2011 Holiday Play Date & Cookie Exchange

It's days like today that remind me of the phrase, "time flies when you're having fun." It blows my mind that we've been with the same, small group of friends for over a year and we've celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah twice now. It was another fun-filled play date and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. All 11 kids and 10 moms had fun, ate lunch and yummy cookies and exchanged books. It's a tradition I'm glad we started: exchanging cookies and exchanging books. 


I kept lunch simple today and made chicken salad sandwiches for the moms and PBJ's for the kids. I also made a batch of turkey noodle soup, which turned out to be perfect with today's cooler weather. The fresh fruit salad was also gobbled up by the kids. I opted to forgo making a dessert, as this was a cookie exchange as well. Everyone made extra cookies, so we snacked on the various cookies everyone brought. Last year's cookies were okay, but this year's cookies were AWESOME! We all really stepped up our game and made some really delicious cookies. Between the Rolo cookies, chocolate cherry cookies and the homemade iced sugar cookies, I'm not quite sure which were my favorite. Now I have 4-dozen yummy cookies sitting in the kitchen, calling my name... yay!

The kids looked adorable in all of their little holiday outfits. A few of the more talented moms made shirts and dresses for their kids and I dressed Bella in her adorable romper from Barefoot Designs. We have some cuties in our group and the outfits make the kids even cuter! Oh! And my little arts and crafts project was greatly appreciated by the moms and the kids! I made personalized ornaments for each kid and they turned out to be really cute! 

An ornament for each kid.

What a bunch of cute kids!

My little cutie.

Our book exchange went well, too. The moms placed the books in the middle of the family room and the kids each selected a book of their own. Bella picked a really cool Mickey Mouse book and started reading it as soon as she unwrapped it. I love that Bella loves to read as much as I do! She's my little book worm and I wouldn't change it for the world. 

The pile of books. 

Bella unwrapping her book.

Getting down to business...

I am exhausted as I was up late and woke up early this morning. Ian's flight didn't get in until after midnight last night, which brought him home around 1am. Blah! I was up early to prepare for today's play date and the lack of sleep has caught up with me. I didn't take a nap this afternoon, as I needed to clean up from the play date and take care of a few other things around the house. I really regret not taking a nap, but hopefully this means I will get a good night's sleep tonight. And with that being said, good night!


Love always,
Ian, Kim, Bella & Baby #2