New Years Eve

This year I was really excited to be back here for New years Eve. My family used to always get together for a big bash. But now that everyone else has teenagers, they tend to do their own thing.

So, I asked my parents if they would come over. 

We were so happy to have them.

I did our yearly tradition by taking the ornaments off of the tree and decorating it with purple and silver balloons filled with anywhere from .1 to $1. Then we took turns popping them throughout the night.

Doug and I usually have appetizer type food for New Years so we made some and my parents brought some. I made chicken wings and jalepeno poppers and had chips and cheesy salsa out.

My mom made little crescent smokies and crackers with a yummy cheeseball.

She also brought stuff to make Ice cream sundaes.

I had glow bracelets for everyone to wear.

We played a few games. 

The first one we played was one my parents gave us for Christmas: Wits and Wagers. It was a lot of fun.

Abi did a little show for us using my May pole.

Of course we opened our English crackers.

It was a great night capped off with sparkling cider and a confetti rocket. 

New Years Eve

This year we started a new tradition of a New Year Tree. 

Abi helped me take down all the ornaments and put them away except for any snowflakes/ stars that were silver, gold, or white. I put a new star ornament that our friends gave us for Christmas for the top of the tree. We put some silver garland I got for next to nothing at Target on it and then the girls tiaras and our New Years crackers. I also took down the tree skirt and wrapped a blanket around the bottom.

Then I sent the girls to rest time and I filled up a bunch of balloons. I wanted them to be silver but Abi wanted purple added and I had to use white instead of silver. I had 4 pennies, 4 nickels, 4 dimes, a dollar, and a bunch of fortunes in them. Then the two on top of the tree had a bunch of confetti I cut out in them. I tied them all to the tree with white, silver, and gold ribbon and then numbered them, putting paper with the numbers on it in a bowl.

After rest time we dressed in the mandatory polka dots for new years eve. (Polka dots on New years eve are supposed to be lucky). Abi wanted to put on make up so I let her put some on herself and Maddy. Then they both wanted their nails painted. This was the first time painting Maddy's nails!

Then I brought them down and they saw the tree covered with balloons. There was a lot of squealing from Maddy!

The make up didn't look too bad in person but it definitely photographed heavy. So cute though. Like little dolls...

It wasn't long before Maddy was mad at Abi for telling her not to pop the balloon...

If looks could kill...

she wanted to look at all the numbers..

Abi had her stitches taken out last Wednesday and it is healing really well. You can see the scar in this picture...

Now, we just had to wait for the New Years festivities to start....

We always have appetizers for dinner on New Years eve so we had some Jalapeno and cream cheese poppers and buffalo wings, Maddy had dino nuggets, and Abi had a lunchable. We watched a little Phineas and Ferb.

Then it was time for the first balloon. Abi got to go first. She picked her paper out of the bowl to see which balloon she got to pop.

She tried lots of things to pop it.

Nothing was working so finally she used a pen to stab it. She got a fortune...

A half hour later it was Maddy's turn and she tried sitting on it...

Finally Doug got our little corn holders and we used those for popping the rest of the night. 

Maddy also got a fortune...

It this point we went in the kitchen and had our first toast of the night...

Then it was time to start the gaming! We got a few new games for Christmas so we wanted to play all of them. Abi was determined to stay up until midnight but we were only letting Maddy stay up until 7 so we played the kid games first.

First up was Disney Pictureka!

then we played the Busytown airport game... which is just as much fun as the other Busytown games. They have the best games.

After this game we did our crackers. I love this picture because you can see all of our crackers!

Maddy liked the cardboard tube from hers the most.

After this I put Maddy down and then we hunkered down to play Life. It was a favorite game of mine as a kid so I was excited to get it. Abi had never played it before. It was so much fun and lasted almost two hours!

At this point we took a little break and got out some chips and salsa, cheese salsa, and spinach and artichoke dip...

Then we played Creationary. Also very fun! We played a few rounds because it goes really fast.

Here is a chair Abi made...

After that we took a long break. Doug was tired so he laid down on the beanbag for awhile while I put the next game together and read a little and Abi watched netflix shows on Doug's phone. 

Then we got together around 11 for the last game of the night...

Heroica

Another really fun game! At this point of the night we were doing balloons every 15 minutes. It started out every 1/2 hour. Abi was the lucky finder of the dollar bill!

It was getting close to midnight and we made some ice cream sundaes. You can tell just how tired Abi was...

After I took that picture I said, "that doesn't look like an ice cream face." So she did this...

We counted down, watched the ball drop, and cheered. Then I had Abi pop the last two balloons.

Happy New Year!