New Year's Eve Party for 10 year old girls:  We're still not ready to do a late-night party for this age group, so we rang in the New Year at 12 NOON instead of 12 MIDNIGHT! For this party, the decor was simple, since the house was decorated for Christmas already. We hung a few Happy New Year signs in silver and gold and had silver/gold/black tableware. The party began at 10:30 a.m. and everyone was given a Happy New Year tiara to wear and several metal noisemakers that they could decorate using paint pens and permanent markers. This served as their craft. I prepared for each girl a booklet of New Year's Eve games, which included the scoresheet for the Movie Trivia 2003 game.  We divided into two teams and took turns reading clues I had prepared about popular children's movies of the past year.  If they guessed the title of the movie, their team earned a point. Some movies included "Cat in the Hat" "Lizzie McGuire" "Agent Cody Banks" "Haunted Mansion" etc. Another game was a predicition game.  Each girl was given a list of everyone at the party and were asked to write down a wild prediction for each guest..."what will 2004 hold for these friends?"  They were encouraged to make them silly and then we shared them. A third game was called "What will 2004 mean for you?"  Girls were divided into teams of 3 or 4 and given three dice and a playing mat (piece of paper).  Each girl rolled the dice and added the numbers. If any dice rolled off the mat, it was not counted.  Once the sum was figured out, the girl could look in her book for the key and read it aloud and then finish the sentence.  For example, if she rolled a 7, the key said "You'll have an argument with someone in your family about_____." If you rolled a 15, the key said "You'll try a new hairstyle and your friends will say_______." This was a big, silly hit!   A little bit before noon my husband entered dressed as Father Time. He was wrapped in a white sheet with a Santa-type beard and a cane. We did the countdown as he lowered a round pinata painted silver to symbolize the NYC ball.  At the stroke of "midnight" the ball dropped and I released a bag full of confetti and balloons over the girls, who then did rang their noisemakers and horns. Another mom turned on the CD player which was queued to "Auld Lang Syne."  Then we hit the pinata which was filled with candy and more confetti. The last part of the party was the gift exchange.  Guests were asked to bring a wrapped 2004 calendar.  I read the lyrics to "Auld Lang Syne" and each time I said "Auld" each girl passed the gift to the left.  When the song was over, they opened the gift they were holding, and now had a calendar for the New Year. Each girl took home a goody bag which held items from the dollar store, including a Christmas-themed notepad and mini photo calendar, along with New Year's mints and holiday fortune cookies, both from Oriental Trading. What a great way for young girls to ring in the New Year!