Ringing in the New Year

Wow... I don't know what happened in January, but the month completely flew by.  So I am forcing myself to sit down and publish this post.  Hopefully the rest of the posts for January will be coming shortly.

We had a fun little New Year's Party with some friends from the MBA program.  We enjoyed some chocolate fondue...

And the kids made noisemakers (like these) and party hats (instructional video here).  To make assembly easier, Cat and I had prepared all of the supplies in advance - painting the ribbon spools for the noisemakers and cutting out the circles & dangles for the hats.

Ben and our friend Matt had made a great balloon drop by taping the corners of a white sheet up to the ceiling, but somehow one of the kids pulled the sheet down before "midnight" and the sheet didn't want to stay up after that... so here is everyone trying to re-fill the balloon drop and hold it up at the same time.

Ben and Matt held the sheet until "midnight" at 8pm.  (We watched Australia's New Year's countdown on the laptop.... gotta love the internet!)

Happy New Year!

Of course, the kids LOVED the balloons.  Lots of fun ensued...

And what New Year's celebration would be complete without a sparkling apple juice toast?

All the kids + party hats and balloons.

On New Year's Day I tried something I've never done before.  I made pancakes to spell out 2012 by thinning my pancake batter a bit, then putting it in a zip-top bag and piping the batter out of a snipped corner.  Turned out pretty well, and a simple and fun way to celebrate the beginning of a new year!

And so far, it's been a good one.

PS> Most of the ideas for our party came from my awesome friend Kathryn, so Kathryn, if you're reading this, thanks for being so awesome, for being my friend, and for sharing your ideas!