Happy Birthday Jesus

Today is the day for the much anticipated Christmas party at Lily's school.  The kids planned the big day and even had a theme for it, "Happy Birthday Jesus."  Even though this was going to be a birthday party,there was still a Christmas tree set up for all of the kids to enjoy... 

Before the festivities could begin, they had to do some of their general school activities...

Lily was happy to have me there and I was equally as excited to see what she does three times a week...

There was a lot of excited energy in the air, so Mrs. Hardin found ways to get that energy out...

There was some hokey pokey...

a little limbo...

some dancing...

and finally it was time to celebrate...

All proper birthday parties need balloons...

and cake of course...

You need party hats and horns...

as well as a good ol' game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey...

Mrs. Hardin and Mrs. Coughlin had gifts for everyone and the homeroom mom made little Snoopy stockings and filled them with lots of goodies...

The children sat around for circle time to do the advent wreath and told the story of Jesus.  I made sure to pay extra close attention hoping to learn a little something myself (sad, but true!)...

The sugar from the cake was making all the kids go nutty... 

But the teachers kept calm amidst the chaos...

Although this was considered a birthday party, the kids did a gift exchange.  Each kid was to bring in a gift for someone else of their same gender (i.e. girls buy for girls and boys buy for boys).  The gift exchange was about halfway through when Lily finally received hers.  After seeing all of the other great gifts the girls were getting, like Polly Pockets, My Little Pony, Hello Kitty and a pink stamp pad, Lily couldn't tear through that bag fast enough...

When she got to the gift, she couldn't believe her eyes, it was definitely not pink and definitely not a doll...

It was a dinosaur.  Apparently the child who bought the gift didn't get the gift exchange memo, but nonetheless, Lily was very gracious...

Then Santa made a surprise visit to this Birthday party...

With the party winding down, it was time for me to go, but I got one last picture of Lily and Mrs. Coughlin.  After the first of the year Mrs. Coughlin will be moving to Germany.  She will most definitely be missed...

But at least she got to celebrate big!  Happy Birthday Jesus!