We kept our celebrations pretty low key. On New Year's Eve, we spent the morning and early afternoon playing and taking it easy at the house (and doing tons of laundry). The girls are still having so much fun with all their new Christmas toys, so we had a great time. After nap time, we went to Chuck E Cheese to meet the Michie family (Chris, Hannah and Peyton). This is the first time Mia has shown any interest in actually participating in the rides. She usually just loves walking around while taking all the people and activities in. She still did a good bit of that, but she also wanted to try a few rides. Here's a picture of her on the little carousel.
Lily loves the carousel! We rode this three times before she was ready to go and do some of the games. The first game she went to is this ball drop, and you get tickets depending on the number your ball drops into. On Lily's first go-round, she landed on the jackpot and got 100 tickets! That's a great start!
Here's Mia on the Barney ride. It just rocks back and forth a little while playing music and sounds. Mia loved it though. She rode it three or four times and grinned the whole time.
We had been at Chuck E Cheese for about an hour when the big mouse himself came out to greet everyone. Lily, of course, is not really a fan of seeing him so she stayed close to us and away from him. Peyton, though, was caught off guard by him, and it freaked her out. We all decided we go ahead and leave for dinner (after turning in our tickets for prizes of course). We went across the street to Carrabba's which is a pretty good Italian restaurant. Thankfully, it wasn't overly crowded yet, so we had good service which is very important with three hungry little ones at the table! It was a great evening and fun times spent with friends.
When we got home, we played for just a little bit, but then it was bed time, and the girls went down without a problem (as usual). As soon as they went to sleep, Ryan and I set about cleaning up the Christmas decorations which took about an hour or so. Then we decided to rearrange our living room furniture and get some good cleaning in. New year, new look. It still feels a little weird when we first walk in, but it's quickly growing on us. We like the new set-up. By this point, it was nearing midnight, so we settled in to watch Dick Clark's special on tv. It's always fun at this point to think about all the great blessings we received during the year and look forward to the new year ahead. Midnight arrived, we saw the New York ball and the Georgia peach drop and heard the fireworks explode. Lots of fun, and then we remembered we're getting old, so we to bed.
We started out New Year's Day with some freshly-made blueberry muffins which are always a special treat. We decided after Mia's morning nap we would head over to the zoo because we wanted to get out for a bit. It was in the low-40's and a beautifully clear day, so it was a great time to go. There were very few people there which was nice too. Lily was so excited to take her new camera with her. She had a blast taking pictures of all the animals.
The resulting picture of the flamingos. Not bad, huh? Ryan is so proud to have a child who loves to take pictures as much as he does!
I gave Lily a few pointers on how to take pictures.
Our two sweet little meercats. They both enjoyed this exhibit this visit because the meercats were so active; they were running everywhere which the girls loved.
Enjoying a quick snack while we strolled along. Mia is a huge fan of graham crackers (aka "Meme crackers" at our house) while Lily wanted the goldfish. Both girls are happy as they can be when working with full tummies.
So glad the pandas are still here (at least temporarily)! I hope the zoo can raise the funds needed to keep them here instead of sending them back to China. Here is the baby panda eating some bamboo for lunch. Both of the adult pandas were inside sleeping.
Lily kept asking to go to the "zoo petting" which was a first. She has come a long way with these animals! The first few visits she would only look at them, but the last few visits, she has enjoyed gently petting them. This time she couldn't wait to get there. We decided to let Mia go in this time too. Here they are both petting the sheep. When this one walked away, Mia walked straight up to another sheep who was sitting on the ground, squealed with excitement and slammed both hands onto her back. While I don't think it hurt the sheep at all, I think it startled him, so he immediately jumped up and ran away. Mia laughed and looked for more animals! Lily does a great job of gently petting the animals and being mindful of them. Mia however had fun running around the fenced-in area and squealing at the animals.
Here's Mia "petting" the sheep; he's in the process of jumping up right now, and I'm in the process of trying to pull her away from him!
Here's a little pig that we tried to pet.
Just trying to keep up with Mia as she ran around and found animals!
This was a very fun visit; I am so glad we bought the annual passes!
We got home and all took little naps to rest from our morning adventures. I also flipped through a magazine, and I saw an end table that we thought would look good in our newly arranged living room. Then I saw it was only $7 at Ikea, so we decided to head down there after nap time which thrilled Lily; she loves Ikea. When we got there, we decided to go ahead and let the girls eat dinner so they wouldn't be hungry while we shopped. Ikea runs a special where you can get any three kid items for $2.50, so I got a variety of things for them to share and paid. Actually, it was kids eat free day, so the total came to $1.37 for the yogurt; 6 items for $1.37 is not a bad deal! Mia loved the steamed carrots and butternut squash while Lily munched happily on the yogurt and PBJ sandwich and drank her milk. Neither girl particularly cared for the applesauce or penne with marinara, but for $1.37, I wasn't too upset. We found the table we were looking for (actually we bought two of them), and then found a few other things in the kid section that will be helpful. This place is a mad house, but they have some cool items and lots of great deals, so we were pleased.
We got home and put the girls to bed, and then Ryan and I made a delicious dinner to celebrate the new year. I made baked potatoes while Ryan made his incredibly delicious filets stuffed with garlic herb cheese and wrapped in pancetta. I told Ryan that I might die 10 years younger, but I think I could happily eat that every evening. It is so good! This was definitely a wonderful way to end the first day of 2o1o!
We are looking forward to a great year, and we wish all of you reading this a wonderful year too! May we be blessed with good health and lots of time making great memories with family and friends!
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