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New Year's was a pretty big deal to my kids this year; probably because it gives them an excuse to stay up! The girls rang in the new year, but Eli only made it to 11, which was still much late then I expected! They also got to have friends over this year, and even though one left early and one slept through the party, the girls were still super excited to have them here!
Since it was such a hit with the girls last year, We repeated our balloon countdown this year (I made sure to put them in rainbow order as I was in trouble for that last year). Of course I had to change it up a little. Thanks to a creative reader (thanks Tiffany), I decided to add a little geography to our countdown. So on each slip of paper I wrote "Happy New Year" followed by a country that was celebrating at that time. At first I had grandiose plans of starting as soon was the girls got up in the morning, but I didn't get enough time to organize it, so we started at 7 when the guests arrived.
Our first balloon contained Happy New Year Greenland, and they all got to play a game with their dad. This gave me time to get food prepared; I learned that trick last year. If you need time to prepare something make sure you have a balloon with Daddy's name in it!
Our second balloon was Happy New Year Brazil, and we got out the glow sticks! They had a great time playing around in the dark with them (especially when they wiggled them super fast)!
Our forth balloon was Happy New Year Canada, and we had some colorful, foaming, water table fun!
Our fifth balloon was Happy New Year New York, and we played with some Pom Pom Pool Noodle Poppers (these are based loosely on these marshmallow poppers at Preschool Powol Packets)!
Our final balloon was Happy New Year to us, and we got out champagne poppers, noise makers, and sparkling grape juice. I even edged some of the cups with sprinkles for the kids. Unfortunately they still aren't big fans of sparkling grape juice!
Each time we popped a balloon we taped the slip of paper on the respective country, so the girls could see who was celebrating! It may not have been any big deal, but at least they have been introduced to a few new country names as well as the idea that the time is different all over the world (kind of a hard concept even for me at times)!
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