New Year's Eve Shindig

Beau and I hosted our very first NYE party! But not just any NYE party - one with kiddos! We had 10 adults and 5 babies (including ourselves) and had a ball! I learned a lot from this party - mostly because we were hosting what was ultimately a play date but still planned it with an adult party mindset - ha! All in all, I think everyone had a great time and we hope to do it again next year - with just a few changes. Here is my short list of lessons learned:

• Put your makeup on! Good grief - who forgets to put makeup on for their own party?!
• Take the "adorable kids with goofy hats" picture when everyone first arrives. Who waits until their own kid goes down for the night? Me. Of course it didn't help that he crashed ridiculously early.
• Everyone brought something and it was a HUGE help! And it was all SO good!
• We should have started earlier. It was no secret that the party wasn't going until midnight so why not start earlier so that the parents kids can play longer? Done.
• People always migrate towards the kitchen. Unless there are babies and toys then it's the living room floor! We focused way too much on our kitchen when we should have made the living room the hang out place. Thus, we should have moved the gigantic play pen that took up 1/2 the floor space so that people could actually move. Noted.
• There is a level of distraction with children that I have simply never experienced. From forgetting to put things out (hello, sandwich tray!) to forgetting to tell the non-drinkers about our yummy hot chocolate station to not even getting out sauces for some of the foods - goodness! In addition, Beau and I were both trying to play host while our friends were left babysitting our fussy child! 
• Maybe next year wine sippy cups for the adults? Again, because we were all on the floor, wine and champagne glasses had no home. We do have tons of the stemless wine glasses - should've used those! I always wondered what those were good for ;-)

I feel better now that I documented these so that I can look back for next year! Here are some pics:


Our various centerpieces at the end of the night (another thing we forgot to do - more pictures in the beginning):

I can't really tell you if the kids or parents were the more entertaining part ;-)

 The final product, which I stole from Annie's blog since we didn't get one of all 4 kids  (left to right: Cole, Emmie, Piper, Liam (not pictured: Grayson & the baby still baking in Annie's belly):

Maybe Grayson will make an appearance in the photos next year!


Happy New Year - I can't wait to see everything that 2011 has in store for us, our family and friends!