Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye is never easy, even when you've done it as much as we have. 

In December, some of Emma and Samantha's good friends were heading back to the States.  

A year ago when it was us heading back to the States, my dearest friends took my children so I could do the frantic-last-minute-packing thing.  

I paid it forward to J&A's mom and threw one last little playdate before they left.    I had picked up a mini gingerbread house kit in Hong Kong and planned for everyone to do that together.  

Have I mentioned before that I love prepackaged kits?  Hmmmm.  Well, I do.  

Now that you're all familiar with the school room, you'll see that's where our gbread factory was.  

Abby was thrilled to do whatever it was the big kids were going.  They could have been dissecting a frog and she would have gladly participated.

 There might have been a little big of lickage going on during the house construction:

 Or maybe a LOT of lickage:

A was so sweet to help Emma, giving her tips on her decorations, asking for Emma's help with hers, etc.  She was great!

Finished products - J & Samantha's houses:

 and A & Emma's:

 I noticed this year that because our city is so moist the icing only stayed hard for a little more than a day.  After that, it started getting gooey and shifty.  Instead of the month I usually leave our houses out for, these lasted about 10 days.

 It was really fun surprising my group with one last playdate; they all had a really nice time together.

 But see? they're all into this "silly" stuff these days!

 Samantha and J love playing together:

 Ok, finally - someone is being a little more serious!

 On second thought, maybe not...

J&A - we miss you guys!