Day 13 Ode to Leslie

Everyone needs a Leslie in their lives. Clearly mine is special to me as I have mentioned her 47 times in the last month... :) She is the woman we all want to be--super mom, crafty, fun, patient, a fabulous baker, an athlete, and still has time to care for others. I really don't know how she does it all, and with such grace. When I attempt to do all that, I become a shrew, it's not pretty, ask Bill. Anyway..., today was her children's Christmas party. The night before the party she made 13 gingerbread houses!! 13! Today she had 13 kids (actually 14 but her Caleb is too little to really participate) over for fun and food. Just the thought of hosting a party for 13 kids makes my eye twitch.

She had several fun games like an indoor snowball fight, pass the present, and find the candy canes. Then came the gingerbread houses!!! The kids had a BLAST decorating them with frosting and candy. The kids had the greatest time! They were so excited to bring home their houses and show Papa. I was ready for bed. Leslie didn't even look frazzled when we left. So thank you, Leslie, for opening your house to us and for all your hard work in putting this very fun evening together! My kids are still talking about it (because clearly "today" is actually almost a week late :) ).

*We have discovered that we need shrink the size of our picture files or else blogger runs out of space--I am not sure how clear these are so if the quality is really bad, please tell me and I will make the files a little bigger (my computer has fingerprints and stuff on the screen so I can't tell ;) ).

Brendan and his "best buddy" (that's what he calls Aaron)

Pass the present! Inside were sticky hands for each kid

Liam and James

Snowball fight!! Leslie is one brave mama!

So much fun!! And noone got hurt and nothing got broken!!

James!

Pizza!! 

Leslie's hard work

An equal amount of candy went in the mouth as on the house :) 

The girl to boy ratio was almost equal--nearly unheard of when our families get together!

My walking heart...I love this girl

I love this boy even though he tends to look like he's been on a 3 day bender when the camera is on him ;) 

I had to get a shot of Andrew's hands! Leslie, I have one of his face too but he's making a Liam face so I didn't post it :) 

All the kids!

She had several fun games like an indoor snowball fight, pass the present, and find the candy canes. Then came the gingerbread houses!!! The kids had a BLAST decorating them with frosting and candy. The kids had an absolute blast! They were so excited to bring home their houses and show Papa. I was ready for bed. Leslie didn't even look frazzled when we left.