Photo Story Friday: New Year's Eve

We decided to stay at home this year for New Year's Eve and create our own party. We invited Deb and her family to join us.

I spent the entire week trying to figure out a way to create a party in our basement. But when I went down on Monday, I decided it was way too cold and spent the next 48 hours trying to devise a way to put on in the living room. This is what I came up with.

A shower liner with balloons taped inside and strung from every door and window hanging
in the room











Steve had been asking to make homemade pizza for awhile so I thought it would be a good night to try it. Deb and I each got a pizza making kit from Chef Boyardee and they looked great coming out of the oven.



















The kids were excited when they smelled pizza and sat happily at the table waiting for us to dish it up.














Unfortunately, the cheese that came with the kit was icky and Deb's pizza turned out to taste nasty. I had used some left over mozzarella in our fridge for ours. This was the first of many mistakes I made this night. I should have waited to see how theirs turned out before we dug into ours, but I didn't and the girls were not happy to eat the yucky pizza. I still feel bad about it. I really am sorry Deb:(

They did eat anyway though, when I pulled the chocolate cake out and put it on the counter...quite the motivator!

The little ones though (Aaron and Becca) ate every bite of theirs and were very happy with their little meal.














We decided to set the timer for an hour until "midnight" and sent the kids off to play. After about ten minutes, the kids were starting to come hang on parents in the living room. Steve entertained everyone by trying to catch the leis on his head...



















and dressing the cat up for the celebration.














After awhile, we realized that another 45 minutes until we celebrated was going to be too long for some of them so we moved the clock up.

Then the party began...

Balloons everywhere!














Crazy dancing!




Y.M.C.A














And even some rockin' and rollin'



















There was a funny moment of Becca trying to "hoard" all of the balloons and the rest of the kids taking them that I hope Deb posts pictures of because it was very funny. I was laughing too hard at the time to take any pictures.

Steve started getting silly with balloons















and then decided to start popping them with his bottom



















Aaron struck his typical loud noise pose



















while Becca sat herself right in front of Steve clapping and cheering for each pop. I didn't get any pictures of her cheering, but it was extremely cute.

After almost all of the balloons were gone (Aaron was upset that he wanted to have some left) we headed to the kitchen for chocolate cake.

And then we settled in for a movie. We had bought Wall E for the boys and hadn't watched it yet so everyone set up sleeping bags in the living room and we turned out the lights. Each person enjoyed it in their own way...

Unfortunately, by the time the movie was over, everyone was very ready for it to be done and I know ALL of the kids were ready for bed.

It was a fun night. I don't know if it was especially memorable, but at least the kids will have something to say when asked what they did for New Year's when school starts up again.


Happy New Year!