Party like its 2012

When I think of new years past... none seems nearly as perfect or fun as last night. We had a fun family night on the town consisting of dinner at The Great Dane and then our first ever US Bank Eve. Its a family event with activities at different venues in town. We chose to head to the US Bank plaza where we got free parking and took in some dancing to silly songs, balloon animals and lots of confetti.

Allie wasn't sure what to make of the clown at first, but I think she didn't mind because the clown gave her a sticker. Unfortunately it didn't stick well and she lost it.

After dancing a bit...

We waited in line to get a balloon animal. When we first walked in I thought this wouldn't be so fun because we'd be waiting in line for things all night. There were a lot of lines but we just made the most of it.

 Allie enjoyed her balloon hat.

It was funny though because after taking it off and putting it on a few times, her hair was sticking up all over the place!

Then we went to the confetti station. This might have been her favorite activity because she really likes taking things out and putting them back in.

While Allie was making her bag of confetti for the big countdown, Dada took care of her balloon hat.
 

They had a holiday trolley giving rides around town, but time ran short and we didn't get on one. So instead we just danced and blew our horns and threw confetti around until the countdown.

The countdown wasn't at midnight though. It was at 8:30. Good thing too... Allie was quite tired ahead of the countdown.

 You can see her fading the later it got!

With about five minutes to go, Allie laid down on the floor and Dada picked her up for the big countdown. She didn't protest.

At the stroke of 8:30 we counted down and threw our confetti and blew our horns. Then it was time to go home and put Allie to bed. Mama and Dada were going to stay up and watch a movie, but we ended up going to bed ahead of midnight after eating our treats we'd picked up from McDonald's. We were so tired! I think it was the first time since I was really little that I didn't stay up until midnight. We watched the ball drop in New York and then went to sleep.

It was a great way to ring in a great new year! We look forward to seeing what's in store for us in 2012!