New Years Reality

New Years Eve is a night that is usually for adults to party the year to a close.  Champagne glasses, midnight kisses, and as much sparkle as one can find!  That was how many of my New Years Eves were spent, until the first New Years Eve that I was a mom.  Abbie was 10 months old, and had a 730pm bedtime.  Finding a sitter on New Years Eve is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, and since we live no where near family, our options were not even slim... just none!  

As you can imagine, my New Years Eves changed drastically at that point.  My husband, owns a restaurant.  His restaurant served almost 500 guests last night, and serves about that many every year. It is one of his busiest nights of the year.  I'm sure you can understand what that means, but basically... he will never have New Years Eve off.  I'm used to that by now, and expect nothing else.  As a restaurant owner, there are a few holidays that I will never get to share with my husband.  New Years Eve, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Easter, and Christmas Eve make the short list.  

ANYWAYS...

I was at a loss.  Abbie is old enough now to enjoy parties and special events like New Years Eve.  I try hard to make lots of fun memories for her because she is at the age where you can remember things as an adult!  I want her to look back on her childhood, and think... I had so much fun as a child. So, I decided I was going to have a little party.  A close friend of ours, with 3 children of her own & 2 more visiting for the holidays, had no plans either!  So, I thought having a party for the kids was evening perfection!  Planning a party is one of my favorite things to do.  If I could do it with other people's money all of the time... I totally would!

I started working on all of the evening activities.  I wanted some to be crafts, some to be games, and some to be fun that adults didn't have to monitor!  The party was starting at 6, so I created an activity for every 30 mins until the ball dropped at 9pm.  30 mins intervals were perfect for the kids.  However, it was a little exhausting as an adult in charge!  45 mins between bags would have been much easier on me, but would have left a few lulls in the evening, in which 7 children would have been "bored"!!!  We all know that just isn't what you want!

I used my Silhouette to print and cut out clocks for each 30 mins interval.  I made the bags and added sparkly paper bows to each one.  5 bags total, 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, 8:00, and 8:30.  Since the ball drop was at 9:00, I didn't make a bag.  

 

The 6:30 bag had a clock activity inside.  

The kids decorated paper plates however they wanted, and I stamped on the numbers with some help from them too.  I added the hands in the center, and they were able to follow the time on their clocks for the evening. (Side note: getting a photo with 7 kids at once is impossible!!)

Since the clock activity was adult assistance intensive... I needed the next bag to be a bit more relaxed.  So our 7:00 back had a feather boa inside!

Everyone needs some sparkle on New Years, so this bag brought sparkly hats and feather boas for the kids to dress up in for some fun photo ops!!

Our 7:30 bag had a fun Bingo game inside!  I laminated the game before realized that it wasn't updated for this year, but the kids didn't seem to notice!  We used Hershey Kisses for Bingo pieces, so the kids could have "kisses at midnight" too! I printed this game from HERE.

And we had so much fun playing Bingo, that I completely forgot to take pictures!

Our 8:00 bag had another fun game for the kids! Cup Launchers...

I precut the bottoms of the cups out, tied the balloons, and cut the tips of the balloons off.  I let the kids choose a balloon color, placed the balloon on the cup and tossed a cotton ball inside!  They had so much fun launching cotton balls at each other!

The 8:30 bag was our last, and the activity was put in the LAST bag on purpose!  Horns!

Oh they were loud!  But we cut tinsel toppers and decorated our horns with them!

After the horns were finished, I started working on the balloon drop!

I laid out a black tablecloth from the Dollar store on the floor.  I cut it in half across the short way, and I cut ALMOST in half the long way.  I left about 10" of the cloth attached to each other on both of the long ends.  I taped it back together from the top, and grabbed all 4 corners and pulled up into a "bag".  I stood on a step stool and taped the 4 corners to the ceiling.  I made sure the tape that was affixing the table cloth back together in the middle was facing the ceiling.  I taped the 3 of the sides up as well, and we started loading balloons in!  We loaded balloons in until we had to stop because the last side wouldn't reach the ceiling to tape closed!  Once everything was taped, I taped a long string to the inside of each of the 4 corners that had been cut in the center.  We handed 2 strings to each adult standing on either side of the drop!  The kids stood in the middle and counted down.  Once the ball "dropped" the adults on either side pulled their strings!  The center opened and the balloons fell onto VERY excited children!  My daughter is still talking about the balloon drop today!

After the ball officially dropped and the dancing and excitement began to fizzle, we toasted the New Years in with Sparkling Cherry Juice!

Yes, this was a lot of work.  A lot of planning, a lot of participation, and it was ABSOLUTELY worth it!  I had more fun this year on New Years than I ever have before!  In addition, my kids were tucked into their beds before 10pm, and I had my feet up by 10:15!  New Years Eve with kids is very different, but it doesn't have to be boring.  Get involved, and make some amazing memories for your children!  

HAPPY NEW YEARS to all of my readers :).