New Year's Eve Countdown

New Year's can have the tendency to be anti-climatic when you're a kid and you go to bed at 7pm.  I decided to do a special countdown with the kids this year to give them an opportunity to join in the fun.  I made a paper bag to open each hour between 3 and 7pm.  When Livi woke up from her nap it was time to open the first bag!  The first activity was decorating party hats.  They really got into this and so did Grandma and Grandpa.  They used stickers, ribbon, pom-poms, and markers to customize their hats.  

Toddler Tantrum

Our second activity was a Treasure Hunt.  Each time had to find all of the things on the lists.  They did well and had fun.  Next time I could've made the list a little longer as this was all done in about 7 minutes!  It was fun regardless!

Our third activity was making their own homemade "snow." We used 1/2 cup hair conditioner to 2 cups baking soda and mixed it together in a big pan.  They could make snowballs in the snow and enjoyed squishing it around. But, it made a big mess!  Nothing a broom and a rag couldn't fix, but still...

Our fourth activity was to make homemade noisemakers.  They decorated two paper plates and then stapled them together with some nuts inside.  We attached a popsicle stick and voila - the perfect not-too-noisy noisemaker to welcome the new year!

Our final activity for the big event at 7pm was a balloon drop!  Mom and I attached a sheet of wrapping paper to our ceiling fan in the living room and filled it up with balloons.  When the countdown ended, I pulled the rip-cord and down came all the balloons onto the excited kiddos. It worked great and they had a blast!

The adults spent the rest of the evening playing games and visiting and since we're getting old, we used the New York countdown as our official countdown, so we could head to bed.  Happy New Year, everybody!