It's Midnight Somewhere!

Grandma Peggy made New Year's Eve so fun last year, that we decided to do the hourly boxes again. This time Grandma and Grandpa were at our house and we had Rob, Claire, Ian, and Moira join us for the party. The first box was dinner - make your own pizzas!

They turned out delicious. I used a pizza crust recommended by Melissa, a copycat recipe for Dewey's pizza crust. (Famous in St. Louis, I think.)

After dinner it was time for Minute to Win It games! I looked up a bunch of them on Pinterest and picked ones I thought our crowd of mostly little boys could handle. All the boys (Emil, Colin, and Ian) did their share of melting down, but it was still fun. 

Building a snowman. Colin was feeling claustrophobic. Too bad kid-sad-faces are one of my guilty pleasures. They make me laugh and feel sad at the same time.

Kodi joined us for pizzas and the first game, but her brother Cole (Grandma is wrapping him in toilet paper) came to the door just as we were starting our second round of snowman building. I asked Cole if he wanted to play and he shrugged and came right in. Ha! He's still never spoken to me, but he was all for playing a game. Cute.

Shoveling Snow was putting cotton balls from one bowl to another using your nose covered in Vaseline and no hands. Colin got frustrated that the cotton balls weren't sticking, so he'd put the cotton ball on his nose, then drop it into the bowl. (Oh! Seeing the crock pot in the background reminds me that Brian did L'il Smokies wrapped in bacon for one of our appetizers. Awesome. We also had cheeseball and crackers and Mom's famous dip with veggies.)

I forgot what this game was called, but we emptied a big bag of Skittles and the contestant had to separate them by color into the cups. Somehow Brian was able to get 94 Skittles color coordinated into the cups. Spooky.

I didn't get photos of the other games. We blew ping-pong balls across the bar with straws and tried to get them into the cups we'd taped to the side of the bar (Snow-blower). Colin OWNED that game. Emil couldn't even make his ping-pong ball move. We're so mean to make an asthmatic do that game. We had the kids race with a small (in most cases) balloon between their knees - The Penguin Walk. The next box was a movie and popcorn downstairs. The boys wandered up during the movie and I gave them a bath. It was only about 8:30, but that was a lot of action for evening at our house. Then it was the "midnight" box (secretly 9:15). Party hats, noise-makers, and Martinelli's Sparkling Whatever. Brian found a countdown by King Julian from Madagascar on Netflix, which was fun. "It's midnight somewhere!" The kids were down with making a lot of noise. By 10:00 I was in a bubble bath watching a show on my Kindle. Suckas! My kind of New Year's Eve.

The next day we ate a late breakfast of quiche and fruit and perfect hot chocolate. Grandpa played games with the boys, Bridget threw up a couple of times and then played American Girl Dolls with Grandma. The two of them looked up the new Girl of the Year, too. Not sure Bridget needed to be introduced to that. :)

Here's Annalee (Bridget's doll), Ginger (Grandma Peggy's new doll), and Winnie (Grandma Peggy's birthday doll). Bridget told me the other day that she can't find time to dress Annalee before school starts every day. It ain't easy, people!

Emil and Grandpa were green and Colin was yellow. Naturally.

Then it was time to get Grandma and Grandpa out the door. Colin and Emil are big helpers.

Poor Bridget. Puke-asaurus. I had to pop that balloon a few hours after this photo was taken. And she's wearing one of Grandma's doll's headbands as a bracelet. (They also forgot a box of cookies and the baby car seat and stroller. Fail.)

Awww. Hugs. Brian got the boys real cowboy boots for Christmas. Colin wouldn't even put his on and Emil wore his once and said they hurt his feet. I guess they're not real cowboys. I found them some winter boots after we'd taken back the cowboy boots. Emil wakes up in the morning and puts his boots on before breakfast. Win!

In all, we've started 2015 right. We stayed home for most of our vacation - a quick trip to Ogden for a fun holiday dinner with cousins and aunts and uncles. I'm related to the coolest people! We could have one of those every week and I still wouldn't get to talk to everyone as long as I want to. 2015 is going to be awesome!