Partying Elf-Style

In the spirit of my bloggy friend Laura's Annual Elf Party, we decided to have a combination Elf/New Year's Eve party with some long-time family friends this year.

 I hope it won't ruin the plot if I tell you it was a *huge* success and our children now say we throw the "best parties ever".  Fortunately, Kristina and I set the precedent by "needing" to go out the night before to eat supper together and "plan" the party for the next night (we work best under pressure of last-minute deadlines).

Kiana and Ava help the mommies decorate the candy table.

Since "elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup", we had candy on our party menu--lots and lots of candy!

I love this picture of our ten kiddos because Elyese (back left) and Tyrell (back right) are distracted by one another which is just the way these two are!

Here is a marginally better picture of our precious kiddos with all the candy arrayed before them.  We had enough food for at least twenty more people!

We thought the kids should have *something* somewhat healthy, so we had "Stinky Santa Sandwiches" before the candy while watching the movie together. 

"You stink.  You smell like beef and cheese, you don't smell like Santa."

They were delicious.  Kristina made little meatballs and brought them to my house ready to bake.  Then we put the greasy beef on a Hawaiian sweet bread roll, topped with sliced cheese, and smashed them together.  Yum, yum!

Kristina also spoiled me by attempting to recreate the amazing "potato balls" from the Ore House several weeks ago.  These were very good, but might need some perfecting to measure up.  That's fine with me as I'm always up for an excuse to eat yummy food with good friends!

 

We had so much fun laughing together as we ate our "supper" and watched the movie.  My favorite part of the movie (this time) was watching Patience giggle in response to Buddy's guzzling of a 2-Liter jug of Coke which led to his gigantic belch and classic "Did you hear that???"

  

 After the movie, it was time to play Elf-inspired family games.  Kristina was the winner of the marshmallow game, patterned after Buddy's stuffing cotton balls in his mouth thinking they were marshmallows.  She just kept stuffing them in while saying "I'm a Cotton-Headed Ninny-muggins" and making it look easy while I, on the other hand, gagged on marshmallow number three! I don't remember her final count--something like 10 or 11--hilarious!

 

Alan did pretty well too.  All the older kids participated, but no one could come close to Kristina or Alan.  I'm not going to say a word about people and their big mouths. . .

One thing I loved about this party idea was the way we all played together and had a great time.  Everyone got involved in the little contests and the "I LIKE TO WHISPER TOO" game. 

We wrote several fun quotes on index cards and played a game similar to the telephone game to see how well the quotes made it to the end of the line.

It was great fun for all ages.  Easton's favorite line was "I'm singing. . .I'm in a store and I'm siiiinnggiiiiinnnnng!"

We couldn't let the night go by without a "coke-chugging contest".  Easton and Ian are such great little buddies, I couldn't resist posting this picture (and they both had sock issues that night too!).  Easton was so cute, he took a big drink and then looked at me with big eyes and said "I don't want to drink it all, Mommy."  Of course he didn't have to, the little sweetie!

The contest this round was really between Alan and Corey--and as I recall Alan won.  The man's gut is coated with iron!

But the funnest challenge was among our three oldest kiddos.  Ally was intimidated, and everyone was predicting Destry as the winner.  My sweet, ladylike Briana made up her mind, however, that little brother was NOT going to win without a fight.  "May the best sibling win. . ."

Guzzle, guzzle, chug, chug, chug. . .

Hilarious!!  It was a perfect tie!!!  Briana and Destry brought their empty bottles down from their mouths in the exact same instant.  I love Ally's sheepish grin as she reveals how much pop she has left.  And notice Briana holding her stomach--there for a few minutes all she could say was "that wasn't very smart, that wasn't very smart", but she got over it and we all had a good laugh.

Other games included timed snowflake contests, identify the chewed bubblegum, and eat Buddy's favorite breakfast, but we didn't get to all of them because we were having too much fun (and our stomachs were overworked!).

 

 The boys had fun playing with cars, pirate ships and battleground and the girls had fun "fixing each other up" with makeup and nail polish while the older ones played board games and chatted..

  

 

 

The daddies sacrificed to play an exciting game of Hi-Ho Cherrio with the little girls and all ages gathered for one of Alan's infamous stories (complete with crazy voices). 

 

It truly was a night to remember and I can't thank Laura enough for sharing her fantastic ideas.  Only about 350 days until we can do it again. . . :D