Early Christmas Gift from Marty and Santa

 

 Our Elf on the Shelf Marty brought us an early Christmas gift from Santa! He included a sweet and thoughtful message to our girls reminding them to always remember the reason for the season.

Dear Maddie & Claire,

Santa wanted you to have this early Christmas gift. He wants you to always remember the reason for the season. We celebrate Christmas because it is when Heavenly Father sent his son Jesus to the earth. Santa hopes you enjoy learning about and playing with this nativity as you prepare to celebrate Christ's birth this Christmas. Santa knows you love Jesus very much and that you are trying to be like Jesus. The Christmas season is a great reminder to be more Christ-like. Remember to be kind, generous, and grateful. Listen to your parents and do nice things for those around you. Above all love one another. Enjoy this season of giving and sharing love with your family. 

Merry Christmas!

Love, 

Marty & Santa

Elf on shelf religious idea with nativity and note from Santa about true meaning of Christmas. Christ centered Christmas.

Madeline's First Birthday: A Build-A-Library Party

 

Madeline is quite the book fanatic but she doesn't have a very large library of books to choose from. So we decided that a Build-a-Library Party would be the perfect theme for her first birthday.

I found a lot of great ideas on Pinterest and created a board for inspiration.

Menu Inspiration:
Hostess With the Mostess
What I Did Today

Invites:
Did Someone Say Party? 

Here are some fun pictures from her big day!

For her birthday invites, I made an invite that looked like a library card using a template from Did Someone Say Party? and photoshop skillz. I also created a cute library card banner using the template with my favorite quotes about reading.

 

Maddie's guests set their wrapped gifts on a cute bookcase that we refurbished for her. Then as we unwrapped each book we set it on the bookshelf to display.

We had a very fun menu for the occasion! Madeline's aunts and grandmas helped by bringing treats for the dinner.

• Peter Rabbit's Veggie Tray
• If You Give a Moose a Muffin Muffins
• Strega Nona's Pasta Salad (Grandma Holly)
• If You Give A Mouse a Cookie Milk and Cookies
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar Fruit Salad (Grandma Birkeland)
• Green Deviled Eggs (Aunt Katie)
• Green Eggs and Ham Quiche (Aunt Bec)
• Pinkalicious Pink Lemonade
• The Giving Tree Apple Juice
• Madeline's French Crepes (Daddy)

I created a board book for Madeline with pictures of our family. I printed them out and then cut them with an exacto knife and glued them onto an existing book. It was adorable and Maddie loves to point to her grandparents, mommy, daddy, and cousins.

Her family and friends were all so generous. She received cute clothes, toys, and a variety of beautiful books to add to her library. Her cousins loved helping her unwrap each gift.

Brett and I gave her a stroller for her doll. The look on her face when she saw it was priceless.

 Instead of doing the traditional cake and ice-cream we gave Madeline a muffin with whipped cream and berries.

It was a wonderful day! 

Happy Birthday sweet girl. We love you!