Jesus' Birthday Party 2012

This year's event wasn't as elaborate as I would've liked (especially the food), but I'm really trying not to over-exert myself these days. I'm pretty sure the kids (and moms) had fun anyway. :-)

Last year, we had 5 moms and 5 kids. This year, we had 7 moms and 9 kids! It was kind of a madhouse at times. Haha. 

We started out with breakfast:

I made French toast sticks for the kids, cinnamon rolls, and 2 egg casseroles for the moms.

Sides of cheese, grapes, and cupcakes. 

After we were all sufficiently stuffed, we moved on to story time. I neglected to take any pictures at this point. Basically I had all the bigger kids sit on the floor in front of me while I read the Christmas story (from the book I previously mentioned). Before I started reading, I handed each kid a piece of the fridge nativity Lucy and I had made. I told each kid to listen for their character and put him/her/it on the fridge when he/she/it came up in the story (Mary, Joseph, the star, the manger, etc.)

When we were done with the story, we did this craft:

It was a little bit harder than I anticipated, but the kids did a great job with a little help. I should've taken a picture of Lucy's. Her sheep are jumping in the air over Jesus' head. Haha.

Finally, we put some candles in the cupcakes, sang a beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday to Jesus and let the kids blow out the candles and eat the cupcakes!

After all the planned activities, the kids had a lot of fun playing and running around the house while the moms had a blast talk talk talking. Haha. 

I sent each kid home with a little goodie bag. The bags had a candy cane with this poem taped onto it:

I also put an annoying little whistle from the dollar store, a Little Debbie's Christmas cake, and these stickers in each bag:

The stickers and craft were both from Oriental Trading. I ordered them weeks ago, and they came on Friday  afternoon - the day before the party. Haha.

Thanks so much, everyone for coming out on a snowy day and hanging out with us! Maybe next year when I'm not hugely pregnant, I'll do some more creative little quiches and homemade donuts or something ridiculously pinterest-y like that! ;-)