New Year's Eve



Since we are in our small rental house we didn't plan on having a New Year's Eve Party.  Our children weren't thrilled with that decision but we promised them a big party at our new house once we have moved in and settled.  The boys were invited to a party for all the youth at a friends house and the rest of us were invited to a party at the house of a different friend. 

 

We had the kids take a nap at 3pm, Ken and I were dumb and stayed up watching movies.  When we went to wake them up at 6 pm only Darin woke up.  Pretty funny considering how Nathan and the girls complained the most about taking a nap and how they weren't tired.  They ended up sleeping until 7pm.

 

The boys had been trying to talk their Dad into buying fireworks now to light off for the big house party for a few weeks.  They really love our tradition of lighting off fireworks.  Ken researched it for awhile and could only find laws prohibiting the sale of fireworks outside of New Years and the 4th of July weeks.  The only laws that he could find prohibiting lighting them off at different times throughout the year was if there was a burn ban in effect.  So he took Darin to buy some fireworks for our new house party.

 

Once they got to the stand Darin had pretty much decided that he didn't want to go to the youth party (we are always together as a family for New Years) but when I called to tell Ken that the girls wanted some smaller fireworks to light off at our house that pretty much sealed the deal, and none of us went to any of our parties.  By the time Ken and Darin got home from buying fireworks it was already 8:30pm and the only food I had prepared for the night was brownies and sparkling cider to take to the parties so we made a fast food run to the only place open-- McDonald's. 

 

It was just our family but we still had a great time.  Here's a picture of my pyromaniacs.



 This is the first time the girls have ever lit off fireworks themselves.  I don't think it would have happened if we had a whole group of people.  They enjoyed it very much!  At first they were a little timid but by the end they were lighting them all by themselves and tossing them into the street.

 Of course the boys are pros by now.  They had lots of fun with the smaller ones.

 Tanks facing off against each other.

No cops were called on us and we heard quite a few people lighting off fireworks too.  We had one scary incident where a car was driving down the street and ran over one of the duds.  It exploded just seconds after the car passed.  The driver didn't stop to see if there was any damage done and I don't really think there was any, but it was funny once we relaxed.

I love how all the kids look like they are holding wands.  Those are the punks.  Once Rose got used to it she did pretty well.  In the beginning she almost lit her robe on fire because she was waving it around everywhere.  There is a melted burn spot where one of the embers got her.

 Of course we weren't satisfied with just the little road show.  We wanted to see more!  Ken dug into the big party stash and the kids were able to do some Roman candles.

 Rose with her candle.

 Nathan wanted to do the two remaining ones at the same time.  Each girl lit one of them for him.

 Crazy cool pictures!

 Darin talked his Dad into doing some of the big shots.  We ended up saving most of those for the big party and called it a night.

Glad we have such willing helpers.  They brought out the brooms all on their own and started cleaning up.  It was kind of refreshing to just be with our family.  We had a lot of fun!  I hate to admit that because I feel like our family is fairly private and would probably be fine hanging out by ourselves most of the time, I think we give off that kind of vibe to other families too.  New Years is one of the times though when we usually like to party with a big group, but I'm sure we will do that next year.

 After the fireworks the girls wanted to watch a movie and we played Cities and Knights with the boys.

 After the games it was pretty much New Years and Ken and I were so tired because we didn't nap.  The kids stayed up until 4am watching movies together.  The next day Ken worked at the new house doing more wiring.  I stayed home with the kids and we deep cleaned the whole house.  Like cleaning out the refrigerator and wiping down cabinets kind of deep cleaning.  Then that evening we continued some of our favorite New Year's traditions.

Including playing King Elephant for a few hours!  That game is addictive as much as it is hilarious.  Can't wait to get a fire pit in our new house because we would sit around that for FHE many, many nights playing this silly game.

 Oink-Oink

 Who-Who

 Rear! (King Elephant)

 Giggly Goo

 Ginger was so happy when she finally became King.

 So was Rose.  She enjoys changing the tempo.

 Then we broke out my wonderful Christmas Present and had a little dance party.

It's called party rocker. It is a speaker that hooks up to my phone through blue tooth.  There is a mic and a disco ball that pulses to the beat.  We pretty much love it and have used it everyday since Ken set it up.  Seriously, the best Christmas present EVER!

 Cha-Cha Slide

 I don't know who taught Ginger how to do the sprinkler but it's her go to dance move.

 Whenever Ken takes the floor with the girls they take over.  Dancing is serious business to him:)

We are off to a great New Year.  The one thing I have learned over this holiday season is how much my family loves to be together and how it doesn't matter if we are in a small house or a huge house.  We have everything we need when we are together!  Don't get me wrong, I'm totally looking forward to our big new house and all of our usual traditions and trappings:)  But we have had just as happy of holidays without them.