Lisa Trigg
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
New Year’s party-goers at the Terre Haute Children’s Museum on Monday probably had a better time than most adults who stayed up until midnight to welcome 2013.
The youngsters who counted down the “ball drop” at the stroke of noon shrieked with delight when hundreds of soft yellow balls were tossed from the top level of the treehouse into the crowd below, as confetti poppers shot off overhead amid shouts of “Happy New Year!”
More than 300 families visited the museum during the first two hours of the four-hour New Year’s Noon Celebration. That was a larger crowd than the museum sees on most regular Saturdays, museum director Lynn Hughes told the Tribune-Star.
A big countdown clock was projected on a wall over the heads of 11 youngsters who held up signs to count down the New Year’s welcome.
Lexi McQueary, 9, and 4-year-old sister Laurynn were among many kids who made their own party hats and noisemakers and joined a parade that marched through the museum.
Asked if they were planning to stay up until midnight, Lexi shouted, “I am!”
But her mother Amy countered, “We shall see.”
The museum buzzed with activity as the party-goers visited the regular exhibits as well as the special areas set up for the celebration, which is now in its second year.
“This year, it’s been huge,” said Abby Koester, the museum’s program and special event coordinator. “It’s been quite a bit bigger than last year.”
Reporter Lisa Trigg can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or lisa.trigg@tribstar.
com. Follow her on Twitter @TribStarLisa.
