New Year's Eve

I'm finally finding a minute to document our New Year's Eve festivities. Since we've had children, most holidays have been much more fun, except the one that keeps us up past our kids' bedtimes. Our kids are great sleepers, but we've worked hard to make that happen by being really strict with their sleep habits. So, though we enjoy a full night's sleep every night, we sometimes have to sacrifice a late evening out with friends to maintain that precious sleep. So, this year we decided to invite the friends in with us. The Perkins family came to our house to have a family sleepover!

Before the sleepover, though, we went to First Night downtown after the kids woke up from their afternoon naps. It was a fun family celebration, with lots of crafts, workshops and entertainment for the whole family. We played with hula hoops, wrote wishes for the earth (how Austin is that?), played huge musical instruments, ate great food (I'm so thankful for the samosa empanada, that was probably the only thing Scout would eat), sang on public access tv (G did a beautiful rendition of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider"), watched some fun musical and dance performances, and cheered as the parade went by. Scout's mood and the quickly dropping temperature sent us home before the family finale at 8:00, where they set a huge wooden clock on fire. People had written their resolutions on it, so I'm not sure why they burned it, unless that gives you an excuse to break them! It was a lot of fun.

Ryan showing G how it's done

Mommy hooping

Scout getting in the groove

Garrett giving Scout a ride

G making his wish

G's performance

Local musical celebrities

Hot parade entertainment

Dragons in the parade

G up close with his favorite instrument

Then the Perkins fam arrived at our house. We put the babies to bed pretty quickly and let G and Meredith stay up and play a little. We then put them to bed in G's room, with Meredith on the bottom bunk. Surprisingly, they went to sleep right away. The grown-ups played games, ate goodies, and watched the countdown on tv. We had a good family breakfast the next morning and hung out in our pj's for a little while. Then we headed to Chick Fil-A for lunch and to TDS to feed the giraffe and check out the other animals. It was a fun evening and we were sad to say good-bye.

Meredith, Garrett and Rowdy the Rhino

Feeding the giraffe

Stinky camels