"The Five Weeks of Christmas"

As moving has been such an integral part of the last eleven months of our life, we decided to try and make the packing and unpacking as exciting as possible.  One of the ides that I had, in contemplating how to do this, was a special celebration known at our house at the "five weeks of Christmas."  Basically, the idea was to re-live the last five years of Christmases starting the five weeks right before Christmas this year.  In order to do this, we left each of the group gifts that Santa brought over the last five years packed until their appointed week.  Then we had a big celebration unpacking each item and remembering the Christmas we received it by playing with it all through the week. 

 

The first Christmas that we remembered was the Christmas of 2007.  That year Santa brought Madison and Spencer our beloved Pottery Barn Kids kitchen, complete with over ten sets of Doug and Melissa Wooden Play Food.  The kids have all enjoyed this kitchen set over the years, and they were super excited to unpack it together after not seeing it for over a year!

 

 

The following weeks we celebrated:

Christmas 2008: The art easel and arts and crafts sets

Christmas 2009: the snowmobile and sleds

Christmas 2010: the Quadrilla Marble works and Domino Rally

Christmas 2011: Harry Potter Lego sets

 

Mason McKay

Well, what is there to even say about this little man?  He is so gorgeous!  Three going on ten and precocious to boot.  Happy birthday little man!  We love you!

 

Ahoy! You Arrrr Invited!

Well, its hard to believe it, but Mason is finally three, and along with the traditional breakfast in bed serenade,

 

 

three at our house means the last year for a birthday party in true Hoskins style.  I didn't know if I had it in me to do one more, especially after all of the exhaustion of our move, but somehow I summoned up the energy and gave Mason a third birthday party to remember. 

 

The theme for this party I picked years ago when I found the "Ahoy Matey" Stampin' Up stamp set.  I knew in that minute that a pirate party was in our future, but it never seemed to work out for our little Spence.  Consequently, I knew Mason's third year party would have to fit the bill.

As part of the party, I of course ordered a pirate ship cake pan, though I have to confess that when it came right down to it, I simply frosted the thing instead of starring it.  I also cheated somewhat this time around by simply buying party favors instead of making them.  The favors included eye patches and pirate bandannas, treasure chests full of pirate gold, and pirate spyglasses.  It all looked pretty good as we set up for the party, and Mason was as excited as I have ever seen him as he donned his pirate attire and waited for the guests to arrive.

 

Soon our apartment was full of little mateys and we kicked off the party by coloring pictures of our favorite Disney pirates.

Then we had a pirate cake walk, (yes this is our favorite party game!)

a pirate treasure hunt,

 

 

and we sang yo-ho to the birthday boy at the top of our pirate lungs!

Mason loved it, and all of the kids were surprised to find their was actually a little pirate treasure hidden inside their cake too.  Money cakes are a McArthur tradition, and the pirate ship was almost as good for hiding money in as the purses I made for Maddi's fifth birthday.
 

 

Then came pirate presents.

And pirate playtime.  It was super fun, and very satisfying as a mother to see such at happy little boy at the end of the day.  Nothing makes your hard work worth it more than a big hug and kiss and a declaration that that was the best day ever!

 

Then tonight, for Mason's actual birthday, (his party was on the 17th) we went to Space Aliens Restaurant (aka the North Dakota version of Chuck E. Cheese) and enjoyed pizza, alien ears (aka scones) and games.  Mason loved it!

 

 I can't believe our littlest love is three!  I know I say it at every birthday post, but where oh where does the time go?

Winter is Coming...

Northern Plains Dance

Well, another move means another dance studio.  This time around we found the Northern Plains Dance Company right in downtown Bismarck.  The girls are both taking ballet classes again this year, and so far we really love the studio.

 

 

Their dance philosophy is different than any other dance studio we have been to.  Instead of doing recitals at the end of the year, and teaching all year towards the recital dance, they have actual ballets twice a year that the girls can audition for.  During class time they focus on technique and skill.  Then if they make it into one of the ballets they rehearse and preform outside of class time.  It is perfect in my opinion, and a much better sampling of traditional ballet than our old studios.  This year the ballets are the annual performance of the Nutcracker and the Spring Ballet The Little Mermaid.  We missed the auditions for the Nutcrackers because we were on our RV trip, but hopefully we can get into the Spring show.

Last Minute Ryan Rally

With less than a week until the election, and with tensions running high over our candidate and his running mate, we got last minute word that Paul Ryan was going to make a unplanned visit to Minneapolis for a last minuet rally and last ditch attempt to shore up some Minnesota support.  We found out about the rally on Thursday night, and by Friday morning we were on the road for the chance to shake hands with our next Vice President.  We detoured down through Rochester on Friday and Saturday, went out to dinner with friends, visited, and even attended our old Stake Conference.  Then on Sunday we joined the throngs and cheered for Paul Ryan in the Sun Coast Hanger until we all lost our voices.  It was awesome, and took us back to our days in Florida during the presidential primaries.  There we got to meet Romney himself, and now we could lay claim upon his running mate as well.  It was awesome!

 

 

And tomorrow is the big day!  Come on America...we can get this right and turn our country around.  Come on!  We believe in America!  And we believe in Romney/Ryan 2012!!!!

Happy Halloween

How we manage to always land the Pumpkin Patch Preschool Field Trip and the Preschool Halloween Party, I just don't know!  But maybe the fact that I beg the other mothers for it has something to do with it!  For the past eight years we have been in charge of both, and I'm sure we will secure the nomination for Mason's Preschool next year too.  Then after that I'm not sure what we'll do.  We'd be lost without doing a Halloween party, so we might just have to change our time and venue and make it a full family event from that point on.  For now, however, we'll stick to doing preschool parties and consider ourselves the luckiest little spooks around!

 

We began the preschool day with arts and crafts.

 

 

Then we sang songs, the kids did a show, and we decorated cookies and pigged out on the usual treats--carameled apples, caramel pretzels rolled in M&M's, puppy chow, etc.  Unfortunately, missing from our celebration this year was the annual witches brew.  As it would turn out, no place in Bismarck carries dry ice.  You have to drive it in from Fargo, and the hours of the company didn't work out with our schedule the week of the party.  It was a devastating blow to the kids, but next year we will sort it out if I have to overnight it!

 

The kids loved the party, and it kicked off all of our Halloween fun. 

Over the next few nights we carved our pumpkins, made pumpkin bread, and toasted pumpkin seeds. 

Then, on Halloween Day, I volunteered at Madison's school Halloween party,

 

and after school we began the traditional Halloween dinner preparations.  First, the kids painted one of their most fleshy little pumpkins.  Then we prepared our pumpkin stroganoff which was carefully deposited within our painted pumpkin.  Finally, we stuck the pumpkin in the oven to roast.  By dinner time we were ready for our Halloween pumpkin feast, followed by the annual Halloween photo shoot.  This year, we went with a Lord of the Rings theme. (It was supposed to be Harry Potter after all of our Harry Potter adventures--but since we have stopped reading with the move and the start of school, and somehow gotten onto a Lord of the Rings stint, the kids talked me into getting them new Lord of the Rings stuff.  Watch for a Harry Potter theme next year though--and maybe even I'll have a robe by then!)  As you can see, we have Aragorn, Frodo Baggins, and two Arwens.

They were pretty fierce some looking,

and enjoyed both the ward trunk or treat and trick or treating with some friends.

 

Then we all went to the Nelson's house for hot chocolate and playtime and didn't stroll into home til just after midnight.  It was a bit rough for Madison to be up for school the next day, but oh well, such is life.