Happy New Year!

A month or so ago, out of the blue, Nathan said:  "Maybe we should do something fun with the kids for New Years Eve" and right away I got flashbacks of fun stuff we did for New Years when we were kids.  Actually, I remember having fun and it being memorable in a lot of ways but somehow I could only remember one official game we used to play...or maybe we only did it once or twice, but either way it stuck in my head:  Taste Testing!  When we were kids there was that big rivalry between Coke and Pepsi so that's what we used to test with then, but since I'm a modern mom and, therefore completely self-righteous, I wouldn't even CONSIDER using soda for the taste testing.  I mean, think of the consequences:  rotting teeth, addiction to sugar, stunted growth and poor sleeping habits all from one taste on one night, I'm totally sure of it...okay, okay part of me is kidding.  Anyway, last night our version consisted of grape, white grape and apple juices.  The parents got it right, Zoe got 2 out of 3 (eventually) and Owen....thought it was hilarious and kind of strange.

Before that though, it was glow-stick bath time (turn off all the lights and throw in a bunch of glow sticks.  Simple. Awesome.)  and then we had a feast consisting entirely of hors d'oeuvres.  I had grand visions of the kids helping us prepare them all and then being little tiny waiters and that kind of happened.  Mostly it ended up being a team effort with everyone jumping in where it seemed most helpful/appropriate, including keeping tabs on the toothpicks and little pieces of food Owen kept putting in his mouth and replacing without any evidence of his actions.

If your child is really interested in cooking with you, but you have to draw the line at chopping/cutting, please take notice of the Curious Chef knife

Since she knew Nathan and I had been planning a few games for the party, Zoe of course felt inspired to create her own surprise game.  She was very excited about it and very official..and it was pretty darn sweet.  I'd explain the game but it was pretty vague and anticlimactic. We made sure to make a huge deal about how cool and inventive it was though.

I was excited about this one but it didn't really work out.  Cutting sandwiches into fun shapes with cookie cutters probably works best with something like PB&J or at least a sandwich with soft bread.  Oh well!  They all said they were tasty anyway (grilled turkey, apple and cheddar cheese)

Managed to get a couple of cute shapes...can you spot them?  My  motto is that it doesn't have to be cute or pretty to taste good.  The important thing is that we tried, right?  By the way, I don't see any burnt bread and you don't either.

Then we decided to do our champagne toast.  We got sparkling cider for the kids of course, and little plastic champagne cups.  I have to be honest that oftentimes I'm guilty of quickly capturing the moment I want on film in the split second it's all going the way I want it to go and then sharing that photo with you all.  I hardly ever admit that it all  went to pot seconds after taking the picture and for that I'm only a little sorry.  Anyway, now you know!  This is a perfect example of that.  The second both kids' lips touched the sparkling cider, they both recoiled in disgust and retreated to the other room.  Not to worry, Nathan and I polished off the adult bottle by the end of the evening!

Happy New Year!

Cheers!

Noisemaker/silly hat/mustache time!

At some point, we also played "Can You Guess the Sound/Smell?" which was kind of random but the kids liked it.  It's just what it sounds like it was--closing your eyes and guessing a sound or smell.  Then we did a "Guess the Resolution" game.  I had been reading about a few different versions and we came up with our own, inspired by all the ideas I found online.  Nathan and I wrote down 3 resolutions on 3 pieces of paper and then I helped Zoe do 3 and Nathan helped Owen do 3.  Then, we pulled them out of a bowl randomly and tried to guess who's was who's.  Obviously most of them were easy to guess but it was still fun.  When we matched the resolution to the person, the kids put the paper in a little jar with the person's name on it and then we put the jars in our Christmas stockings.  Next year when we put up our decorations, we will see how we all did (again, this was not my idea--don't remember where I read it though).

Finally, we played "2012 Stith Family Trivia"!  Nathan and I came up with 100 questions about our year as a family and we slowly worked through them all together.  We hooked the laptop up to the TV and used pictures for some of the questions so it was a really nice, laid back way to hang together and talk about the memories we made over the past year.  It took so long that we even wore Zoe out, and if you know her you'll know exactly how impressive a feat that is.

Cut the questions into individual strips of  paper and put them all in this empty oatmeal container.

When we'd finally made our way through all of the questions, everyone was ready to relax and watch the strange festivities on TV.  Nathan and I are always laughing at it all because we are so out of touch..neither one of us has any idea who any of the artists are!  Anyway, we were all pretty wiped by the time the ball  dropped.  Thank goodness they show a live version to us out here on mountain time because it means we can give the kids the illusion of staying up until the New Year when really it's only 10pm.  We had to wake Zoe up because she feel asleep  5 minutes before it dropped, but Owen made it...he was a zombie but he made it.

I think they'd both say it was worth it.  Happy New Year!