A Simple New Years

Since we were so busy with guests for most of the break, we decided to keep New Years low-key this year.

During the day we had friends over in the morning, then we went roller skating with other friends.

After fun with friends, we enjoyed the rest of the day making some snacks (that the kids actually made),

having fondue,

and drinking sparkling cider at our candlelight dinner.

We wrote down all our favorite memories and wishes for the New Year.  Our fave memories included Disney, holiday celebrations, and birthdays.  Here were our wishes for 2016--

Elina: to whistle; to use kinder words
Eli: to make mac n cheese and a birthday cake on his own; to make sushi; to wait patiently for his turn
Evie: to blow a bubble with gum; to make mac n cheese; to not lose her cool
Eulee: to be potty trained at night
W: to make sushi; to get a haircut that will allow me to wear my hair down more; to relax when we're trying to have fun
B: to drink more water; to determine his path

We also played this fun game, Memories Scavenger Hunt.  All the kids had to find pictures of events from 2015 that were hidden all over the play room...and then they had to arrange them in order.  It really helped us to see what our year looked like and it was fun talking about everything we did.

Then we did our own countdown with confetti (as messy as it is, we always have to do confetti!)...

and then fireworks and sparklers outside in the cold!  Fireworks were still too loud for some of them, but we all enjoy them now!

The little ones went to bed first...then Elina had a tummy ache so she headed to bed at 11:30pm.  She almost made it!  So we played games with Eli the rest of the night and he made it to midnight!

Eli learned that he really likes to play Jenga.  We had a tall tower going...so exciting!  I love Eli's reactions throughout this game!

Happy 2016, y'all! (from our crazy clan to yours!)