Birthdays

This is the time of year that my family is drowning in birthdays. Hannah's birthday is Sep 18, Court's is Sep 23, and mine is Oct 1. We had a birthday party for Hannah on the 19th. She asked to have it at our house, and we decided there would be more room in our backyard. Luckily, the weather cooperated (except for a little wind that made one of the games more interesting).

Hannah wanted a super hero theme, so we got really creative with the games. Court and I cut out 20ish foam masks for the kids to decorate. Court also made a meteorite pinata. It only sorta looked like a meteorite, but the kids thought it was cool because it was a pinata.

There were about 15 kids that came. We played four games which required the use of their "superhero" abilities.

First, there was using their super strength to knock down a wall. Court connected his heavy compression sleeping bag up to a pulley system in our big tree. I risked life and limb climbing that tree to attach the pulley. I don't do very well with heights, and I climbed more than 15 feet up the tree. Anyway, the kids had to throw the bag into a wall of empty boxes. The wind kept blowing down the boxes, so we had to change angles a bit. And I got to re-stack the boxes 15+ times so everyone had a chance to play.

Then the kids played hero, hero, villain (which is just the superhero version of duck duck goose). Of course, they had to use their super speed to get away from the villain.

While that was going on, I pulled the kids aside one at a time to use their x-ray vision. Court and I set up several objects in our garage. We put them behind a sheet and shined a light to created a shadow of the objects on the sheet. There was a ladder, a bike, a tennis racket, a fishing pole, a hammer, and a broom. The kids came in a tried to figure out what was behind the sheet. There were two kids that got everything.

The last game was Save the Citizen, which was a relay game of trying to cross the yard with an egg on a spoon.

The kids broke the pinata, Hannah opened her presents, and everyone had ice cream cake. We got the cake from Baskin Robbins. Hannah asked for chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and brownie for the cake. I had them put the Superman symbol on it with and "H" instead of the "S". For future reference, ice cream cakes are expensive ($40). Overall, the party was a success, and Hannah got lots of toys.

Of course, Court's birthday wasn't near as involved (no super party). We are trying to stick to a budget, so no expensive gifts. I took the girls to the store and had them pick out Court's favorite snacks and a card. They chose Hot Tamales, two Pomegranate Rock Stars, Pepper Jack Cheezits (he prefers Tabasco, but they didn't have any), and a box of Zingers. We put candles in a New York Style cheesecake and sang happy birthday.

It's been a fun week.