Last year my husband had to work 6pm to 6am on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. What a way to ring in the New Year! I decided to make it a fun party for the kids like my mom used to do for my brother, sister and I every year. The only difference is that my mom bought candy, rented a movie, bought frozen pizzas and popcorn and left us with a babysitter while her and my dad always went out to celebrate with friends! Since I wasn’t going out and I WAS the babysitter I also wanted to make it an easy evening on myself where there was something constantly keeping the kids busy. I had seen balloon countdown ideas on Pinterest and decided that would be the perfect way to keep the kids busy and give me chances to surprise them with little games and activities. 
I blew up six balloons and stuck a bell and tag into each balloon – we were literally RINGING in the New Year! The balloons started at 6pm and the last one was for 12pm. Each tag had an activity or game written on it. We had tags for-
- Movie and popcorn
- Silly string fight
- Pots and pans band – (go outside and bang on pots and pans with wooden spoons – something I did as a kid)
- Sparklers
- Make a toast – we toasted with sparkling grape juice
- Ring in the New Year! – we watched the ball drop on TV and used our noisemakers.
There are tons of ways to create big memories with your kids that don’t involve a lot of money or extravagant parties. This year my husband has to work on New Years from 6am-6pm but has New Year’s Eve off and when we were talking about what we were going to do (we are celebrating at home as a family since he has to be up early) the boys recalled trying to pop the balloons by trying to sit on them last year. Doing the balloon countdown is definitely something we are going to do again this year and I am sure we will do it for years to come!
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