Monday, January 16, 2017

New Year's Eve 2016

Disclaimer: This was in my drafts folder!! I thought I had published this about 2 weeks ago! Arg!


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We spent New Year's Eve at Grammie and Papa's house this year. It seemed like the happenin' place to be since Jamie, Jordan, Aaliyah, and Jill (and fam) had all come home for the holiday.

We feasted on homemade Jimmy John's sandwiches. I am usually not a sandwich person, but give me some bread from Jimmy John's and a boring sandwich can be instantly transformed into good eats.

The festivities started off at 7pm. I had an activity bag to ring in each hour, little did I know that we wouldn't get to half of it. The 7pm bag contained crafts...make your own party hat, make your own noise maker, word search, and some coloring pages. And for the adults: pipe cleaner glasses contest. I couldn't believe that they actually took part in this one! Here are some pics to prove I'm not making this up:

He said he hated this, but I secretly think he liked it ;)


Jason had to run home to grab the pop I forgot sitting in the garage, so I modeled his creation.



I'm not sure who used the most pipe cleaners...Grammie or Papa...


The 8pm activities were Minute to Win It games.



9pm rolled around and we decided it was time to eat. I put together a charcuterie board. What is that you ask? It's a fancy French word for meats, cheeses, nuts, dried and fresh fruits, olives, hummus, artichokes, etc. Pretty much anything you would like to nosh on.


Dance Party!! The 10pm activity was the biggest hit of the night. It was complete with laser lights, glow sticks, and some rocking music. The kids went wild and would have danced the rest of the night away if we would have let them. The adults were a little more subdued and had retreated to the basement for some games.

11pm came and you could tell everyone was getting tuckered out. Everyone became a little more calm, a little more quiet, and the adults were trying to convince the kids we could just turn the clock forward and pretend midnight was here. Unfortunately, they were having none of it. Hattie however, as much as she tried to convince us she wasn't at all tired, layed down on my lap and promptly fell asleep...like in about 2 seconds. She was quickly transferred to a bedroom.




The magic hour of midnight!! We watched the final 45 seconds of the ball dropping, popped our hanging balloon filled with confetti, and wished everyone a happy new year. Upon completion of the cheering, we promptly cleaned up, loaded the van, and hauled 5 very, very tired children home.

I'm happy to report that all children slept in a little the next morning. Lily was the first up (no surprise here) at 9:30am and the rest rolled out of bed shortly after. For as tired as we still were, the kids all agreed it was the best New Year's Eve party. So I guess there's that. :)

Here are a few pics from earlier in the day. All the boy cousins/fam came over and got a game of boot hockey going on the ultra slippery ice. It was a beautiful day weather wise...almost 24 degrees so the guys had a ton of fun.





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