Popping in the New Year
Last year's activity of popping a balloon every hour or so with an activity on a piece of paper inside was such a big hit last New Year's Eve that I decided to do it again. But first, we needed to have some sort of fun dinner.
Years ago back in Oregon, there had been a night when Jake was working late at the hospital and I was trying to come up with something for dinner for the boys and me. At the time, they were only three and five, so it was always a bit of a trick cooking for 1 and 3/4 people. Ha! So, on the night in question, I decided to raid the fridge for left overs, toss in a variety of sauces for dipping and dub the dinner "Crazy Dipping Dinner". There were things like chicken nuggets and BBQ sauce, meatballs and marinara, veggies and ranch dressing, that sort of thing, but I encouraged the boys to mix 'n match dips to their hearts' delight...and they LOVED it! They spoke of it for years afterward. I just never got around to doing it again, until last night.
So, we started off our evening together with what I decided to rename "Fun-Doo" dinner. Since the boys are not fans of melted cheese for something like actual fondue (blasphemy, I know), we opted for dipping foods in everything else with our skewers. We had lil' smokies, grilled chicken, broccoli, mushrooms and potstickers with BBQ, srirachi and teriyaki sauces, ranch, and ketchup along with mandarin orange slices and grapes with chocolate dipping sauce. The boys went a little bit wild - trying new and disgusting combinations such as lil' smokies in chocolate sauce, but they were loving it and stuffed their faces like I haven't seen in ages. I think we may have a new tradition on our hands.
Then at 6:00pm, the balloon popping began. The boys took turns popping the balloons to see what sort of family fun we would have.
6:00 - Glow stick hide 'n seek (a huge favorite where we take turns hiding the glow sticks around a dark room and then they have to find them all)
7:00 - Watch "Turbo"
8:00 - Intermission and make mini donuts! (We got a donut maker from a neighbor for Christmas, so we christened it by making some apple cider donuts. Yum!)
9:00 - Minute to Win It! (We played "Defying Gravity", "Breakfast Scramble", "Noodling Around", "Stack Attack" and "Cotton Blow". They were a blast.)
10:00 - Family Wii Bowling Tournament (Jake won, of course. But Brendan was a close second - lost by only ONE POINT!)
11:00 - Watch the year in review slideshow I whipped up and then write down our goals for 2014 (one spiritual, one physical, one intellectual, and one emotional/relationship related)
11:50 - Countdown and toast the new year with sparkling grape juice shots! By then, it was just Caleb, Brendan and me. Riley had gone to bed about 10pm (it was a noble effort), and Jake went to bed after the bowling tournament since he had work in the morning. Caleb and Bren really liked doing the toast, though, and were so proud of themselves for making it all the way to midnight. It was a good night. Hopefully, that's a sign for the start of a good year. :)
Years ago back in Oregon, there had been a night when Jake was working late at the hospital and I was trying to come up with something for dinner for the boys and me. At the time, they were only three and five, so it was always a bit of a trick cooking for 1 and 3/4 people. Ha! So, on the night in question, I decided to raid the fridge for left overs, toss in a variety of sauces for dipping and dub the dinner "Crazy Dipping Dinner". There were things like chicken nuggets and BBQ sauce, meatballs and marinara, veggies and ranch dressing, that sort of thing, but I encouraged the boys to mix 'n match dips to their hearts' delight...and they LOVED it! They spoke of it for years afterward. I just never got around to doing it again, until last night.
So, we started off our evening together with what I decided to rename "Fun-Doo" dinner. Since the boys are not fans of melted cheese for something like actual fondue (blasphemy, I know), we opted for dipping foods in everything else with our skewers. We had lil' smokies, grilled chicken, broccoli, mushrooms and potstickers with BBQ, srirachi and teriyaki sauces, ranch, and ketchup along with mandarin orange slices and grapes with chocolate dipping sauce. The boys went a little bit wild - trying new and disgusting combinations such as lil' smokies in chocolate sauce, but they were loving it and stuffed their faces like I haven't seen in ages. I think we may have a new tradition on our hands.
Then at 6:00pm, the balloon popping began. The boys took turns popping the balloons to see what sort of family fun we would have.
6:00 - Glow stick hide 'n seek (a huge favorite where we take turns hiding the glow sticks around a dark room and then they have to find them all)
7:00 - Watch "Turbo"
8:00 - Intermission and make mini donuts! (We got a donut maker from a neighbor for Christmas, so we christened it by making some apple cider donuts. Yum!)
9:00 - Minute to Win It! (We played "Defying Gravity", "Breakfast Scramble", "Noodling Around", "Stack Attack" and "Cotton Blow". They were a blast.)
10:00 - Family Wii Bowling Tournament (Jake won, of course. But Brendan was a close second - lost by only ONE POINT!)
11:00 - Watch the year in review slideshow I whipped up and then write down our goals for 2014 (one spiritual, one physical, one intellectual, and one emotional/relationship related)
11:50 - Countdown and toast the new year with sparkling grape juice shots! By then, it was just Caleb, Brendan and me. Riley had gone to bed about 10pm (it was a noble effort), and Jake went to bed after the bowling tournament since he had work in the morning. Caleb and Bren really liked doing the toast, though, and were so proud of themselves for making it all the way to midnight. It was a good night. Hopefully, that's a sign for the start of a good year. :)
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