our own little new year's rockin' eve

We spent New Year's Eve at home and it ended up being an incredible night filled with giggles, music, dancing, and treats.  Basically a whole lot of memory making went down that night.  It was good stuff.

I found several of these kind of printables on Pinterest to let kids fill out but this was my favorite so I recorded Mia & Tyson's answers for them and Avery wrote her own.  So awesome.

We talked a lot about what a special occasion it was, how we had so much to celebrate, and the fact that the next day would be the beginning of a whole new year.  They were so cute and excited about it.  We got fancy and went out to dinner.  We ate at a place called Rib City which we had never eaten before but Jason had been given a gift card so we went for it.  Being fancy in a restaurant called Rib City will definitely get people's attention.  It made Jason and I laugh and feel like good parents (for a few minutes) simply because we know how to have fun with our kids.  That feeling did not last long because our kids decided to act like complete crazies in the restaurant and I feel sure that everyone cheered after we left.

So at least it was a meal we didn't have to cook and clean up after.  We got home, put our pajamas on, and that is when the real party started.

We played a lot of balloon ping-pong which is a favorite around here.

We decided that the kids "midnight" would be at 9:00.  We set the timer to go off every 15 minutes and each time it did, they took turns popping one of the balloons.  They were so funny trying to pop them.  They all tried different ways but usually ended up using a fork to get the job done.

We had constant music going, of course.  It was a dance station on iTunes radio and it was perfect.  You should see my man's moves.  They are serious.

We got really wild, let me tell you.  We took a lot of crazy pictures like these...

Baby Violet was tuckered out at the normal time and was happy to make 7:45 her "midnight".

After Violet was down, the treats came out.  Create your own ice cream sundae and for Tyson, a frozen slushie.

The girls ended up with more toppings than ice cream.  They couldn't believe we were letting them put whatever they wanted on it.  They were so excited.

We played several rounds of Just Dance.  It never fails to make me laugh watching them try to follow the moves.

Basically, the night ended up being perfect despite a rocky start.  Jason and I considered keeping them up even later because we were all having so much fun.  But we didn't want to pay for it the next day so 9:00 it was.

We went to bed that night feeling incredibly thankful for our little family and for our 2013 ending on such a fabulous note.