Hometown Holiday

Friday, December 2nd is the annual Hometown Holiday Celebration!  This free event will be at Town Center South.  Some of the festivities will include: caroling, live entertainment, food, and Reindeer.  The tree lighting will be at 5:00pm.  Your children will even have a chance to meet Santa!

Teddy Bear Tea

The Holiday Teddy Bear Tea is Saturday, December 3rd at Southridge.  Tea time will be 10:30am - 11:15am, and the showtime is 11:15am - 12:00pm.  Tickets are $11 in advance and $15 the day of the event.  You can register at any of the Rec Centers or by calling 303-471-8859.  Children (2 and older) must be accompanied by an adult.  Be sure to bring your favorite teddy bear!

House Decorating Contest

Each year we love driving around looking at the Christmas Lights.  If you go all out and want to win the Highlands Ranch House Decorating Contest, December 4th is the entry deadline.  Call 303-471-8821 to let the judges know they need to drive by your home.  The judging will take place on December 12th.  I will be sure to update this post in December with the winners :)

Update: December 12th
For the map of 28 amazingly decorated homes to look at click here!  The map will be updated on December 15th with the 3 winners!

Give Thanks!

Ice Skating in The Ranch

The Highlands Ranch synthetic ice rink opens for the season on November 25th.  It's located at Town Center North.  Through January 15th it will be open on the weekends from 1pm - 4pm.  Bring your HRCA ID card to receive member pricing - $5 per person ($4 for children four and under).  Skate rentals will be available for $1.  A fun holiday activity to do with your family while enjoying the beautiful Colorado weather!

Free Passes

If you're looking for a free outing with your family, the Highlands Ranch Library has a great program you should use!  With your library card you can reserve a four pack of passes to the following locations: The Denver Art Museum, The Wildlife Experience, Plains Conservation Center, and Dinosaur Ridge.  Go to the library website, scroll all the way to the bottom, under What's New click on the Adventure Pass link.  It's best if you get these tickets in advance because chances are they will be gone the day of (4 different library members will get a 4 pack each day for each location).  Once you pick out which day you would like the tickets for and which venue all you need to do is type in your library card number and you can print out your pass!  You will also receive an email confirmation.  Ticket prices can sure add up with a family of four, but if you get these free tickets in advance, you can save a lot of money and give your kids something fun to look forward to!

Choo Choo Jack is Two!

Jack's 2nd birthday party was a train theme, which is so perfect for a two year old!  Since I started the planning just 8 days before the party, I had no choice but to go with Thomas, because it's in all of the stores :)  Jack has one Thomas book (which we have read a million times) so I added a couple of elements from his book to make the party more authentic.

For railroad tracks on the sidewalk we used duct tape.

Sign on the front door.

When the kids arrived I gave them bandanas and conductor hats.  It was so cute seeing them dressed up during the party, plus it was a fun gift for them to take home!

The train room for the kids to play in.

I had to make a train for the food table.

Luckily Jack has a Thomas toy that I was able to use.

 I love these veggie dips for kids parties!

We had signs made at Party City,

 

and glued them to poster board for personalized party decor.

Unfortunately I didn't get to make the cake for Jack's party this year because it was out of town and by the time we arrived I had less than 24 hours to get everything else together.  This cake was ordered from Target and it was only around $25.  They have so many cakes to choose from if you are looking for one - and they're yummy!

As soon as we put the cake in front of Jack, he dove for it!   I had to hold him back so he didn't burn himself, but he loved everyone singing Happy Birthday!