We are having a few friends and their kids over on New's Years. The ages of the kids are:
8, 7, 5 (3 of them), 3, 2 and 1.

What should I do for the kids? Fireworks are not an option as we can't afford it...I spent an arm, leg and head (lol) on ingredients for my famous (at least in our home) seafood chowder!

By Breann on Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - 11:26 am:

Buy a bunch of that thin foam in the craft section of Wal-Mart. It's 33 cents a sheet. Kids love to cut and paste it. My daughter will play with that stuff for hours!

Play dough is always a huge hit too. And, it's cheap as well.

By Kernkate on Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - 11:37 am:

Card games are always a hit here for the older kids.
And as Breann said some kind of crafty things.
A big hit for new years here is the party hats and noise makers. The kids love them. Noisey but fun.
Your seafood chowder sounds good what do you put in it???

By Paulas on Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - 12:07 pm:

Kathy...I put lobster (I'm originally from NS and trust me..it's much cheaper to buy there than on the prairies!), sole (or haddock if I can find it), shrimp and scallops. Plus, potatoes, carrots, celery and evaporated milk.

By Kernkate on Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - 12:36 pm:

That sounds soooo good! But as you said it is expensive. I love any kind of seafood

By Paulas on Friday, December 31, 2004 - 01:56 am:

Any other kid suggestions?

By Missmudd on Friday, December 31, 2004 - 12:48 pm:

Well you could make noisemakers out of stuff from the kitchen, paper plates, margarine, containers coffee cans that sort of stuff. Fill w/ rice or beans and let them decorate w/ markers stickers glitter whatever you have around and let them shake bang or whatever into the new year. Also any kid baking cooking projects are a good time waster while waiting til midnight.

By Unschoolmom on Friday, December 31, 2004 - 01:28 pm:

A treasure hunt?

As kids we always rang in the new year by running out the front door in our bare feet and rolling in the snow if there was snow. If not we would do a quick jog around the outside of the house in our barefoot, underdressed state.

By Paulas on Friday, December 31, 2004 - 03:08 pm:

Dawn...it is -28C here today..their little toes might just fall off!

Have I ever asked you where you were from in NS? I'm originally from there as well. Now I live in the North Pole aka: Northern Alberta!

By Fionadeassis on Friday, December 31, 2004 - 04:43 pm:

Yup.....-23 here in Calgary right now.....

The kids here will just be running around and playing video games and watching movies...

No crafts or anything here.......

maybe get a shoebox and get them each to write aletter or draw a picture and it could be a time capsule......maybe they could put wierd things in there like a newspaper or tv guide and open it next year(or a few years from now)...

One year, me and some friends wrote some letters and threw in a few odds and ends into a box and stuck it way back in the attic of the house he was renting.....it would be cool to find something like that years later.....

good luck.....

fiona

By Fionadeassis on Friday, December 31, 2004 - 04:45 pm:

Oh-and lots of snacks.......maybe make smores over the stove burner......or vanilla icecream and take out all your cake decorating sprinkles and they can make sundaes.......