Sugarplum Dreams! {North Pole Breakfast 2013}

Finally getting a little time to myself to share some pics from one of our favorite Christmas traditions...our North Pole Breakfast!

We usually have our breakfast right after Thanksgving but this year we were a week late. The littles had been bickering quite a bit...lots of "he's bothering me" and "she's bothering me" so our elves waited until they were treating each other in a kinder manner before making their grand debut. But when they did, oh what fun it was!!

They went to bed dreaming of Sugarplums...
{thank you Noonie for the adorable jammies!!}

And when they woke up...

Oh, what fun!

These sweet smiles and excited giggles are what it's all about for me!!

The elves left them some little presents and Hudson couldn't wait to check his out!

Grace loves Nutcrackers almost as much as I do! *wink*

I LOVE these little Nutcrackers! I found them at JCPenney of all places!!

The elves brought the littles 3 things...books, Wooly Willys - Nutcracker ones at that! {remember those??? where you can give them funny hairdos and faces with the little magnetic pen that moves the little tiny pieces??? yes, I am a child of the 80s - ha!}, and their annual ornaments.

Discovering the Nutcracker themed Woolly Willy...
{my littles love playing with these in the car!!}

Their annual ornaments...

Star Wars for Hudson...

And Cinderella for Grace!

Discovering it plays music! LOVE!

Cinderelly, Cinderelly...

But the most important thing Super Belly and Cookie Rooftop bring each year is a special letter for the littles. They each get their own, marking the year the Elf on the Shelf tradition began for them...

Getting a little help from his big sister...
{be still my heart!}

This year Super Belly had a special surprise for Grace!! He heard she had been talking about a girl elf, so he brought with him his best friend! Hudson named her "Lucky" and Grace named her "Candy Cane" so she is now "Lucky Candy Cane". Welcome to the family, Lucky Candy Cane!

And then it was time for the Sugar Fest to begin!!!

I like to make it as festive as possible, but I also like to use things I have on hand, so some of our ribbon for wrapping presents became a festive little garland hanging from the chandelier...

...and lots of our Christmas decorations were pulled from around the house to add a little fun to our breakfast table.

The North Pole is known for its sweet fare...after all, the four main food groups of elves are Candy, Candy Canes, Candy Corn, and Syrup!!!

These little donut stacks were my most favorite treat!! Soooo cute!

And then there was the chocolate milk in these adorable Chocolate Soldier vintage bottles that I found in Canton earlier this year. Love, love, love!!

I'm not the only one who loved those cute bottles!!

And the cookies. Oh my, the sweet little cookies!! Thank you Alyson - they were just perfect!!

I found these chocolate iced sugar cookies at Target and they had pearl colored sprinkles and jimmies and I just couldn't pass them up!!

Cookie Rooftop sure has a sweet tooth! Just like Hudson!! Cookie brought kisses from the reindeer and from the big jolly fella himself!!

Every picture he had ANOTHER sweet treat!! ha! {takes after his mama!!}

The little pumpkin was much more dainty with her treats and preferred to play with her food rather than eat it.

Hmmm...so does Super Belly! Silly elf trying to catch a mouse by its tail!

And to try and prevent a complete sugar crash, we also had mini pancake stacks and fruit kabobs {with cheese instead of bananas} that resemble a bit of that mean ole' Grinch...

Hudson said there were 3 pancakes and 3 elves so they must have each brought one...he he he.

We wrapped it all up with the North Pole's signature beverage...hot cocoa with floating ice glaciers {marshmallows}...

All in all, a super fun morning for two sweet littles who bring so much joy to our family...

I hope they'll remember these sweet memories when they are grown and have littles of their own...

Sugarplum Dreams indeed!

Thank you for coming along on our North Pole Breakfast adventure!  Find past year's NPBs {here}.

Spread kindness everywhere you go...Merry Christmas!

. love . joy . peace . patience . kindness . goodness . faithfulness . gentleness . self-control .

From our family to yours...Merry Christmas!
 

Operation Disguise Gingerbread Man

Let me preface it by saying this...I pink-glittery-sparkly-bubble letters-puffy hearts L O V E preschool crafts. I suffer from the can't-throw-it-away-because-we-might-need-it-for-one-of-our-crafty-projects syndrome. But what I do NOT love are preschool projects with only 3 days notice on an otherwise jam-packed week full of work, birthday hat orders, the hubby's company's Open House, and Christmas activities. Okay, rant over.

Here's what I've come to find...little boys are just not as much into the sort of craftiness that I enjoy as little girls are. Just the plain, cold hard truth. Hudson is into it for maybe 2 minutes and then he's done. He's moved on to building towers and whole cities and putting together Michaelangelo-worthy Lego creations and inventions. I love to watch him when he's in his element.

So back to the whole Operation Disguise Gingerbread Man. I unpacked his backpack Monday afternoon and found the adorable little brown cardstock gingerbread man ready to be transformed. Ideas started swarming through my head {Nutcracker, anyone?}. I asked him what he wanted to disguise his gingerbread man as, and without hesitation he shouted, YODA!!!!!  And so Yoda we did!

He even has a ric rac trimmed cloak! #insanity

And because I also suffer from can't-leave-well-enough-alone syndrome, I started adding a little of this and a little of that, but in the end I/me/myself we succeeded in bringing Yoda Man to life!  And let me tell you, we have 3 boxes of glow in the dark bracelets hidden somewhere in our house.  Of course, I could find none of them last night.  Thankfully, a paintbrush minus the bristles and a little Martha Stewart glitter glue worked just fine.  He had to have a lightsaber, you know!

The smile on his face when he saw the finished Yoda this morning was priceless!  Made the 1:30 a.m. completion time worth it.  Don't you love Parent Homework? *smile*

And just for the record, this was a fun activity, to be done as a family, and maybe even marked "optional".  Come science fair time, they're on their own - ha!

But seriously, the littles were in a super great mood this morning thanks to Yoda Man.  I'm thinking maybe I should just ditch the elves and stick with Yoda Man?  Hmmmm....

what you see and what you don't see...

The final frame...
{her black eye is healing - yay!}

...and what it took to get there!

H U D S O N!!!!!! 
Quit pushing me and pulling my dress!

Big sisters...such D R A M A!...sigh..............

I'll just be goofy and silly and make her laugh...works every time!

They like each other. 
Again. 
At least for the moment.

Happy Hump Day!

north pole breakfast {soon!}

Sugarplum Dreams...

...almost ready!