Graham Cracker Houses & Hannah's Birthday

Ready and waiting. Steve spent two evenings putting the little houses together.

 

Tis the season for our annual graham cracker house decorating with the grandchildren. On the morning of Christmas Eve, Steve picks up the grandchildren  (all but Bryce & Janae this year) and brings them to our house for a fun day. We always begin with each of them decorating a graham cracker house that Steve has previously built for them.

The children are ready to begin!

Lydia works on her roof while the rest watch Awstin.

Awstin tried to reposition his roof and of course it came off. He didn't mind though. He just decorated the inside as well. I think he put a little fireplace in it.

Mark patiently holds his candy on and waits for the icing to dry 

Hannah concentrates on getting the icing to come out just right.

Grandpa helps Clara

Alexis and Hannah were the last to finish. Hannah even came back to hers later and added a few more things.

All finished and lined up for the adults to guess who decorated which house.  Jeremy won and guessed 5 of the 6 correctly.

Clara

Hannah

Awstin

Mark

Lydia

Alexis

They did a splendid job with their houses and each year we see a difference with how much time they spend on them. The older they are, the more attention they pay to detail. It was fun to see them work together and talk about what they were doing. It was cute how the younger ones would copy the ideas that the older ones came up with.

Earlier in December we celebrated Hannah's 6th birthday which is actually on the 21st. She is such a sweet girl who loves to talk and never runs out of things to say. Hannah is not as impatient as her siblings. Usually when we celebrate birthdays, the child can't wait to finish the meal, get the birthday cake, blow out the candles, and then hurriedly move on to the gifts. However, Hannah just patiently waits for things to transpire and seems to savor each moment. I love how each child has their own unique personality.

Smiling for the camera

We sang Happy Birthday to her, but instead of immediately blowing out the candles, Hannah just enjoyed looking at them while all of us encouraged her to blow them out!

Then she did blow them out!

On Christmas Eve, Jay & Kristen's children sang a song for us. I was videoing it until Bryce spied my phone and made a beeline for it :) He is quite the character. He had already managed to dump a cup of sticky punch over him which is why he is walking around in his T-Shirt. Enjoy!

We can certainly say that the year 2020 was unlike any other year that we have ever experienced thanks to the COVID-19 virus. However, for us it was mostly a good year, as we were able to put closure to the past 4 years. Moving  into our little apartment was the highlight and we are so enjoying being here. Let's see what 2021 brings for us. Happy New Year!