New Year's Eve

We broke our typical tradition of movies, games and munchies and decided to do something different this year.  A work friend of Blake's gave us tickets to a hockey game in a VIP suite.  (Holy cow!  So this is how the "other half" lives, huh?!)  The kids and I were skeptical to go, but I decided to give it a try.  We had a blast!  We had our own private suite with couches and a tv and cushy leather seats.  We also had catered appetizers, cotton candy and all you can eat popcorn with fancy flavored salts.  And the mascot came to visit the kids a few times during the game.  At first, Katie didn't see the mascot and he bent down to give her a kiss.  She turned her head and freaked out that some monsterish thing was in her face.  Then she saw that it was a horse and she was happy because she loves horeses, but it was sure funny to see her reaction.  The girls really got into the game and danced and screamed.  I think Lydia added at least a few decibels to the stadium all by herself.  That girl can be loud!  Caleb absolutely LOVED it.  He's such a boy and seeing all that tough-guy hockey really intrigued him.   He said in his rough-boy voice, "I'm gonna put skates on and skate on that ice.  And I will step on all those people down there."  OK then Mr. Tough Guy!  We all had a lot of fun!

Look how much Caleb liked it:

He thought it was cool that you could see hockey players on the huge screen above us.  He told me he was going to jump up and touch that big screen because he's a big boy.

We were all super tired when we got home a little after 11pm, but they were determined to stay up till midnight.  Based on this picture, I don't think it's gonna happen.  (Notice they all have their beloved Pillow Pets that now go everywhere with us.)

Nathan made it till midnight, but just barely.  He's so much like his Dad in this aspect.  They can and do stay up late for 80% of the year, but when they're "supposed to" stay up, they rebel and suddenly become tired.  Nathan almost fell asleep at about 11:30.  Blake fell asleep at about 11:50, but told me I couldn't post any pictures of him sleeping.

Michael takes advantage of any and every chance to play video games!  I had to tell him when to go to bed, or he would have played all night.

 Lydia and Elizabeth made it till about 11:30 and then both of them asked to go to bed.  lol.  Katie and Anna stayed up till midnight though.

And so did Nathan, just barely.  Mr. Night Owl isn't a night owl on NYE!

And Katie just barely made it too.

It was a fun night!