, and they immediately started singing Let it Go. 

Max took his costume very seriously. That salute was serious business.

Two more of our friends in the neighborhood teamed up with us to be Rescue Bots as well. We got a shot with Optimus Prime, but we'll have to get the whole group on Halloween.

Addie really wanted to be Elsa the Bumblebee...I think she would have preferred a Rescue Bot costume too!

Mardi Gras 2015

The Hammonds and McDonoughs are going strong on our annual king cake making tradition. We have added kids all but one year (this one), but next year two more kids will join the mix (twins again...not for me). I don't think that we realized the first year, when it was just Max hanging out with us, that we would soon have eight kids between us. But hey...the more kids to eat king cake the better!

Valentine's Day 2015

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a fun birthday party to go to on the big day. We had lots of fun...especially with the green icing.

Addie doing her best to clean her sister up.

Favorite Things Party the Second

At the beginning of December, I hosted the second annual Favorite Things Party for my friends. We had just as much fun as last year, and I can't wait to do it again...and again...and again.

 I kept the decor super simple.

As in, I pulled candy canes and cookie cutters out of the cabinet simple.

 I found this "color on" tablecloth at Target and had to grab it. Who doesn't like to color?

 I had a little hot chocolate bar...and took eleventy thousand pictures of it.

 

And no party is complete without a photo booth...

I had to demonstrate how to use my favorite thing...The turby twist hair wrap.

 The after party...the kiddos really got into the tablecloth. This is about 2 minutes before they all ended up on top of the table.

Holiday Banquet

In November, our women's ministry held a Holiday Banquet and silent auction. We had a great time and raised money for a wonderful ministry here in our town. I'm already looking forward to planning next year!

 Getting ready the night before...

 Banquet Day

While I was gone Mike and Max made masks...creepy...but adorable.