Bring it on 2012!

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you all had a safe and happy New Year! I know I did.

We had our Second Annual New Years Eve Party at our house this year, we wanted to have something low key, informal that our friends could attend and bring their kids.    I made tons of food (which I failed to take pictures of!), we had plenty of wine and beer to go around (also juice and soda for the DDs and kids) and we played some fun party games.

I had decided earlier in the day that I would throw Cecilia’s routine out the window (something I NEVER do) and allow her to stay up and play with the rest of the kids until she crashed.  Daniel and I took bets, I said she would be out by 10:30, he said 11:00.  We were both wrong.  At 9:30 she came to and said, “Mommy, I ready to go night night in my bed.” What can I say my girl is an early bird!

Everyone else, including the other kids (with the exception of my cousin’s 1 year old who slept in Ci’s pack n play) stayed up until midnight and welcomed in 2012!  Not long after ringing the New Year everyone said good night and headed home.  No more late nights for this crowd anymore, five years ago all of us would have partied until 3:00 in the morning, not anymore.

Please ignore the cell phone quality pictures!

Kacie (my cousin's daughter), Ci and I getting the party started!

One of my BFFs since 6th grade, Denise with her evil grin.

My other BFF from 6th grade Brittney and a drunk me!

Me, Denise and my cousin Cathy ready for 2012

New Years Day we had a lazy morning, we cleaned up from the party and then headed over to my parents around 4:00 to watch the Ravens play in their last regular season game. They beat the Bengals, swept their division and have the second seed in the play offs which means a bye-week this week. My mom made our traditional New Years dinner, ham and cabbage with black eyed peas. I love to eat ham and cabbage, black eyed peas…uhh not so much!

We had off Monday, the second so we headed down to Rehoboth Beach to meet my sister in law, niece and Daniel’s step dad for lunch at Nicola’s, a favorite of Delaware locals on the boardwalk.  After lunch we walked down Rehoboth Avenue checked out the few shops that were open on the boardwalk and then we took the girls on the beach.  Cecilia loves the beach even when it’s freezing out!  

Karra and Cecilia (with the elephant back pack) on their first Beach Day of 2012!

We had a wonderful, but packed weekend! This weekend is a lot less scheduled which I am looking forward to.  How was your New Year’s weekend?

The Sweetest Place on Earth

Earlier this summer one of my former co-workers posted a link on Facebook for free tickets to Hershey Park if you were a Chevy owner.  Neither my hubs or I are Chevy owners, but Daniel's step father was. He gave his VIN number, we punched it into the website and approximately two weeks later we received four of these babies:

The usual price for an adult ticket? $55! So thanks to Chevy and the hubs' stepdad we saved $220. We had originally planned to go to Hershey a few weeks ago, but thanks to the crazy amount of rain that has been dumped on the east coast this month the park was flooded. So we rescheduled for the last weekend.
 
Since Cecilia was free (kids under three are), we decided to ask our good friends, Mike and Amy to go.  Daniel has known Amy since they were in Sunday School together before they even went to Elementary School and he met Mike in high school. Before kids and mortgages we hung out with Mike and Amy all the time, but now with our busy schedules (and budgets) we don't get to see them nearly as much we used to. Mike and Amy have two adorable little girls,  Miss M who just turned 4 and Little A who is exactly a month younger then Cecilia (she turned 2 on May 17th).

We originally were going to stay the night since Hershey is a little more then a two and a half hour drive from home, but last minute we decided to go up there and back on the same day.

Miss M seeing how tall she is

It had been years since I've been to Hershey Park. I believe the last time I went when was when my grandparents my cousins and I, I was only 10 or so at the time. That was over 18 years ago.  It has changed a lot since then.  Instead of being more of a kiddy park, they have added several roller coasters.  This trip however was all about the kids.  Mike and Daniel snuck off twice to ride rollercoasters and Amy and I snuck off once.

This was the first time Cecilia had been to a bigger amusement park.  She loved it!

Miss M, Little A and Ci "driving" cars

"Mom, these aren't like the swings at the park."

"Nevermind, I like them better!"

You can't go to Hershey Park without taking a tour of Chocolate World where they show you how Hershey's famous candy bars are made.  You go through a replica factory on these little carts.  Suprisingly, Cecilia stayed entertained.

Picture Amy took of us on the cart before the tour (I look horrible!).

Chocolate

Wrapping Hershey's famous candy bars.

Look at all that Heshey's chocolate syrup!

Hershey's famous kisses!

The store after the tour (surprisingly all of this candy was very reasonably priced!)

Daniel, Ci, Miss M & Mike

After the tour is completed they give everyone a sample of a Hershey's product.  I remember when I came 18 years ago I got a full size Kit Kat candy bar.  Now they give you four Hershey Kisses.  It is better then nothing though considering the tour is free.

We went back to the park after the tour.  We were hoping the girls would take a nap in their strollers, but we had no such luck. All five of us rode in the observation tower, it was neat to see the park and the actual Hershey factory from an aerial view.

Daniel and MIike, friends for almost fifteen years. 

We rode some more rides with kids, Ci enjoyed "driving" a classic car with the help of daddy.  I sneaked a picture of the picture the park took.  There's no way I was paying $15 for that..

Miss M wanted to drive too, but was shy when it came picture time.

Here's all three girls, it was nearly impossible to get a picture of them all looking.

Ci, Little A & Miss M

Cecilia was quickly growing tired..

 

Before we left though the girls wanted to one ride again.  Can you guess which one?

 The swings!

We left right after the last ride and before we ever got to the car Cecilia was out.

Overall we had a great time, we all agreed next time we need to stay the night.  Going there and back in one day is a lot, especially with little ones. (Can I say, I told you so?) Hopefully next summer we can score some free tickets again.  I'll be sure to let my blog readers know if they are running the promotion again (apparently they run it every year) so those of you close to the Hershey area can take advantage of it too.

Congrats goes out to one of my favorite bloggers (and long time blog buddies), Julie who guessed where we were going! Congrats Julie, e-mail me {mindy71183@gmail.com} or Facebook me your address.  I picked a little something up for you and Issac while we were at Hershey Park.