Life's Little Adventures: Birthday Party!!!!

This year Nate and I decided that we were going to do the boys' birthday party at home. By the time May rolls around, the boys have attended birthday parties at all the major party locations in town, often multiple times. These party places are outrageously expensive (although Nate and I have it better than most because we have the 2 kids/1 party advantage). Anyway- we think we're going to rotate party at home on odd years and party somewhere else on even years.

Our family loves watching Survivor. . . so that's exactly what we did this year for our party theme. I searched online and found some great party ideas and Nate and I constructed challenges for the boys and their friends to complete. We had 2 tribes, led by the birthday boys. These were the challenges they had to complete. . .

1. Crawl through a tube to the sandbox, dig for hidden puzzle pieces, race back to their
     team and construct their puzzle.
2. Find the gummy worm hidden in the chocolate pudding and oreo pieces.
3. Relay to fill up a bucket with a sponge.
4. Slingshot three balls into a laundry basket.
5. Hold a paper plate with a cup full of water over your head for as long as possible. . .once
     your cup falls off. . .you're eliminated from the challenge.
6. A good old-fashioned obstacle course.

The kids had a blast!! Each contestant got a buff to wear (which Ryan and Brandon helped sew) and everyone was a pretty good sport. I will say that there are some SUPER competitive 7 year olds so we tried to remind everyone that this was supposed to be fun.

We served pizza for lunch and then brownie ice cream cake for dessert. The boys got a lot of fun gifts from their friends, the favorite gift this year being $$$$. This was the first year they've received money as a present and you would have thought that the $10 they each got was $100.

Grandma Connie and Grandpa Dave came and helped us out for the day and Nate and I were exhausted by the time we were finished, but our boys had the biggest smiles on their faces.

The boys had about an hour to recuperate from their party and it was off to the baseball fields for an afternoon T-Ball game.