Happy New Year 2013

New Years Eve Party

We began our New Years Eve by going over to my mom and Jim's house for a party.  They had so many amazing things to snack on.  My mom always does a terrific job finding new appetizers and delicious foods to try.  I brought along some hourly countdown bags for the kids to participate with during the party to keep them entertained (I love the ideas I get from Pinterest!!).  I decided that it would be a good idea to have something since we had 3 toddler/preschool kids and 3 babies at the party.  As it turned out, Makenna and her friend Brielle ended up playing upstairs with the quints dolls most of the time anyways so the bags were mostly unused.  After a little while the girls came back downstairs and we did open up one of the bags to make a special New Years hats and decorated them.  Wyatt showed up around that time too and so all three of the toddler/preschool aged kids made hats.

Kyler enjoyed playing with his little buddies Benjie and Teagan too.  Although he was only just figuring out how to get onto his hands and knees and rock while his friends could move around by crawling very well (good motivation).

We all celebrated with the East Coast midnight ball drop so that we didn't have to stay up late with the little ones.  Unfortunately, we didn't look for the ball drop television program early enough so we only saw the very end celebration, but the kids really didn't care.  We gave them musical instruments and they shook those noisy things to their heart's content.

Next year we will make sure to have the program on earlier so that we can see the ball drop and do the "official" count down.  Most of us headed home at that point to put our tired kiddos to bed.  Plus, we had an early morning wake-up for the Rose Parade.

Rose Parade

Since I had taken Makenna last year to the Rose Parade and she had so much fun, I wanted to make sure that we were able to go again this year.  This year it was my mom, Makenna, Kyler, and I that went to the parade.  We woke up early and drove down to the parade area.  We were really lucky and got a "close" parking spot; that is, closer that we had ever parked before.  That made it especially nice since we were having to carry lots of stuff and the kids (Ok...one kid could walk on her own but the other had to be held).  We arrived there later than we usually do so we had to go further down the parade route to find a place to set up our chairs, but we did finally find a spot.  Then we waited and waited for the parade to begin.  Makenna passed the time by playing on grandma's iPhone.

During this time we did have one total stranger come up to us and ask if they could hold Kyler so they could get a picture with him...to which my response was a quick NO!!  I do have to admit he did look pretty cute in his totally warm bear outfit.

It was cold out there, but not as bad as we thought that it would be and by the end of the parade we were even able to take off our coats and bear outfit:-)  Kyler was the most fascinated by the bands at the parade and Makenna liked the floats, horses, color guard, and the sanitation crew picking up the horse messes:-)  We weren't as impresed by the floats this year, but I am sure that the economy plays a role in that.  As the parade was close to ending we packed up our stuff and started heading back to the car before we had to walk along with the sea of people.  We had to coax/drag Makenna back to the car because she was so overly tired and just wanted to be held on our walk back but unfortunately our arms were too full to meet that request.  Our drive home was LONG...well let me restate that...our drive to get onto the freeway was LONG:-)  I think it took us about an hour to just get onto the freeway although it did allow the kids time to get in a 2-hour nap which was much needed.  And since we always jump at the opportunity to hang out with family and friends we went back to our house for a party which had already begun.

New Years Day Party

Toby had to set up the party on his own because I didn't anticipate that we would be so late getting back home.  We had some friends and family over to play board games, hang out, and watch the Rose Bowl  game on television.  Makenna loved playing with her cousins, as usual.  And Kyler was all about showing off how he could get on his hands and knees and rock.

The food worked out perfectly too because in addition to the snacks that we had planned for the party, my mom brought over all of the leftover food from her party the night before, which was way better then any of the stuff we had:-)  Makenna thoroughly enjoyed the desserts (And will totally hate me later for posting this picture).

Kyler, as at every party, went to sleep early from the over stimulation and the busyness of the two days.  Around 7pm we said good-bye to everyone and went to bed a little while later exhausted.  So much partying and so much fun!!