NYE/NY Day 2014-2015

For NYE, we did our traditional adult dinner out, followed by Basement Olympics at the Rudd's. This year our reservation at 1818 Chophouse was pretty early, so Krista planned a boys vs. girls scavenger hunt in town to take up some time.  

One of the items on the hunt was to find Josh Busch's doppleganger.  I had spotted this man when he walked into the restaurant and even thought to myself, he looks a little bit like Josh.  Little did I know he would be our first picture!  He was a good sport and his whole table thought it was hilarious. Some other items we had to check off our list were high-fiving a statue, a group selfie with a lighted reindeer, two members going down a slide, group pyramid, using our bodies to spell Joy, getting a picture with someone named Eve, and 31 cents worth of gas.  We all had a lot of fun and I think it should become part of our annual tradition.

                                   

 The Dickempers won the trophy from the Busches this year!

Happy New Year from the Cochrans!

On New Year's Day, the Patricks hosted the 2nd annual neighborhood party.  We had started the tradition last year at our house, but regrettably did not take any pictures. There was so much delicious food, including brat soup and ham sliders.  The party was a hit and we stayed well in to the evening.  The guys played dominoes, the moms hung out by the food, and the kids all played downstairs.  Beth's niece, Erin, helped entertain the kids by making a "Battle of the Block" video.  It was so cute!

 Not sure what Bob was doing here, but all of his turns at dominos took way too long because he wouldn't stop talking.

 Summar, Lisa, and Katie

 Baby Caden was the youngest of the group at only 4 weeks old!  I love the look he is giving Summar here.

Beth and Erin

 Caleb and Hayes

 Intense (epic) game of dominoes!

 Lisa and Sarah

Summar and Caden 

 I snuck a picture of Jack when he was up getting a snack.  None of the other kids were up long enough for me to get one of them!

New Year's Eve 2013

Tonight's NYE celebration was fun!  A group of 12 adults went to a restaurant in Clayton called The Libertine.  It was really good food with fancy names.  I ordered a salad, 1/2 a lobster tail, and crispy pig tails.  Yes, you read right, pig tails.  To me, they tasted like pork rinds with a kick.  Allan had a huge pork porterhouse.  We were fortunate to have Makalya H.,  and Sydney, Maddie, and Ana K. come to babysit.  My girls love them!

 Rachel, Jen, Krista, Judy B., Julie W., and Ness

As per tradition, we were back by 10 to relieve the sitters, then Basement Olympics commenced.  It was the first year in the new Rudd house, so some changes have been made.  This year's activities were  2v2 dodgeball, floor Bounce, and a Kinect face-off for the top two couples.  Allan and I stunk it up as usual.  The Joneses won dodgeball, the Buschs won Bounce, and then the Buschs won the ultimate face-off.

  Rudds vs Buschs

 Allan was the judge and protected himself with the dodgeball tub.

 Ness and Craig were victorious despite Ness getting bombed twice in the head by Erin!

 Ness worked up a sweat.

 Vanessa

 Craig

 Erin

 Josh

Happy New Year!!

 A family selfie at midnight.  Harper had fallen asleep on the couch in the bonus room by then.

 As the winners, Josh and Erin, were awarded this obnoxious trophy made my Allan.  First, Josh had to drink something out of it, then they had to sign it and take it home to display until next year.

New Year's eve 2011

It's the last night of 2011!! We had a low-key celebration tonight after church at the Rudd's. We usually try to do a fancy dinner out, but that just didn't happen this year. Instead, we all wore comfy clothes and had a fun night in with the kids. At 8:30, we put all of the kids upstairs in their sleeping bags with a movie and waited for them to drop. Our girls were the first ones out - Harper at about 9:15 and Delaney around 10. The adults played the usual Basement Olympics and hung out until right after midnight. Good times :)

Harper and Luke jam on the drums

Tyler and Delaney playing a Wii game

Fingers crossed that they fall asleep soon!

Craig playing Pop-a-Shot

Ness's turn

Andria S. takes her turn at darts while Morgan and the Hipps watch

Allan

You know it's a good party when someone (Claire) falls asleep on the stairs :)

Delaney is out...

... and so is Harper.

Allan took a picture of me checking Facebook on my phone which he claims I do way too much. It's his fault for buying me an iphone :)

Happy New Year!! We hope everyone has a blessed and safe 2012!!