December Birthday Celebration

We celebrated December birthdays on December 20th at our house with a special visitor!  Santa showed up at the beginning of the party and was a great way to start the party!  Although the kids realized that it was Poppa dressed as Santa's helper immediately, they were all still so excited and we all had so much fun with Poppa Santa! 

These girls were so excited!  Looking back at these pictures makes my heart so happy to see how happy they are here! 

"Just a few more things, Santa..."

This one could be my favorite from the day though!  Ha ha!

A little dancing from Santa before he left on his way.

Once Santa made his way back to the North Pole and Poppa showed up after taking care of Murphy ;) we were able to begin with the real birthday festivities!  First on the agenda, per Joseph and Ella's requests, was opening presents.  They both made out so well and are so grateful for their awesome gifts.  Favorites this year were the rollerskates for Ella and the tackle box for Joseph.  So fun!!

Ella planned the entire party and did a great job!  She wanted a bunny theme for her birthday but since we celebrated her and Joseph together we went with bunny themed games (for the most part) and then did a neutral dessert and decorations and saved her bunny decorations for her real birthday.  She created a pin the tail on the bunny game (that even Nora participated in) as well as a bunny hop (with balloons in between their legs!) The kids all had a blast!  

For dessert they created their own chocolate chip cookie sandwiches which everyone loved and then of course had our Ducote tradition of candy bowls, too.  I think it's so funny that Ella is in her helmet in this picture-she barely stopped long enough for dessert as she was doing laps around the pool on her new rollerskates.  It was so perfect that Mr. George's walker was in the back of Poppa's car as that really helped her get situated and confident on them.  I wish that Ella and I had gotten a picture together-we were wearing the same thing, per her request.  She doesn't like to match with her sisters but she loves to match with me...I'll take that as a huge compliment ;). 

After the party Ella requested to go to a park since she was getting the hang of her rollerskates and wanted to keep practicing.  Love her motivation so off to 4s ranch park we headed.  We stayed until sunset doing laps and she did so well!  

We had such a fun day celebrating both Joseph and Ella, and, of course, Poppa, too!  We wish that Brian and Hollie would have been there, too, so we could have celebrated Bri, too, but totally understand and respect that they are laying low since covid numbers are on the rise around here.  It was a beautiful day for a birthday party though and everyone had a a great day!