New Year's Eve 2008

We welcomed 2008 kid-style -- at noon! The Children's Museum had a big bash all morning, with the countdown at noon. Not only did Katie get to play in her favorite museum, and show Daddy everything (his first time), but she got to make special crafts and help count down. All the kids got sparkling apple juice for a toast, and after the big countdown in the lobby, we threw confetti. It was EVERYWHERE!
I feel sorry for the museum staff and volunteers, who I'm sure are still finding pieces of colored tissue paper in all sorts of unexpected places. Dave even saw some coming out of the pipes of the small pipe organ. (Good luck getting that out!)

After the countdown, we dragged a reluctant kid down the street to a very kid-friendly restaurant on the Riverwalk, the Rainforest Cafe. I know it's a chain, but there aren't any near us, so it was an event. Here are Katie and me in front of the tiger; she (Katie's pronouncement) roared every 10 minutes, which was a big hit. It's nice to see your kids not be afraid of those things.

Dave and I actually stayed up until midnight Central Time to watch fireworks around the Tower of the Americas. OK, we watched it on TV (although from our balcony we could see the tops of them over the trees). The idea of being downtown with 100,000 drunk people just didn't do it for us. We must be getting old. Happy 2009!