New Years Party

Brian and I had a small New Year's Eve party.  Actually we had two parties: one for the adults and one for the kids.  The Greens and The Collins joined us, and between us three couples our kids almost outnumber us 2:1.  That's right.  Six adults and 11 kids.  Halle was the hostess of the kid party and kept them entertained while we adults played our own games.  The kid activities were suppose to be done outdoors, but with the pouring rain they mostly stayed inside.  Arden and Myleigh didn't care it was raining, though.  They got soaked from swinging.  The kids weren't allowed at our party and we didn't interfere with theirs.  It worked beautifully.... except for them blowing the horns constantly!  

Poor Dalton looks like the culprit here, when in reality Arden was the biggest noise maker of them all!

KID party:

I blew up some balloons and tied them to a string.  Each balloon had a specific time on it.  The kids popped each balloon at the corresponding time because there was a piece of paper on the inside with an activity.  So every thirty minutes they had something new to do.  They played hide and seek, did a New Years themed scavenger hunt, made foil animals, wrapped each other in toilet paper, etc etc.  I made sure all of the games were easy and fun for the big and little kids.  

Jakob and Jackson playing a game on the make-shift ping pong table. 

not sure who Jackson is wrapping.  Halle maybe?

Nope, have no clue who this is either.  

Halle made a bow out of her foil

On to the adult party!  We had a great time.  Well I did at least!  We played cards, played a few games, and ate and ate and ate.  In addition to the chili cheese dogs, Chuy's dip, and drinks, we had a deep-frying party!  Being the end of the year and knowing that we were about to all commit to fitness goals, why not go out with a binge....  I mean, bang?

Look at that talent! Beating Brian and Nik at this pong game and being a dad at the same time ;)

We fried so much junk.  We fried Twix, Snickers, and Oreos.  We even made biscuilt-donuts and topped them with chocolate and glaze.  Mmmmmm!  I made a funnel cake batter that we used as the breading for our fried treats.  Then we made funnel cakes with the leftover batter.  Nik and Brian got good as swirling the batter in the oil for the funnel cakes; they may just need their own booth at the Rodeo this year.  Oh. My. Goodness.  It was all so delicious!  I was a little disappointed with the fried Snickers, but the Oreos more than made up for it.    

Brian posing with the Oreos while poking holes into the "donuts"

enlarged to show detail

 Doesn't that look so greasy and bad for you????  Yes it was, but it tasted so good.  Alright I'll stop talking about it now because my mouth is starting to water.  Where's my celery sticks and hummus?  

While we ate like pigs we played the mustache game.  "Cheers!" when the mustache lined up with a person on TV. 

Jenny McCarthy mustache you a question.

My husband's a dork.  This was a lot funnier in the moment.  Not sure who Brian was impersonating here, but he had a British accent and was shaking his finger at everyone.

Right before midnight we prepared for our champagne toast.  These are the kids' glasses of "champagne"  It's sprite poured over cotton candy.  This would have been a lovely looking drink if the cotton candy was the right color.  We couldn't find PINK cotton candy at the store, so we ended up with something that looks like it came out of a sewer plant.

what it was suppose to look like, lol.  

Oh well the kids didn't know the difference

We all missed the New Year by a minute or two, so we did our own belated countdown.  Apparently the boys were very excited about this.

The kids then had fun with lots of sparklers.  

By adjusting the shutter speed and after many outtakes I was able to capture this on my camera !

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!