New Years Eve

We had such a fun New Years Eve this year. The Zoo is free the last Wednesday of the month from November through February. The last Wednesday of the month fell on New Years Eve last month, so I decided to take the kids to the Zoo. Neither Adam nor Hailey wanted to go, so we left the baby with them and Maggie and Logan and I set out for the Zoo in the 30 degree weather. We stopped at my Mom's house to pick up my younger sister, Erin. The last time I went to the zoo on a Free day, it was packed, and considering it was a Holiday, I was worried it would be really crowded, but when we got there there was hardly any one there! (Yes I know it's winter, and "who in their right mind goes to the Zoo in the winter?", but free is free.)
We had so much fun! A lot of the animals who are hot and lethargic in the summer were really active and fun to see. The cougars and the lynx (The big tiger-like animals with the black tufts of fur on their ears) were really fun to see. The weather wasn't too bad for December, and we spent at least half of the time in the (heated) small animal house any way, so there weren't any whining, freezing children.





Erin, Maggie and Logan in the Tropical rainforest place that used to be the butterfly house, then was the White Alligator Exhibit, but was just stupid and empty this time.
Logan gave it a big "thumbs -up"anyway!



Logan and Maggie in front of the elephants. The elephant is eating 4 Christmas trees! I didn't know elephants liked pine trees, but surprisingly a lot of the animals were snacking on them.


Logan, me and Maggie in the small animal house where the tropical birds are. They just fly around freely. I wonder if any one ever gets pooped on?



It wouldn't be a trip to the Zoo without posing in front of the gorilla statue. Erin does a great gorilla, don't you think?



When we were all done we sat on a bench in the snow and drank hot chocolate and ate microwave popcorn we brought from home. We sat and watched them turn on some of the lights for the Zoo Lights exhibit that night. We'll have to go to Zoo Lights next year. It was really cool!


That night, Hailey and Maggie hosted their 2nd annual New Years Eve pizza-pajama party with the girls their age in the neighborhood. We had a dozen bouncing, SCREAMING 6-9 year old girls in the house eating pizza and skittles, playing charades and watching Horton Hears a Who. After the movie, we gave each girl their own bag of glitter and a noise maker, and we went out in the front yard and threw our confetti and yelled "Happy New Year"! Ok, so it was only 9 o'clock, but it was fun any way.

Logan went to bed and Hailey and Maggie stayed up watching movies in the basement while Adam and I watched Fred Clause in our room and tried to eat as much Christmas junk as we could. At midnight, we counted down on the front porch and lit sparklers. My neighbors down the street were lighting fireworks, so we invited ourselves to join them.
Adam and I stayed up until 2:00 watching a dumb movie on the satellite, and regretted it in the morning. So not worth it! Have you ever noticed there are never any good movies on TV on New Years Eve? Someone should do something about that!




The pizza party.



The movie watching.



See the confetti? :)



More confetti throwing.


The next day, we did nothing and that was really boring, but that's OK, 'cause we had a lot of fun the day before.

On Saturday, I took down all of my Christmas decorations. It makes me a little sad to have every thing put away, but I also love how clutter free every thing feels. And Adam humored me by moving the piano for me so I could re-arrange the furniture in the front room. We've been in this house for almost 2 years and I've re-arranged like 4 times. I think I really like it this time, and maybe we'll keep it this way. (Until I have to move things around for the Christmas tree to fit again next year that is).

Now I'm ready for life to get back to "normal". If we can manage "normal".