Party Time!

Hunter's party was supposed to be a sledding party. We have this great hill in the back. I figured it would be a breeze to send the kids outside for an hour or so. I can't believe I actually started wishing for snow as the 17th approached. I was a little bit stressed the week before the party trying to figure out what I would do in the event of a no-snow situation with thirteen 7-9 year olds in my 8x10 foot living room. I put together a party plan on Friday (the day before) and I'm confident that Hunter had a blast. I'm not sure I can say the same for RJ and I but we are happy for him.

Team blue searching the hill

Our first activity was a name game since we had kids from the neighborhood, church and school. After being introduced, they sat in two teams on opposite sides of a sheet. RJ and I held the sheet up like a wall and each team chose one person to stand up in the middle facing the sheet. We dropped the sheet after counting to three and the first one to say the name of the person in front of them got a point.

Then we counted off and created two new teams for a picture scavenger hunt. I took 12 pictures of things around our neighborhood (ie fire hydrant, mail box, tree etc.). The kids had to find the object in the picture and pick up a coin that coincided with their team color.

Team green making a mad dash from the mailbox

McKenna and Barrett lost in the mix

Spray Game

I filled a water bottle and had the kids stand in a cirlce. One person stood in the middle and thought of something (ie. I'm thinking of a color, superhero, animal, letter etc). Whoever guessed what the person in the middle was thinking got sprayed and then became the person in the middle.

Grunt Piggy Grunt

I have to thank Shirlene Pratt for teaching me this next game when I was twelve. A person stands in the middle of a circle blind folded with a pillow and a wooden spoon. After spining them around they walk up to someone, hold the pillow up, poke them with the spoon and say "grunt piggy grunt." The person being prodded makes their best pig noise and whoever is it has to guess who the pig is. Switch when you get it right.

Pizza Time

The boys self segregated to this table

(Will, Nate, Hunter, Josh and Barrett. Blake had to leave early and is not in this picture).

(McKenna, Paige, Mary, Leah, Lauren, Neeru, Hadley, Abby)
Yummy! Pizza, vegetables and fruit.

The Cake

Thinking we would have a winter themed party, I made a snowman cake. He turned out pretty cute and Hunter was surprised that it wasn't a plain 9x13 frosted cake.

We hope your wish comes true.

Present Time

Hunter was given a lot of very nice gifts. As party favors, I picked up twelve different items at Target. Hunter chose which gift to give to each person and wrapped them. He handed them their gift and they got to open it before handing him the gift they brought.

Overall the party was successful. The transitions were rough. Without structure, the boys started wrestling and jumping on the furniture. We had one party guest threaten to go home and one in tears twice but we recovered quickly and all had a good time.