New Years Eve Celebration 2014

 Seven bright blue balloons were labeled with a time- the top of each hour. When the clock struck the hour, we took turns popping the balloons with Justin's blow dart gun.

 The darts smoothly blew out of the hollow barrel with a wet click and would sail through the air and instantaneously pierce a balloon.  The balloon would burst open and a little note would fly out.  The boys would scramble to get the note and read it contents.

The night went a bit like this....

Mammy and Papa came over to get the night going.

Pre warm up- Remote control helicopter training.  By far a favorite Christmas gift was getting plenty of use.

6:00- Pizza dinner

7:00- Balloon animals and balloon volleyball in the living room

8:00- Make corn flake wreaths.  These were made with cornflakes, marshmallows, a bit of butter, and red hots.  Super yummy!

9:00- Family Movie but really the boys continued playing balloon volleyball.

10:00- Make homemade bouncy balls. This was really fun and worked a ton better than I thought.  I got the kit at Hobby Lobby.

11:00- Dance Party!

12:00- Watch the ball drop on TV.  Side note: The costumes the performers wore were so immodest that Justin had to keep changing the channel and we completely missed the ball dropping!  It turned out to be pretty funny!

Under the Tree Lights....

 December by far is one of the busiest months of the year but there is always room to fit in a Christmas Tree sleepover.

The boys had a huge pile of books they read and stayed up a bit too long and got louder and louder. The excitement of the season was getting to them.  We threatened to send them back to their bedrooms if they could not settle down but instantly they forced themselves into a calm state and eventually fell asleep dreaming of sugar plum fairies and all things Christmas.

Christmas Cookies

Mammy hosted her annual Christmas cookie decorating session.  While we were busy with the cookies Dad and Papa took advantage of the gorgeous weather and strung up  lights on the outside of their house

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 Nathan was so speedy that he had finished up with his cookies and decided to watch a Christmas movie downstairs while the die hard decorators finished up the batches.  Lots of gooey green frosting and sprinkles made its was onto soft sour cream trees. Yum- Seriously, nothing compares to Mammy's soft sour cream cookie recipe. 

Chatfield Botanic Gardens

 Do you know who always has something up their sleeve?  Mammy!

She was able to get us free tickets to the lights at the Chatfield Botanic Gardens.

We blind folded the boys and drove them to the surprise lights.  When they took of the blind folds, they gasped.

We walked through the lit park and enjoyed every second!

 I'm pretty sure our favorite part was getting warm while touring the oldest house this side of Chatfield.

(look close, I'm pretty sure there are two boys peeking out)