New Years Eve

Well for New Year's Eve I had a few things planned, but nothing extravagant. I knew that my kids wouldn't be able to stay up till midnight (not the younger ones anyways), but I wanted them to be able to experience what New Year's Eve was like.  So, I went to the Dollar Store and bought some hats and noisemakers and such.  I tried to have a few decorations up, so it was sort of festive, even though I still had Christmas decorations up.  

To start off, I wanted my kids to record some things about themselves and their experiences in 2012.  So, I made up a little worksheet for them to write things about themselves and their favorite experiences from 2012 and then things they want to happen and goals they want to set for 2013.  This is what it looks like:

After that, I wanted them to think about some of the fun things that we've done as a family in the past year.  I got this journaling idea from the blog, My Mix of Six.  She always does so many fun things for her family and I really liked this idea.  So, I printed off some random pictures of us--one from Disney world, one from our family reunion at the beach, one from camping and one from Garrett's birthday party.  I told them that they were each going to pick 2 different pictures, and then write what they remembered about that picture. So, now I have little journal entries from different points of view about that one specific time.  Too bad there was a football game on or Garrett would have joined us, too.  But he really wanted to watch the game.   

Paige, Bella and Noah trying to play Funny Bones while we get dinner made.  

For dinner we had hoagies, 7 layer dip, cheese ball, crackers and cheese, and veggies and dip.  Yummy!

After dinner, and after we got Noah in bed, we played some games.  First, we played Headbandz that Paige got for Christmas.  It's a fun game where you wear this card on your forehead that has some sort of object on it.  Then you have to ask questions to figure out what it is.  Sometimes it's trickier than you think.  

My kids were really silly the whole night.  Hence Maggie's face.  

Sweet little Bella.

Then we played Apples to Apples, Disney Version which is one of our favorites.  Garrett's game was over by then, so we tried to turn on Dick Clark's/Ryan Seacrest's Rockin' Eve, but the performers were awful and people that we didn't like, so we turned that off and turned on Pandora.  My kids would bust out dancing every now and then which was pretty cute.  

On pinterest, I had found a cute idea where you take off your Christmas decorations from the tree and then put noisemakers and balloons and stuff on it for New Year's.  Well, I didn't get my Christmas decorations off in time, but I did throw a few New Year's things on the tree.  Too bad they blend in really well.  

So, our plan was to watch the ball drop at around 10 our time, so about 5 minutes before, we got our hats on and gathered up our noise makers.   They were already in a silly mood, so to give them noisemakers, was probably a big mistake.  Those things are loud and it was a miracle that they didn't wake up Noah.  

Getting ready!

All during the day, I was trying to convince my kids to cut up some paper and make confetti.  My brother and sister and I did it one year when we were younger, and I remember how much fun it was to throw the confetti.  None of my kids wanted to do it.  So, a couple of minutes before the ball dropped Garrett said I should go and get the paper from the paper shredder and throw it up.  So I did.  

It was worth it!  They had a fun time throwing it everywhere.  Who wouldn't, right? How often does your mom encourage you to throw a bunch of paper around and make a huge mess?   Picking it all up was a pain, but the kids all helped me and it went fairly fast.

After we did that, I remembered that I had hung up the balloons and the kids were supposed to pop those at  "midnight" and each would get a prize after they popped them.  Inside, I put $1each and some gum and candy. But in one of them, I put $3 and gum and candy.  So, whoever picked the lucky balloon, got the extra money.  Not a big deal, but something fun.  The funniest part to me was watching them all try to pop the balloons.  I didn't get pictures because I was filming it.  They were trying to sit on them, stomp them, etc.  At one point, Lydia grabbed a nerf gun and started shooting hers.  Obviously it didn't work, but it was hilarious!

Afterwards, we had peppermint ice cream, except Lydia I guess, who doesn't like it.  

Paige and Bella didn't get in bed until almost 11.  I'm sure they were exhausted.  After they got in bed, Maggie, Lydia, Garrett and myself all stayed up to watch Princess Bride.  Such a great movie that I haven't seen in years!  But, I could still quote most of it. It was a fun New Year's Eve!!

January 1st 2013

After trying to sleep in a little bit, we just hung out around the house.  Garrett and Noah watching football and eating spinach dip.

Bella and I doing a puzzle that we got for Christmas.

Playing with our train--we got more tracks this year, so could do more with it.  

Watching it go!

Happy 2013!