Bennett's 8th Birthday Party: An Evening in Paris.

We have another week with a 7 year old little girl in our house, but we celebrated a week early with a few friends. Bennett did not want a big party. Rather she wanted to go to a hotel in downtown Dallas and have an evening out with her family. We will be doing that next weekend so we invited a few of her closest friends to come over on a Friday night and have an evening in Paris. Is she my daughter or what?

Dining room decorated with a Parisian theme.

First year that I didn't make her cake. And I don't regret it one bit. :)

Getting ready for the guests

The kids probably wanted pizza, but Bennett insisted on a french menu. What do you do with that? So we had baguettes, cheese, buts, grapes, eclairs, and the girls all made their own crepes. One little girl told me it was "super fancy." 

 My soon to be 8 year old. Oh, how I love this girl.

Before we go to Paris, let's just hang out on the trampoline.

When everyone we arrived, we decorated chef's hats.

Will was supposed to go out with Rob during the party but it looked like the girls were having too much fun, so he stayed.

Hot Mess would have been a more appropriate title.

Filling their crepes with toppings

Choices, choices

We're  missing a few from this picture, but the girls (and Will) were ready for their fancy dinner party.

Opening presents

Shopkins, of course.

You can't have girls in pajamas and not have karaoke. However they did not sing French songs. They sang Taylor Swift songs. Of course.

Happy 8th birthday, my love. It seems like we were just celebrating your first.

The realization that Mommy bought trick candles.

Winding up the evening by watching Grace stirs it up. An American girl movie about a girl who goes to Paris and studies baking. 

Parting gifts for our guests. Macaroons and Eiffel Tower soaps.

Happy 8th Birthday, Bennett! It's too early and I haven't had enough coffee to keep me from becoming too sentimental and mushy, so I will save that for your actual birthday post. I love you so much.

Christmas 2015

I am determined to get all of our Christmas pictures up by the end of January. Somehow being 4 weeks after Christmas doesn't make it seem too late. One of my 2016 resolutions was to start blogging more like I did 5 or 6 years ago, but it seems as if that resolution has already been kicked to the curb. Oh, well. There's always 2017.

Here is a quick snapshot of what the Webster family was up to this past Christmas. I must say that it was a very fun one.

We went to see THE infamous Santa at Northpark Mall. Lainey was very unsure at first. She has never sat with Santa and has screamed every single year. From the first few minutes I was thinking that this was not going to be our magical year. Look at that little terrified face.



But then something "magical" happened. not to sound too cheesy, but it did. Santa started whispering in her ear and she started to calm down and listen to him.



She began to relax a little bit and even cracked a very slight smile.

And by the time Santa gave her a little postcard, she was hooked. Best Santa ever!

We had fun doing other things throughout December in Dallas. We spent a fun evening checking out some amazing gingerbread houses.

Will made the nice list. Whew! We were worried for a second.

One night we had a bunch of neighborhood kids over for a cookie decorating party.

 Such a great group of kids.

We had fun exploring Dallas on the weekend and checking out different winter carnivals and festivals.

 I directed the drama portion of our children's Christmas musical at church.

And our family was asked to light a candle on the Advent wreath one Sunday during Christmas. I am so bummed that this is the only photo that was taken, but it is better than nothing.

We enjoyed getting together with friends at various Christmas parties....

...and we enjoyed just spending evenings at home. One of our favorite traditions is to make our gingerbread house while watching the Grinch. We also have Grinch kabobs and drink Grinch punch while we decorate.

I really loved my kids ages this year. Well, I have loved them every year. There was something really special about when they were babies, but this was a fun year in terms of them remembering traditions and wanting to keep them.

So, this year something amazing happened. For the VERY first time since I was 17 years old, I did not go anywhere for Christmas. Seriously. The first time in 20 years!!!! Actually, I take that back. The year I was pregnant with Bennett I didn't go anywhere because I had a blood clot and had just gotten out fo the hospital so that doesn't count. I was supposed to go to my sister's house that year and we changed plans 3 days before Christmas. But every year for 20 years I have gone somewhere else on Christmas Day. That dies include my college years when I was going home, but still.... I traveled. And this year, everyone came to me!!

I cannot tell you how nice it was to stay home. I didn't pack a suitcase. I didn't load up every single Christmas gift. I actually put up my tree and decorations BEFORE January 4th. I didn't start work/school comepltely exhausted after break. It was amazing and I am so grateful that my family came to see me this year. It was wonderful.

Hooray! Our cousins are here!! Time to celebrate Christmas.

I loved having my girls in the kitchen with me helping me get ready for Christmas breakfast and lunch. These were my first babies. I became an aunt when I was 21 and I have been in love ever since.

 Hanging out by the tree with Grandaddy

We broke tradition this year and made Rudolph cupcakes for Santa instead of Christmas cookies. I think the big guy approved.

Each reindeer got their own bag of reindeer food so here is a great shot of the cousins about to spread out food on our front porch.

The next morning waiting to go downstairs and see whether they were on the nice or naughty list.

Here they come!

 All except one. The early hour and craziness of the stair stampede was a little too much for this little elf.



But once she saw her horse and stable she got over it pretty quickly.

A new keyboard! Bennett must have been really good this year.

Christmas morning breakfast.

After breakfast, we had another performance of Dancing with the Cousins. It was such a huge hit at Thanksgiving that another episode was clearly in order at Christmas time.

We got dressed and Lainey was still clinging to her horse. I think she was pretty happy with Santa Claus.

The only picture I got of my family on Christmas Day. I was just happy to get one, so I'll take it.

After family presents and Christmas dinner, we did a really fun thing that I will remember for a long time. We wanted to drive around the Dallas area and look at lights, but we would have had to take three cars and that kind of takes away from the fun, so we got a horse drawn carriage and it drove us all through a subdivision that was one of the most decorated in all of Dallas. It was such a fun Christmas night.

Loading up on the wagon about the head out.

It was really dark so I didn't get a lot of great pictures, but I love this one because it actually turned out decently and you can see all of the lights behind my sister and nieces.

Absolutely worst shot of everyone, but it was the only one we got. :)

My family stayed a few days after Christmas and we had fun playing Mario kart, shopping, relaxing and hanging out in Dallas. We went to Grapevine, Texas one day and looked around.

And we checked out a fun hotdog restaurant in a cool area of the city.

The morning my sister and her family left it was actually snowing, so at least they got to see a few flurried before heading home.

My parents then stayed a few more days, through New Years, so we got to spend some additional time being with grandparents. It was a wonderful Christmas and I absolutely loved hosting and not traveling. I don't know if it will happen again, but I could not have enjoyed this Christmas season more.

I have to leave with a note about Chippy. Chippy is our elf on the shelf. Every single day the kids ran downstairs to see where Chippy was and Chippy dominated most of the conversation this Christmas season. Can you see him there peeking out from a branch?

One day, while I was at work, Lainey accidentally touched Chippy. If you touch Chippy he will lose his magic and cannot fly back to the North Pole. Rob pulled out his phone and recorded this video of Lainey absolutely distraught that she had touched Chippy.

And if this video bothers you, don't worry. She was over it 10 seconds after the video ended but was crying about something else just a few minutes later. #threeyearoldprobs.