New Years Eve with children
New years eve is not really a big thing for children and I must confess, I am not a big fan of New Year either. When I was child free and single I really wasn’t interested in going out to pubs or clubs, the only New year I really went to town was for the millennium. I happened to be in Australia at that time, so we celebrated at Sydney harbour. Now when you have done that, nothing really compares, it was amazing!!!
Now we have children, I am more than happy to stay at home. What we like to do is have friends round for dinner. Our friends all have children too, so everyone comes to our house, bringing a course of food each. The children have a sleep over together, which they love, while us adults have a lovely dinner party through midnight. It’s a win all round!
This year was no exception, the children came round to play for a while, before having dinner together (pizza was chosen). Straight after dinner the children immediately went upstairs and got into their pyjamas and brushed their teeth all by themselves, as they were all so excited to be sleeping over! We couldn’t believe it! They were in bed by 6.30pm!!! Well, actually, yes they were physically in bed, but of course it took a long time for them to settle (which we all knew it would).
We were up and down the stairs numerous times throughout the evening, however it was not a big problem, as the children were meant to have fun too. The younger children settled and slept at around 8.30pm while the older three calmed down after 9pm. All in all it was not too bad.
We had a lovely adult evening catching up and chatting too.
Hubby and I had 6 children over night who were up again at 6am!!! We had only gone to bed about 3am! I was sooooooo tired! They were all pretty good though and played for a while after breakfast. In the afternoon it was decided we all needed to get out for a walk, so we headed to our local lake.
There we found some pretty enormous muddy puddles to wade in, mud to squelch in and ducks to feed. BB even tried feeding the geese from his hand, it was lovely to see his confidence with the birds.
The children all had a play in the playground, down the slide, up the ladders, balancing the assault course and tackling the zip wire. Everyone had fun together. There’s really nothing like spending New Year with friends!
We all had a lovely new year and enjoyed a very much needed walk with fresh air and exercise!
New Year’s Eve is completely different with kids! But it’s great to meet friends and just spend time together. Love the pictures of the lake, it’s so lovely!
That’s what I think of new years eve now, just a good chance to catch up with friends
this sounds like a great way to spend New Years (maybe minus the 3 hours sleep!) we never really do anything for NYE but i like to idea of having friends over, might do that next year. #LetKidsBeKids
It is a lovely way to bring in the new year and a good excuse to get together
We also tend to have quieter New Year’s Eves (not that we were ever that raucous to begin with) – we either have a couple of friends round for dinner or, as we did this year, we visit friends for dinner and games. Nothing wrong with that as far as I’m concerned – a games evening is a real luxury for us!
Funnily enough we’ve also seen in New Year overlooking Sydney Harbour, although in our case it was 2001 rather than 2000. It was odd calling home, where it was still lunchtime on NYE!
Evening with friends is the best!
I remember calling home, saying happy new year, when they hadn’t had it yet!
What a lovely way to spend the new year – love the photos from your walk too. How lovely to have been able to see in the millennium in Sydney – can’t really top that one!
Thank you, seeing the millennium in in Sydney was amazing
I’m not a fan of New Year either, and no I can’t imagine anything beats Y2K in Sydney! It is different with kids, and looks like you all had the perfect time x
New year to me is just the perfect excuse to catch up with friends for a great evening
I’m with you on the New Year thing too. We keep it very low key. A walk in the park with fresh air sounds perfect, especially with lots of little people in tow
The walk on new year was definitely worth the effort after a sleepless night and everyone enjoyed it.
You did well on 3 hours sleep! I always used to be somewhere nice and warm for New Years Eve but not these days. I did go to the London Eye in 2008 which was wonderful for the atmosphere and I do love fireworks. It was a quiet one at home for me this year though.
I can’t believe I got through the day on 3 hrs sleep!
Sounds like a lovely NY. We usually go to my parents who have a big party and the kids doze on the sofa or on their bed. This year my dad had a broken ankle so no party, which was not a bad thing as we have a newborn as well. We were all in bed by 9pm!
I don’t blame you, if friends hadn’t been here we would have been in bed by then too
This sounds like such a lovely idea! Great fun for kids and adults and love the puddle jumping
xx
Thank you, we all had a good time
Sounds like a really lovely night. We did something similar with our friends, except we didn’t host. I am a real scaredy cat when it comes to geese though I couldn’t feed them! #letkidsbekids
I’m with you on the geese front, I can’t believe BB did that!
That sounds like my idea of New Year, what a lovely fun walk x
It was a lovely new year
It sounds like you had a perfect evening and following day (although I would have been too scared to feed the geese myself). We missed New Year by 10 minutes because someone had paused the tv and we hadn’t noticed the correct time! x
Oh no! Haha! well miss timing new year is something you’ll look back on and laugh about and always remember
That sounds like the perfect New Year’s to me Karen. WOW Australia at the millennium you really can’t beat that. We are the same always with friends and always stay in. Even before we had kids we always stayed in. I find it so much better. Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me. #sharewithme
I love staying in for new year too.
Sounds like a great way to spend celebrating the New Year if you ask me (though some more sleep may be nice hehe) #savouringtheseason
It was great, but yes, definitely more sleep would have been even better
Awwww what a nice day! A trip outside is a nice way to greet the New Year =) #sharewithme
It was a lovely walk with friends, the best way to spend the day
That puddle looks ace…I’d have to have a jump myself!!!
X
The children couldn’t wait to get stuck in!
What a lovely sounding New Year. I love a wintery walk on New Years Day, feels like it’s blowing the old year away. Great pictures!
Thank you, a walk for new year is a great way to start a fresh
Sounds like you have the perfect New Years routine in place there! And I suppose lack of sleep is part and parcel of welcoming in the new year! So glad it was special for you all… will be sorry not to have you popping over every Thursday. Thank you SO much for being such a dedicated linker to #SavouringtheSeason I’ll still be popping over! xx
Thank you for hosting each week, I have enjoyed your linky.
We don’t do new year’s eve, but we always go to a friends with other families (there’s usually around 20 of us) for lunch. It’s always a great day, and it’s lovely to see the kids of all ages playing together.
Nice to think the sleepover idea might work in future.
New years day with friends is a lovely thing to do.
Looks like my kind of relxed New Years Day, it is so tricky to manage New Years Eve with young children but looks like the fresh air helped combat the lack of sleep. Thanks for sharing with me on Country Kids