Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve - do you know where your kids are? To assure a safe New Year's for ours, we agreed (in a weak and senseless moment) to let Bailey have a couple friends sleep over for New Year's Eve. Although her friends are great girls - smart, personable, fun-loving, polite....they are, afterall... 6th graders (sigh). This means the evening was filled with OBNOXIOUS squeals and yells, running up and down the stairs, spilled M&Ms, countless cans of caffeine, innocent baby sister smotherings, party horn blowing, which began HOURS before Midnight in any U.S. time zone. Poor Sadie howled (or was it a moan?)- a moaning howl every time they blew those #$% horns.
They finally settled down to watch some of Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year (and Ryan Seacrest - it's called HAPPY New Year, ABC...not shove a dull needle into my eye socket Eve - sheesh). Shwew - they were quiet and the giggling had subsided to a dull murmur heard through the heating vents. Oh - but wait! Now only one minute left until the ball would drop in NYC! Now I heard SCREAMING from downstairs - and more horn blowing. And then the counting began in whatever the opposite of unison is in this context. 60, 59, 58... (OMG - they were counting the ENTIRE last minute of the year!). By now - I was letting out a moaning howl right along with Sadie.

Finally - 2007 arrived on the East Coast and three minutes later the horns ceased to blow, the screams stopped and peace resumed in our basement. I decided to go check on the girls and take a couple more pictures before the memory card was full. (I let them take their own pictures at one point - be sure to see some of these below).

A COMPLETE DISASTER ZONE!!! But - three pre-teen girls are still getting along after many, many hours together - and having lots of fun. So I guess that's the measure of success in a situation like this.

Here's to 2006 - what a great year it was....and to 2007 - that it may be another year filled with good health, good friends and 365 days of joy and laughter. Happy New Year!