Thursday, December 31, 2009

The Acorn Drop!

One of the things I was most excited about being in Raleigh for was the Acorn Drop on New Year's Eve. Beth had told me about it in years past, and I was so excited to get to see it for myself. So after naptime (and s'mores time! :) ), we loaded up the kids and headed downtown. They had the museums opened up for you to go in and out of, and had various craft stations all over the place. We had a ball!!
Callie hanging out with one of the fish in the science museum...
One of the craft stations was for the kids to make a little memory book....blank paper between two squares of cardboard (from old cereal boxes, etc). They could use it to write or draw pictures of things from 2009 or things they hope for in 2010. Very cute.



Caleb had a little nap during all the crafting....
We had the kids SO bundled up because the Acorn Drop was outside,and it was FREEZING! They were very patient inside the museum...since we didn't want to be taking coats on and off!

They had a handprint station (with the coolest handprint pads ever!!! They were made by Crayola and washed RIGHT off with baby wipes...I've GOT to find some).


Jacob and Jackson...looks like they are going in after that beaver, doesn't it?

Don't you love Callie's hands all over the glass? Right next to the "no hands" sign? Oops!

You can see Josiah is running out of patience now...he's ready to get on with the show!


Again...here's all our kids climbing over this statue that says "no climbing please".
They had a "people's parade" at 6 pm. What that means is that all the people are the parade! We got to march along with them - there was a marching band and lots of people holding really tall costumed creatures (for lack of a better description) that sort of freaked out the kids actually. But who doesn't love to march in a parade! :)
Beth's neighbors, Todd and Andrea, met us downtown with their kids - Aiden and Riley. Riley was gracious enough to let Callie ride in his wagon for a bit.

See Jacob's face? He's about done....No naps today, remember? We were eating s'mores instead. Now's when you pay the price!!
Josiah with his mask that he created at one of the stations...
Beth & Addison
Me and Caleb
Callie (cheese!) and Daddy

Jacob and Daddy

Josiah and Daddy

Addison - is she a doll or what?

Can you believe that we have been friends with Beth & Anthony for 6 years - and I think this is the first time we've ever had a picture of all 4 of us???
Okay, I'm not really a freak show. I was feeding Caleb, and Addison was eating a cookie in her stroller. I asked her if I could have a bite, and she held it out to me, so I was pretending to try to take a bite. I realize it looks like I'm growing at her or something!! I promise she loves me! :)
I don't even know that you can really see the acorn in this picture. What they do is they hoist a GIANT acorn (seriously) up on a crane, and they do an early countdown. When the clock strikes 7 pm, it's as if it were midnight. They countdown and everything, and when it hits midnight, they drop the acorn, everyone hoots and hollers, and the fireworks go off. Then the kids feel as if they have celebrated new year's, and you can go home and put them all the bed without feeling like they missed the whole thing. Isn't that fun? We LOVED it - got a kick out of the whole acorn thing (I think Anthony said that Raleigh is the city of nuts - that's why the acorn :) ), and enjoyed putting them to bed while we relaxed, played games, and watched Ryan Seacrest and Dick Clark!
These boys are such sweet friends. We met them when Josiah was about 8 months old...and the rest is history! :)
Anthony & Beth

3 comments:

anthonyandbeth said...

OK, this afternoon i was in TEARS laughing so hard at Raleigh being the "City of Nuts". seriously. the boys came in to check on me to see what was the matter i could hardly contain myself. i think it's the city of oaks. but i like nuts better. i didn't even GET the whole acorn thing until he told us that. it was so fun for y'all to be there with us. i just LOVE all these pictures! i still have them playing on my frame. :) oh, we just had so much FUN didn't we! :)

The Schaper Scene said...

That sounds so fun! Glad the kids were able to enjoy a "Happy New Year" acorn drop hours before it actually took place. Great idea!

Courtney said...

love those handprint things! let me know if you find them and they can be bought! what FUN to do new years at 7 pm! :-) we kinda did the same thing on our own with our kids. and wasn't dick clark so SAD?? yikes!