Superbowl 2012

Last Thursday morning at about 6am Nick, while in the shower, (not both of us, just him--lol), suggested we have a small party on Superbowl Sunday. I reluctantly agreed knowing how much work it is to clean, prepare food, etc. However, I knew it would be fun, so I said ok...as long as he would be my slave and help a lot with set up and clean up. We invited all families with young kids. We ended up having five families come, with a total of 12 kids (I think). Two other families were supposed to come, but cancelled the day of due to family illnesses. We really had a great time and I think the kids had the most fun! We had everyone over around 5pm knowing that most would have to leave around 7:30pm for kid's bedtimes. It really worked out well and we had cleaned up and got to bed by 10:30pm!

We set up a bunch of crafts at the table...the kids could make Valentine's Day cards, decorate masks and puppets, draw, color, etc. They had a lot of fun!

It took us a long time to get the kids to sit and eat some dinner...they were all having way too much fun playing!

Michael and Janeel live a few doors down from us. They are so sweet and have three kids. Alex is 6 and might be one of the only boys I know who has as much energy as Hunter. Their two younger girls are so cute and sweet!

Janeel and I have have had a few playdates together and she's so fun to hang out with--and the kids really enjoy playing together too :) I'm so glad they live down the street and look forward to getting them more!

Kate (left) and her husband have an adorable little girl. We are trying to match her daughter and Jack up. I wish I would have taken a picture of her b/c she is SO cute!! Deanna came with her two kids (her son and husband weren't able to come. We are all in MOPS together and sit at the same table this year. I've been so happy this year with our table--we've gotten to know each other, hung out outside of MOPS, and they are such fun moms!

Chris, Angela, and three week old, Travis. They also have a son, Mason, who is Hunter's age. Chris and Nick have been friends since college and we love hanging out with them. Mason is so sweet and is a big brother now too!

Alex lives down the street. Hunter LOVES playing with him and is always asking when he can play with him next.

Hunter, Alex, and Gabby (my new 4 year old friend) decorated puppets and put on a show for us. Hunter didn't quite get the concept of hiding for the puppet show. Gabby is Deanna's daughter and I think she took a liking to me. She was so sweet and she totally makes me want to try for a girl...haha. Deanna said I could "borrow" her any time, so I might have to take her up on that.

We (Hunter) made up a game to entertain the kids...We pretended that the door was "China" and I was "North America". (Hunter is working on his continents in school, thus the idea). I would tell them "crawl to china" or "do the bear crawl to china", etc...this kept them busy for a good 25 minutes. As you will see it started with a few kids and more kept joining in :) It kept them in one place, wore them out, and it was fun to watch them.

Holding hands and "walking to China"...I think at one point most of the kids (besides babies) were playing with me.

I wanted to get a picture of Christian and Gabby before they left and we had some visitors in the picture...haha.
So cute. Christian is three months old and such a good little baby! I'm bummed I didn't get pictures of some of the kids and other adults, but I was too busy keeping Hunter out of trouble and hosting. I love to take pictures, so I always get mad at myself for not doing a good enough job making sure I get pictures of everyone :(
After everyone left, the Duprey Family stayed to hang out for a while. Mason was a little shy while everyone else was there, but when it was just him and Hunter playing, he totally opened up and they had a blast. They didn't want to go to bed b/c they were having such a good time. At one point they were almost out the door and the kids ran upstairs to Hunter's room to delay the inevitable.

Will this be the first of many Superbowl parties? I think so. Next year Nick wants to have our basement finished and have the theatre room done. We'll see about that.