Happy New Year 2020

We had another fun time ringing in the new year.  We spent the holiday at home in Antigua and made a lot of great memories.

We began New Year's Eve by having lunch at a restaurant that I have wanted to visit for a while.  It was a great choice and I love the memory of going there on a holiday. 

We could not help but laugh when we saw this zig zag on our Waze directions.  This indicates the drive up the mountain that we had to make in order to get there.  It reminded us of our trips to the villages except with a smooth, paved road.

The food was good but my favorite thing of all was the views. They have open patio seating and this is what we saw from our table.  We enjoyed picking out landmarks and even trying to spot our house.  

There are several overlook places around town but I think this is definitely my new current favorite.

New Year's Eve lunch at Cerro San Cristobal.

After eating we spent some time walking around and exploring the grounds.

and of course they ended up in a tree at some point.

Their avocado trees were loaded.  We never ate avocado until we moved to Guatemala and now we love them.

We returned home and I got busy setting things up for our evening party.  For the fifth year in a row now we have been popping balloons on New Year's Eve.  We start at 5:00 and pop one every thirty minutes until midnight.  Inside each balloon I put an activity and some confetti.  It makes a huge mess when they pop but that is part of the fun.  My boys look forward to this night and really love it.  It's a fun family night and the activities keep us busy and entertained until the new year arrives. 

Cruz ready to pop our first balloon.

The first activity was taking family photos.

I found a cute set of photo props at our dollar store.  These were fun!

Next up we made homemade pizzas.

Cruz shaping his dough.

We each chose a number to make and put toppings on.

ready for the oven

This cake was our dessert.

Next we did a yearly review. 

I have the boys fill these out every year.  It will be fun to look back at them one day. 

Game time was next.  Our first game was a puzzle challenge using a cut up cereal box cover.  It was a little harder than it seems.  We each had one minute to try to complete it.

We then did a dice challenge to see how many you could stack on a popsicle stick.

This game involved inflating a balloon and using the air to blow cups across the table.  This was another time challenge game.  I found all of the game ideas online.

Go Ben!

We played New Year's themed bingo.

Ben using a Nerf gun to pop a balloon.  We pushed a needle into the dart and it worked perfectly. 

We made noise makers using paper plates and dried beans and also did a coloring sheet.   We have done both of these activities for several years now.

Next we had fun doing these activities.

Of course Skip Bo had to be on the line-up this year.  It is our current family favorite.

We always have glow stuff.  This year I found these fun inflatable balls at the dollar store.  They played around in the backyard for a while and then we started a game of volleyball using our clothesline as the net.  Ben said it was his favorite part of the night.  I think it was mine too.

I added this reflection sheet this year.  It gave us some good topics to discuss.

The 9:30 balloon sent us outside to pop a few fireworks. 

they love Roman candles

I love this picture of Cruz looking up at some fireworks.

Another fun activity was painting these bird house wind chimes.  This was something else I found at the dollar store.

More late night games.  This one involved using a spoon to transfer cotton balls from one bowl to another. 

I forgot to put a blindfold on but it was still fun (and funny to watch). 

We then used a homemade catapult to launch cotton balls into cups.  We each had one minute to see how many we could get in.

This was our grand finale game that we did at 11:30.  The boys loved this!  I found the idea online. (This website has some great ideas!).  I hot glued cups to a piece of cardboard and hot glued tissue paper to the rims of the cups.  Inside the cups I put small bills as prizes.  You used a Nerf gun to break the paper and get the prize.  It was so much fun!

And then it was time to pop our final balloon.  Happy New Year!!!

We headed outside to watch the fireworks and pop more of ours. The excitement of it all had the boys squealing with joy. 

We came inside around 12:30 and all took showers to wash the smoke smell off.  We then all went to bed.  We were tired and ready!

We began New Year's Day with a pancake breakfast.  I make these themed pancakes for the boys every year. 

We laid around all day watching football and resting.  I made a pot of red beans and rice for lunch and we ate leftovers for supper.  It was a fun, lazy day.

This New Year's balloon tradition is a lot of work for me but it is so much fun.  I love this annual family tradition and the memories that it provides.  I look forward to making more family memories throughout the new year.