Dance Recital

Olivia takes dance lessons once a week. She had a Christmas dance recital this weekend. She did great! She did really well remembering her dance steps and even tried to help a few other girls along !

Our Elf Suprise

It has been our tradition that Elly, our Elf on the Shelf,  leaves us a present under our tree the first night the tree is up. She usually leaves us pajamas, but I found a good sale on pjs while Olivia and I were shopping so Elly needed to leave us a different gift this year ;)
She left us a magically book. As you read the book Santa gives you directions, teacher you about the North Pole, and ever responds to you. It is really cute,  and now Chase is old enough to read it to Olivia and William while Mommy makes dinner.

Olivia's Sweet Shoppe

Our sweet Olivia celebrated her 5th birthday last week. We planned a candy themed party at the park for her. My dad constructed a Tootsie Toss game and Gum Ball Racing Track for us from plywood, to make sure it could withstand all the little hands.  We had Nerd filled necklaces and a cupcake painting station. And to complete the candy theme we had chocolate cover marshmallows, candy cover popcorn, giant frog gummies, caramel apples, vanilla wafers, etc. The kids loved the unlimited candy  buffet :)
I didn't want to send more candy home with the kids, figuring their parents would be pretty annoyed with the excess sugar. So in my search for a party favor I found a woman who makes soap into candy shapes. I ordered an entire candy bar (gummy bears, life savors, rock candy sticks, licorice, marshmallows, swedish fish, etc) out of soap. It turned out so cute and really surprised people. I did keep it covered with cellophane until the party was wrapping up to make sure no one accidentally  grabbed one to eat it.  My kids have taken a different "candy" into the bath each night.

Olivia had a great afternoon with all of her friends!