Party Time!

This past Saturday we held a party for Nathan's birthday.  His birthday was actually 2 weeks before, but because we had just arrived back from the village, and because some of his closest friends were still in their village, we held of on having his party for a couple of weeks.

I had asked Nathan if he had any ideas about what he wanted to do for his party, or any sort of theme he'd like to have.  He thought about it for a (short) while and then said, "You pick and surprise me!"  So, after much thought and tossing around some ideas with Matt, we decided to do a scavenger hunt, but with additional challenges thrown in.

Matt was great and spent a lot of time coming up with ideas and working out the logistics for them.  We tried to use only things we could find around our house, and I think we were pretty successful!

When the scavenger hunt started, Matt gave the kids a clue and they had to figure out where to go next.  The clue led them to the grassy area outside of the church/meeting house.  I was waiting there with their first challenge:  Transfer Reeses Pieces candies from a central bowl to three separate bowls, using only a straw.

Once that was completed, they received the next clue, which they quickly figured out.  Only they now had a "Traveling Challenge" so that they had to pair up and one half of the pair had to be blindfolded the entire way to the next point.

They reached the haus win (the next point on the scavenger hunt) and received another clue and another traveling challenge.  For this one, they had to line up and pass a ball between all their legs, from the front person to the last person.  Then the person at the end of the line had to run to the front and it kept going.

Once the reached the designated distance, they ran the rest of the way to the cement pad where a ball-throwing station was set up.  The challenge for this station was that 4 of the kids had to knock down the pyramid of containers with a tennis ball.  Once that was accomplished, they got the next clue.

This clue led them to our clothesline where a baby swing is hung.  Parked next to the swing was our stroller. The kids figured out the next clue by having to sort a bagful of alphabet letters that spelled out their next destination. 

Then they got a new traveling challenge.  The traveling challenge for this one was that as a group they had to push Nathan in the stroller to the next location.  He balked at the idea of sitting in the baby stroller, so his friends practically had to drag him over to it! 

Can you figure out where Elijah is in this picture?

 We realized at this point that we were going to run out of time, so we changed the location of where they had to go to a grassy area closer to our house.  Once there, they had to spin with their foreheads on a bat and attempt to run in a straight line to the group on the other side of the grass.  It was quite hilarious to watch the dizzy kids trying to run straight but really going off diagonally until they had recovered their sense of direction!

Once they completed that challenge, they had to walk backwards to the next stop.  We only lost one kiddo into a drainage ditch.  But he was a tough guy and climbed up out of it without a complaint!

Their final travelling challenge (once they got the next clue) was that they had to get to the next station WITHOUT touching the ground.  (Their clue was written in Morse Code and they had to figure it out) Matt had put a pile of boards there, and they had to use the boards to move, passing the end ones forward so that they could keep going ahead.

When they reached the final challenge they had to go on an egg hunt.  Matt had hidden Easter eggs, each with a word written on paper inside them.  Once they found all the eggs, they had to assemble the clue to find out where their final destination was.  The clue led them to a tree in our yard, where Matt had hung a bag filled with the party favor bags.  They had to climb the tree and get them down.

Then it was inside for cake, ice cream and presents!  All in all, I think all the boys had a fun time, and hopefully it was a great, memorable party for all of them!  Happy 8th birthday Nathan!

Nathan told me he wanted his cake to have something to do with his party, so this is what he got!