Happy New Year!

New Years Eve....

...I've always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with New Years Eve.

We are not heavy drinkers, so celebrating with a bunch of friends who drink way too much and finishing the night as the only sober ones in the room has never been much fun.

I do, however, love the celebration of closing out a year of ups, downs, and so-sos to begin a new year of unknowns!

New Years with children definitely adds a new flavor to the mix.

No matter how late you stay up, you will still be getting up at 6am the next morning when those little feet come waddling into your bedroom. And when you get to that point in life- staying up late is just not worth it.

So what did we do on New Years eve?

Well we hired a couple of Shawn's swimmers to watch the boys (these girls are seriously the best babysitters EVER!!) and caught an early movie. (the new Mission Impossible- I highly recommend it!)

Then came home in time to grab the boys and head downtown to ImaginEve at Hy-Vee Hall.

(it is a free event put on by GuideOne insurance- we really had no idea what we would be walking in to)

Kallen had decided not to take a nap that day so he immediately passed out in the car.



And remained asleep all the way into HyVee Hall.

But once we were inside it only took one look around and he snapped up ready to play!

Now, if we did not have toddlers, then my review of this event would be: An entire night of standing in long lines to play on gross, germ filled bounce houses.

But, because we have toddlers we were able to stick to the toddler area (a section of about 5 germ filled bounce houses) and the lines were really not too bad!

One of us would stand in line, while the other would follow the boys around until it was their turn.

They had a Blast!!!

Lincoln was content to just run around and watch Kallen, until we finally persuaded him to try this one in which he just sat there afraid to move. :)

Kallen, on the other hand, was so brave! Running around, trying everything, and before we left we even let him try out one of the big slides. (I was proud of him- even the big kids were struggling to climb the big ladder that led to the top)

A couple carnival games- rewarded by a couple fish tattoos and our night was complete!

I am not sure if we will try this event next year. We all came down with the 24-hour flu which I am blaming entirely on that night.

I read a cute idea in a magazine about having a kids new years party, complete with setting the clocks ahead so that midnight just happens to fall at bedtime. :P Then the kids go to bed, and the adults can have some fun!

We did have a great New Years though- and I hope you all did too!