Easter 2016

Easter was awesome!

We woke the kids up for a breakfast of blueberry muffins and giant hollow chocolate bunnies. We read the Easter Story and talked about how their bunnies were hollow just like the tomb was empty on Easter because Jesus had risen.

After that we got all dolled up for Easter and went to church. Kevin sang in a few musical numbers and the kids sang The Miracle with the primary. 3/4 of my kids went up to sing so that was lovely :) I think they need to have the kids sing more often in meetings. It is just adorable!

After church we took a few pictures and then once Kevin got home from meetings the kids got to hunt for their Easter baskets that the Easter bunny had left them.

We had a yummy dinner of roast, carrots, potato casserole, and rolls!

Afterwards we went on a family hike to a new-to-us spot on Las Trampas trail that was GORGEOUS!

We finished the night with scriptures, some clean up, and bed!

TK Polar Express Party & Gingerbread Party

This week Catie had two big events in TK. On Wednesday her class got to have a Polar Express party followed by Polar Express/snow themed PE stations and on Tuesday we had a Gingerbread party. 

When the kids arrived at school on Wednesday they got a ticket and then it was stamped when they arrived in the classroom. They walked into the classroom to find a train track on the floor and chairs arranged to look like they were going on the train.

The kids watched a short portion of the Polar Express movie and drank hot cocoa! Catie and I got to make our favorite crockpot hot cocoa for over 50 preschoolers. We got to school over 30 minutes early to help set up (around 7:45) and Ryan tagged along too. Our new favorite hot cocoa server decided not to work at first so that made things a bit stressful... but eventually it all worked out and there was warm hot cocoa for the kids! Hooray! She wouldn't let me take any photos on Polar Express Day so you'll have to use your imaginations!

Next up we had a TK Gingerbread Party on Thursday! I got to coordinate the party and was fortunate to have at least 8 or 9 parent volunteers come in and help run different stations.

We had a super simple gingerbread man photo booth where I tried to get a photo of all of the kids.

The kids made gingerbread man shaped sandwiches at the snack station.

They decorated GIANT gingerbread men cookies.

They also made graham cracker gingerbread houses and frosted ice cream cone Christmas trees.

They painted cut out paper gingerbread boys, made gingerbread boy headbands, and played gingerbread boy color bingo. We also did a roll the dice and color the gingerbread boy game and we played pinned the button the gingerbread boy. It was quite a busy party!

The kids seemed to have a lot of fun and I was exhausted when it was done! My voice almost returned completely on Wednesday but went back to being super hoarse and icky on Thursday!

We celebrated the party being done with a diet coke run, lots of chocolate, and an evening of watching Christmas shows and relaxing!

Buskirk Cookie Exchange 2015

Our 6th annual cookie exchange was held tonight! It is one of my favorite holiday traditions! Each year I love seeing what people bring and adding new friends to our guest list. Here are just a few of the awesome cookie exchange entries.

Past cookie exchanges are linked below if you want to check them out...

1st ever (just a really small group)

2nd cookie exchange

3rd cookie exchange

4th cookie exchange

5th cookie exchange

Our judges were pretty fabulous. Andrew and Catie were so excited to stay up and help out and were so well behaved and happy. Catie loved seeing her primary teacher at our house and was adorable and brought me a glass of water during the party since she thought I was probably thirsty. Such a sweetheart!

Ryan got to have a "sleepover" in the pack n play in my closet since the judges used his bedroom for their cookie sampling. He was put to bed around 7:30pm and just played happily in there for an hour and then put himself to sleep... despite the insane amount of noise in our echoey house.

Another shot of the judges. Kevin relished another opportunity to wear his favorite white elephant gift win ever.

A friend forced me to get in a photo at the party. I should've done a better side view to show off my big bump. Only one month till my due date as of tomorrow!! Crazy!

Here are close ups of all of the cookies! They were amazing.

Winner- Wendy decorated all of these cool ugly sweaters and then did the Christmas trees in snow below too. They are so beautiful that I don't want to eat them!

Winner- Jaicy! These were so chocolatey!

Winner- Suzanne! 3rd year in a row!

Winner- Cheryl! These thumbprint cookies were beautiful and a nice twist from the usually chocolatey cookies.

After quite a bit of deliberation the judges announced the winners and passed out prizes!

After the judges made their announcements then everyone grabbed their holiday platters (the dollar store actually had some cute ones this year) and loaded up! So many delicious cookies!

After everyone left around 9:30/45 I finally sat down to eat some appetizers for a much belated dinner and have hot cocoa. Yum! I am exhausted! So much fun to get to chat with so many friends tonight. I can't wait to dive into the cookies tomorrow for breakfast. :)