Bubbles, confetti and music help kids ring in 2023 in Naperville

As 4-year-old Evie and 2-year-old Max Hargrave put the finishing touches on a confetti cannon at the DuPage Children’s Museum on Saturday, their mom reminded them that New Year’s celebrations were coming. .

“The countdown is noon. The pressure is on!” Esther Hargrave said volunteers helped her children tape up construction paper cones and fill them with confetti.

A few minutes later, the brothers from Clarendon Hills tugged on the ‘cannon’ strings upstairs and blew confetti to mark ‘Noon New Year’s Eve’. Midnight.

Nearly 1,000 people attended a sold-out bubble bash at the Naperville Museum in 2023, which took place 12 hours earlier and featured arts and crafts, live music, and refreshments. It was the first year since the pandemic that the annual event was held as an in-person event.

Public Relations Manager Shamra Fallon said, “I’m really excited that people are coming back to the museum to celebrate New Year’s Eve. A good New Year’s resolution is to visit us and practice STEM and expand your mind.” and make 2023 the best it can be.”

Around the museum, children create wearable art, use mallets to launch frozen Arctic animals into their ‘snowy’ sensory realms, build rocket launchers out of rubber bands and popsicle sticks, and s’mores. I made a “Munch Mosaic” of the wind.

Prior to the countdown, Berwyn’s 4-year-old Sofia Diaz and her 3-year-old brother Liam were munching on mosaics in the museum’s basement. Liam’s Graham His crackers were layers of frosting layered with his M&Ms and goldfish crackers.

When asked what she liked most about the event, Sofia replied, “Art and bubbles.”

As for the countdown she was due to participate in, the answer was obvious.

Families could ring in the New Year from four stations: confetti, bubbles, live music, or a quiet countdown.

As 12 o’clock approached, Fallon started the countdown. Down the hall, museum employees waved giant soap bubbles and machines rained bubbles from the ceiling. The children cheered and enjoyed the celebration while their parents took pictures with their cell phone cameras.

Ashley Russell of Clarendon Hills, who attended with Olson, 5, and Emily, 3, said, “It’s my first time celebrating noon and it’s my first time going to a museum. It’s been a really good experience.”

Shortly thereafter, staff and volunteers began sweeping away confetti and handing out neon plastic rakes for children to help out. The “noon year” was here.

“You make a mess – we clean it up. When we make confetti poppers, it’s not your living room,” said Fallon. I really hope I don’t wake up until midnight.”

Giles Bruce is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.