New Years Eve

We had the funnest New Year's Eve I think we have ever had. We aren't much of late night people so usually we just go to bed. Plus Dave s always working New Years since he is one of the few people who doesn't care about drinking.

This year our neighbor's invited us to do a new years party with them.  The families involved in planing were Mike and Mandy Hansen who live directly next door to us, and Myles and Rishelle Scott who live a few blocks away. We decided it'd be fun to have the kids at my house and the adults at the Hansens. We tried to get a babysitter to come hang with the kids but then when that didn't work out we decided the kids were old enough to fend for themselves since we were just a few steps away. We kept Calvin with us, watching his choice of a movie so he didn't have to be in a girl dominated world. We left Brinley (age 10) and Clare (age 9) in charge of the others, with Lexey (age 6) and Ellie (age 7) as assistants. The older girls were very happy to have the responsibility and felt very important. We left a couple of cell phones with the girls so they could be in communication with us over small matters and told them that in the case of someone being hurt or in danger they could RUN over and get us.  Clare text a few times asking "can the kids have popcorn when they are done with dinner" and things like that. One time, Maddie got hurt (not seriously, just fell down) so they ran over to get us. It was SO GREAT.  At the adult house we had a sit down dinner WITH NO KIDS BOTHERING US and then played games and talked and talked. It was amazing.    The kids were happy the entire time. We marvelled at how, if the kids were with us, they would have needed attention and complained about various problems and yet without us there they did great on their own. We are all thinking we should make this a regular thing!  Also, the kids did not make any major messes and did a great job being very responsible. I am proud of them.

I put Jo to bed around 11pm (she had napped until almost 5 that afternoon), Calvin put himself to bed around 9:30pm. The Thuerer's went home about 11:30. The rest of us stayed up to dance in the new year and then go out into the street to bang pots and pans at midnight! The girls thought it was great. Clare was going strong. Lex was a little tired around 11:30 and probably could have fallen asleep if Mike and Myles hadn't started a dance party.

Adults:
Dave and Denise Gonda  (dave was on call but didn't get called in)
Mike and Mandy Hansen with baby Soren
Myles and Rishelle Scott with newborn Nolan
Matt and Rachel Thuerer

Kids
Calvin (11) Clare (9) Alexey (6) Jo (3) Gonda
Brinley (10) Ellie (7) Warren (4) Scott
Ella (8) and Peter (5) Thuerer


The next day my kids slept in much later than usual waking at 8:30 Calvin, 930 Jo, 10 Clare and 11 Alexey.