New Years Eve!

I was so happy earlier in December because I was sure that once I did my monthly shopping at Costco for December that I wouldn't have to set foot in Costco for the rest of the year. I love Costco I do, but when you have to go shopping with kiddos it's nice to have a break. But it didn't work out that way. I had to do our monthly shopping for January and the only day it worked was New Years Eve. Plus I had to take all 4 kiddos with me since Michael was on-call. I decided to head out in the morning so my body would be running on a full tank of gas! Our first stop was the ATM to fill up our money envelopes, then we were off to Winco for the little things you can't get at Costco. Then we hit the big store. Thankfully since it was a holiday they had lots of samples. We loves us some samples! 

One thing I've come to realize that makes shopping so much better is after we are done we eat there! I used to rush us home unload the groceries and then fix the kids lunch all the while dreaming I was just plopped down on the couch. This is so much better! 

For $6 all 5 of us can eat lunch! 

Jack and Zeke split a hot dog...Jack gets 2/3 and Zeke gets 1/3.

Owen gets a whole piece of pizza to himself! 

Ella and I split a piece together. She was a little more hungry and thankfully Owen didn't eat the entire piece so she got some of his leftovers. The highlight of eating at Costco has got to the be the soda. We never buy soda! Even at sit down restaurants so this is a big deal for the kiddos. I love the Costco has Pepsi products so I always get regular ol' Pepsi and we refill it about 3 times!

When we got home and I unloaded the cold food it was time to put Zeke and Ella to nap. Ella was so worried that we were going to drink all the soda before she woke up. When I came back down to finish putting away everything else this is what I found...she built a cereal wall around the soda hoping no one would see it. Sadly that wasn't the case! And just for my record that box of Cookie Crisp cereal lasted us less than 24 hours! Heaven help me when all of these boys are teenagers! 

We had plans to go to a New Years Eve party with friends, but our sitter got strep throat so that wasn't happening. It was just fine though. We had already had plans to have Kim and her kiddos over for dinner so they just ended up getting to stay later! The kids hadn't seen each other in quite a while so they had lots of fun playing. 

This year Uncle Ry & Aunt Stephie got the kids a cookie decorating kit so we broke that out for the kids to have some fun! 

There were snowman sugar cookies for gingerbread men to choose from. 

Kim and I helped with the frosting and the kids added all the candies. 

It's fun seeing them use their creativity.

Oh...my arm!!! 

Zeke put on more sprinkles than he had icing so when he picked his up lots of sprinkles went all over the place! 

After Kim and the kids went home it was just a normal night. The kids played and then went to bed around 8:30. Michael and I watched some TV together and then did our annual 'lets plan our the next year' meeting. It's so nice to be on the same page right at the beginning of the year in regards to home projects, what we want to save money for and also our own personal goals for the year. I know we are real party animals....sometimes I feel so old!