New Year's Eve 2014

 Early New Year's Eve morning, I wrote different activities on little strips of paper, put one strip in each balloon, and after inflating them, I wrote a time for popping each balloon and starting the activity.  The first balloon had a 9:00 AM time.  That was much too early; we started to fizzle out around 3:00.  Next year, I will start after lunch at the earliest.

 Each child had their own balloon to pop at midnight.  I let them fill the balloons with confetti and draw on them.

Collin, Reagan, and Katelyn took turns popping the hourly balloons.  Kate was the balloon popping champion; she had no fear, just went right at it with a push pin!

The first activity was races.  We began with a race to put on the most clothing in ten minutes.  Collin won.

They also raced to blow marshmallows across paper.

The next activity was decorating.  Collin opted out.  I had taped Happy New Year onto three pieces of watercolor paper.  The girls made watercolor tape resist art.

I also cut out contact paper numbers that the girls covered in confetti.

Some of our other activities included going out for lunch, baking cookies, making popcorn, making pizza, making ice cream sundaes, and playing games.

 Above is our spoon and egg race.  Kate dropped her egg on the very first step.  Reagan won.

 I figured cookies with kisses were perfect for New Year's Eve!

 Reagan and Kate had a glow bath.

We followed that up with a glowing dance party.

Kate went to bed after the dance party.

We watched Ryan Seacrest and all of the televised craziness for a little while, and then Collin decided to go to sleep a little after 11:00.  Reagan was still going strong, but at 11:50 she couldn't keep her eyes open and decided to just go to bed.  She was SO close!  I went to bed with intentions of watching the ball drop, but I fell asleep too; it must have been only a minute or two before midnight since I had just tucked Reagan into bed!

It was a fun day, but I learned that next year I should start later, have fewer food activities, and maybe plan something active for the 11:00 hour so that we don't fall asleep!