New Year's Eve

We are so lucky to have some pretty great friends (hello Dotson family!)

that invited us over for a kid friendly New Year's Eve. 

I went into it with low expectations (you know my motto) 

and remarked to Rob on the way home about

how great everything turned out. 

 Our hosts provided some delicious pizza from 

a local place for dinner and I supplemented with 

a cheese tray (I LOVE CHEESE) and brownies for dessert. 

 While they have a play place in their attic (so cool!),

we spent most of our time in their family room....

chillin...playing trains...building legos...

blowing party horns...

having dance parties....pushing balloons around...

and watching the kids run wild!

Max was in love with his green balloon 

and even more excited when Lynn told him he could

take it home. 

(RIP balloon though when he insisted we 

bring it to Auntie Stacy's house and Penny

put her jaws on it). We have moved on though...

and got a replacement balloon!

 It's so heartwarming to be able to 

hang out with one of my oldest and dearest 

friends and now have our own kids playing 

together.  Like, what?  Weren't we just

riding together to our high school football

game...and talking about how weird our parents were?

 At about 9:00 we popped some bottles

(sparkling juice for the kids).

They "cheered" with their glasses and we

 put on the Netflix King Julien countdown.

Whoever thought of this idea is a total genius. 

The countdown lasted about three minutes

and the kids were running around in their jammies, 

throwing the balloons, and generally just carrying on

thinking it was midnight. 

Jokes on you kids! 

Max fell asleep in the car on the way home 

and stayed asleep for the transfer to his bed. 

Total score. Rob and I stayed up a bit longer...

and then called it a night. Win Win (even if we

didn't make it to see the ball drop). 

I sure hope this is a tradition we can continue!

Happy 2016!

p.s. the next morning, Max insisted on putting his 

train track on the floor (just like Will and Tom)

and now refers to Will as "his best friend". 

It's adorable.