New Year's Eve

Our New Year's Eve party was much the same this year as it was the year before.  We did our traditional snack platters and got the spread all laid out on the counter.  We had to go around to the other counter since our "bar" isn't as big in our new house.  Maybe we just need less food! ha ha

Ian got his snacks earlier than the rest of us because he was going to the Stake Dance/Activity with Jason and Samantha.

It was hard to keep the kids from snitching off the trays until we were ready to begin.

Wayne, Suzette, and Melinda came over and we played The Farming Game.

At Midnight, we had Sparkling Soda and toasted each other.

Zander actually made it this year.  I think it was a first for him!  

We had some confetti poppers for the kids.  Micah was having a hard time pulling the string to make it pop, so Melinda helped him.

We went outside to do the rest of them.

Micah was sad when we were out of the poppers.  I remembered we had some more in the basement.  He was excited when we got them out!

John even lit a few other fireworks.

And a parachute man.  We had a great time making so much noise in our "retired" neighborhood. Nobody came out and complained at us, so we figured we were okay.

 Eli isn't quite awake, but everyone else helped to ring in the new year! Ian was still at the dance.  I guess we are entering a new phase of life with teenagers in the house!

Happy 2015!!

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve was spent like most of our past New Year's.  We played games.  It's fun now that the kids are older we can play more grown up games like Nertz-it's basically group Solitaire.  We taught Zander and Rad how to play this year.

We also do a buffet of fruit, veggies, treats, and appetizer type foods. Lindey helped me set it up this year. :)  She loves to help in the kitchen!

This year we made bacon wrapped smokies for Ian, and bbq smokies as well.

I had to laugh when I came in the living room and saw all the kids on their devices. 

Grandma hung out on the couch.

We visited for a bit with Grandma, Grandpa and Ms. D.

Then Lindey decided she wanted to play the new game we got for Christmas.  I Spy Disney.  She loves this game!

Lindey is good at getting her way.  She had Grandma reading books to her.

Grandpa read by himself. :)

About 10 minutes before midnight Zander laid down on the couch.  I told him to get up or he'd miss the start of the new year.  He said, "Mom! It's tradition to get the sleeping picture of me with the hat on--you can wake me up after that."  And then he went to sleep.  Silly kid. :)

We got the "bubbly" apple juice ready to toast.

Grandpa couldn't keep Eli awake.

We watched the ball drop in Times Square--we've done that every year since I can remember.

Morgan quickly fashioned a hat so we could get our traditional picture of sleeping Zander--I tried, but he did not wake up. lol

Happy New Year, Sweetheart!

Eli woke up--he was excited he made it longer than Zander did!

Melinda and I. :) That's a good picture of us!

Rad brought his own noisemaker and looked oh, so excited to be bringing in the new year. 

Happy 2014!

Lindey and John took some selfies earlier in the evening.  She was trying so hard to be grumpy.  Some of her expressions crack me up!

There's our happy girl. :)

Happy 2013!

 

Coralie and her family were down for a few days, so we spent New Year's Eve with them, John's parents, and Melinda.  They all came to our house and we ate yummy food, played games and mostly visited.  Zander is our child who is always asleep by 8pm, no matter what is going on.  He just can't seem to stay awake and it's a miracle if he makes it to 10pm.  Earlier in the afternoon, Zander informed me that he set an alarm on his Nintendo DS for midnight so that we couldn't take the annual "Zander's sleeping--here he is in his New Year's hat" photo.  He said that was not going to happen this year.  His plan was that the alarm would go off, and he would wake up and celebrate with us.  That did not happen...he fell asleep like any other night, even though he had cousins here, his alarm went off, which did not wake him up, even though it was by his head.  Poor Zander.  We didn't put the crown on him this year. :) But we still got a picture.

A picture to prove that they were here.  We were a little late on the draw getting the Sparkling Cider poured and ready.  When we turned on the TV to watch the ball drop, the countdown read 45 seconds!  Aaggghhh!  We hurried and gathered everyone and then toasted the new year. lol  Guess we should have been paying better attention to our clock than our card game!

Lindey made it to midnight!  I wasn't really surprised because she took a very late nap--like starting at 4pm late.  She was definantly ready for bed after this.  She wouldn't let us put a hat on her without crying, so we just let her drink her sparkling cider.

Lindey, Morgan and Ian were the only kids who lasted until midnight.  Just enough of us to hold up our fingers with the year!  Happy 2013 everyone!  May it be a good one!

New Year's Eve

We began our New Year's Eve festivities around 5:00pm.  Melinda came over to join in the fun.  We had a buffet of munchies to snack on--the island was covered.  After everyone had their fill of goodies, we began playing games.  We played Feed the Kitty, Left Right Center, What's in Ned's Head, and Nerts.  We watched Kung Fu Panda 2, hoping that some of the smaller children would fall asleep, a couple of them did, but not the ones we were hoping for. Lol--we lost Zander and Micah.  Eli and Lindey were up for a while longer.

Melinda and I with our party hats on.  Getting ready to bring in the new year!

John and I--awww-so cute! This is actually a pretty good picture of us!

We always let off a Whistling Pete each year. I hate these--they are just loud and obnoxious.  Exactly what you want to bring in the new year with. :)

Another tradition we started doing a few years ago was to take the sleeping kids pictures with a party hat on.  They should get to ring in the new year too!

Zander...

Micah

Eli...

And Lindey.

Another tradition--toast the new year with sparkling cider!

And that was 2011 my friends!  (And my blog is finally caught up!  It only took me 8 months! Yeah!)

Happy 2012!!!