Craftibilities: apples to apples

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Last year I started this BALLOON COUNTDOWN and it was a huge hit.

The kids loved it so much so we are making it an annual tradition. We originally planned to let the boys invite some friends over for a New Year's Eve sleepover but we had a GINGERBREAD DECORATING PARTY right before Christmas. Maybe next year. So when I say NYE party, I mean just the four of us.

The boys woke up to a giant collage of photos to look back on our awesome 2013. I can't do anything small {{cue husband shaking his head}} :) These numbers are huge!! I love how they turned out and would be so cute for a birthday or anniversary.

The boys LOVED it! 220 photos of everything we did during 2013....everything! A few unfortunate things were included as well. (BOTH kids breaking teeth and emergency root canals. UGH!!!)

It made me realize that I take all the photos but sometimes forget to show them. They spent the entire day looking at this collage.

Instead of using a sharpie on the balloons for the times, I printed tags this year.

I'm getting FANCY!

I rolled the paper strips of activities and put them in the balloon before blowing them up.

Used double sided tape to add the times to the outside before hanging.

It went from one end of the living room to the kitchen. So hard to get a full photo.

They were so ready and waiting under the first balloon.

We didn't end up making cookies but dipped and decorated them. I wanted something easy and since we were just finishing dinner and this worked out perfect.

We used edible HOLOGRAPHIC glitter.

Ooooohhh AAhhhhh! These pictures don't even come close to showing how amazing the glitter looked.

Time to make miniature masterpieces.

I found cute mini canvases with little easels at Micheal's craft store. Awwwww! So cute!

Then I turned to another isle and found even smaller tiny canvases.

The boys decided to paint the mini canvases because of the easel.

Had to put their mini masterpieces on display.

He couldn't even wait until I took the picture to start eating. He LOVES shrimp!

Pictures speak for themselves. They had so much fun and the silly string was glow-in-the-dark!

The boys received a huge magic kit for Christmas and learning all these cool trick. I thought it would be fun to have them put on a magic show for us. I told them a couple days in advance to practice three tricks for the show.

It's 9:05 -TIME FOR A MAGIC SHOW! I ended up videoing the entire thing so no pics.

It was really cute.

After the magic show we had fun with our DIY photobooth.

The boys love this game.

Next year they asked to play Monopoly. Haha! I told them we would only need one balloon for the entire countdown. Lol!

We did a series of Minute to Win it games for a sleepover that was a huge hit. We did a smaller version for NYE. This was one of their favorites and mine too.

FACE THE COOKIE: Place a cookie on your forehead and with only facial expressions (no hands) try to get the cookie into your mouth.

I don't think the video is even watchable with me laughing so hard.

We planned to light fireworks a little earlier but when planning the countdown times, I didn't leave enough time between activities. We went outside after our toast.

The boys had apple cider and glasses dipping chocolate and sprinkles.

I kinda went a little overboard on the chocolate so they had LOTS of sprinkles.

This was a great idea to make sure they didn't confuse our glasses with their glasses.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Now for the FIREWORKS!!!

They were ready!!!

I love the next photo. OH MY!!! These roman candles were AWESOME and HUGE!!!!

BIG AMERICAN WHIRLWIND CANDLES

Awesome, right!?

Hubby in the action too.

SO MUCH FUN!

Doing this countdown makes the evening fly by so fast. Definitely no chance of anyone falling asleep or even speaking of sleep. The boys didn't even get in bed until 1:30am!!!

We all slept until noon the next day. Perfect lazy day to start the new year!

Happy New Year from Rolo!

Don't be fooled by his "help me now" look. He had lots of treats during the evening and tried to photo bomb most photos. He was even howling (his singing) while we sang Auld Lang Syne or while we tried to remember all the words. I'm sure he was howling in protest of our poor rendition.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!