Weekend Fun.

Teddies in bed. I got this idea off the SOF forum. Just the perfect thing for Charlize's birthday party today. I knew she had asked for a pink teddy cake so I thought these would match well. The SOF girls are great at these kinds of ideas. The current cupcake ideas are very cool too.

And here are three of the girls at today's party. Charlize is on the right - a big four year old now. Jessi (in the middle) has an unfortunate scratch right under her nose - makes for an interesting look in photos. Maya - on the left has 2 1/2 year old twin sisters. They were so cute and both the same and I had lots of fun taking their photos.

And this one is from this morning at the Sunday School breakup. Is it an unwritten rule that when dressing up as a Bible character one must always wear a tea towel on the head? Anyway - the two girls looked cute together.

And it was confirmed that Alexander is very much like his father in yet another way... The youth group did this very powerful drama this morning and a little after the knife and the fake blood I noticed that Alexander was very white and he leaned over to say he was going to be sick. It turns out he thought it was real and was very concerned for Amanda who played the part of the girl. I had to get Amanda to show him her arms afterwards before the colour returned to his face.

Oh and I found this on Melissa Goodsell's blog, thought it would be fun to do - and interesting to see everyone's answers.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Um both! If I'm using a gift bag it's for a very special present and it will usually be wrapped as well. I just bought some very cool red, white and silver striped paper.
2. Real tree or artificial? Depends on what we are doing for Christmas. This year it's just a little fake one cos we are going away. Last year it was a nice big real one complete with that fresh Christmas tree smell.
3. When do you put up the tree? Sometime before Christmas day. I was real early this year - I had it up on Tuesday. (4th Dec)
4. When do you take the tree down? When we get around to it sometime after new years. This year I suppose it will still be up when we get back from our holiday in mid January.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? A doll that cries and sucks it's thumb.
7. Do you have a Nativity scene? Yep - a couple actually. The characters keep moving around this year...
8. Hardest person to buy for? My brother
9. Easiest person to buy for? Myself...or maybe my sister and my kids.
10. Worst Christmas Gift you ever received? I'm sure I've been given a few odd things over the years but I like them all anyway because I appreciate the people that gave them.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Definitely mail - can't email a handmade card.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Polar Express
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I try to put a few things away during the year but start for real sometime in December after all the breakups/end of year activities that I'm involved in organising.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Um - sometimes maybe a box of chocolates that I don't want to eat. And this year we were just given a bottle of wine and cause we don't generally drink wine I will probably wrap it up and give it to someone who will enjoy it more.
15. Favorite things to eat at Christmas? The sweet stuff! White Christmas, Chocolate balls, Pavlova ...
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Depends on the tree - this year it's coloured flower shaped ones.
17. Favorite Christmas song? The Servant King or maybe Mary's Boy Child.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Traveling this year, last year we stayed at home.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph. Of course I can - I know how to use google!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Usually a star but it's just been replaced by the peg angel Rebekah made at Rally on Thursday.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning. When I was growing up we had to wait for Dad to finish milking the cows and then have a wash and then have his breakfast. Now we just have to do breakfast first.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Maybe not annoying but more sad ... that Christmas has become so commercialised and people don't stop to think about the real reason behind Christmas.
23. What is the “silliest” family tradition you do, or miss doing? I guess that would be the one wedge of pavlova that is left without cream cause my brother doesn't do cream.
24. Ugliest Christmas Decoration ever invented? Can't think of one actually.
25. Which looks best, theme trees or homey trees? I love the look of a theme tree, I probably don't have the patience to decorate one and given that the kids decorated ours this year - it's very homey looking. They pulled out all their favourite decorations which happened to be all the things they've made at playgroup over the years.
26. Gingerbread or sugar cookies? Sugar Cookies.
27. Do you like Fruitcake? Not particularly - but I'll eat it anyway.

And two scrappy things you may be interested in if you find you have an abundance of time leading up to Christmas and all ...

Prima has put out a design team call and they had the word 'internationals' in there.

And fiskars has a competition on at the moment with an amazingly generous prize. All this:

Grand prize winner will receive the complete Heidi Grace Designs "Jolly & Bright" collection, complete Cloud9 Design "Christmas is..." collection, a Fiskars Portable Rotary Trimmer, Fingertip Craft Knife, Compact Stamp Press, "Tis The Season" Clear Stamps, Tool Taxi, "Don't Leave me Hanging" Extra Large Squeeze Punch and 1/4" "Round the Corner" Squeeze Punch.

Three honorable mention winners will receive a Squeeze Punch of their choice of design and size.

... for making a holiday card and uploading it to their gallery. That's gotta be worth entering!