Ringing in the New Year

The day after Christmas, Chris and I decided to take full advantage of grandparents and go see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. I think this was the first time we've gone out without the kids since our trip to Europe in the spring, so it was time. And then we went out again on Friday! We hired a babysitter for the first time in I don't know how long. I know it was a first for Robert. He's only ever stayed with Chris' parents or friends while I went to a doctor's appointment. Not that he knew any better though; we put him to bed right before we left for our party and stayed asleep the whole night.

We had a fun time at our kid-free New Years' Eve eve party and were the first to leave at almost 1:00 am. Clara loved having a babysitter. She got to watch a movie, eat popcorn, play video games and stay up late. They even broke out the slap bracelet kit she got for Christmas and made some totally awesome bracelets.

Then on Saturday, we went back over to Glenn and Becky's for an early New Years celebration. We initially planned to ring in the new year over at their house, but since they were up super late the night before, we decided to just let the kids have fun for a few hours and call it good.

Clara loaded up her arms with bracelets before we left home so Leah and Kate could pick which ones they wanted. My sweet girl even handed them out to 2 or 3 of Leah's neighbor friends. They were so cute and I kept hearing them telling Clara how sweet she was. I love that I could see true joy in her face as she passed them out.

The kids played in the cul-de-sac with all of the neighbor kids (I'm totally jealous of their cul-de-sac, by the way) for a long time. Then we brought out the silly string.



I love this action shot of the silly string.


Robert was enamored with their inflatable nativity. I looked over at one point and he was giving the inflatable baby Jesus a kiss. Too sweet.


We headed back inside for some pizza and then took a quick jaunt to New York to do a little celebrating in Times Square for a few minutes. Love Clara's creepy eyes in this next photo.




Robert dug through cabinets until he found the perfect party hat for himself. The boy knows how to party it up.


The kids had to work for their cheap party favors. These crackers weren't giving up without a fight.


We went back outside so the kids could pop fireworks. I don't know my fireworks, so I have no idea what they were called. I do know this was a sparkler though.


Robert did not like the fireworks. Chris took him and walked a long ways away to watch from a distance and he was ok with that for awhile.



Then he decided to watch from the car. He liked this plan the best.


Clara was jumping on those popper things here.


We got home around 8:30, put Robert to bed and then let Clara stay up until midnight. We played video games and watched something (though I can't recall what). We counted down at midnight, shouted "Happy New Year", gave our kisses and were in bed by 12:05 :)