With three children it can get pretty pricey to have a big birthday party every year. I try to keep the parties to every other year; this way I can keep the costs down and my sanity at a normal level. Last year was a Mitchell year even though only a handful of kids were able to come and the party did not cost me anything since we had it at a skate park. Since we moved to a new state this year and Mitchell has so many new friends I relented and let him have a big party on his off year. Plus, this way, his off year will be his 12th year and his on year will be his 13th!
So, on the 27th we had 20 of his closest friends over for fun games and pizza. Charlie had already planned on going to Atlanta to play grandpa to the Duncan gang which meant I was going to be alone. I decided it might be a good idea to have some help. I had Patrick ask a few of his friends if they could come over and help me out and I would pay them each $5 and all the pizza they could eat. Well, this turned out to be one of the worst ideas I have ever had. Here is a photo of the nice, quiet 11 year of boys at the beginning of the evening.
and here are the big boys eating their pizza.
The girls decided to hang out by themselves and eat their pizza.
Before the pizza was finished the big boys had started to act a little crazy which in turn made the younger boys act a little crazy. I finally was able to get them all a little bit settled down so we could play some fun games. Patrick's friend Tyler was awesome! He took one group of kids and I took the other and they competed in a relay race with a balloon on a paper plate. It was more fun than anyone really anticipated. Here is a photo of Mitchell and his friend Ben going head to head.
The next game was a total bust. It was a spooky/land version of Marco Polo. In this version the "IT" person has a blind fold on underneath a scary mask. Instead of saying "Marco Polo" they moan. Then the other players are supposed to moan back. The problem was the other players all wanted to where the mask so they stood right by the "IT" person. On to the next game.
This game was really fun. We had three teams, two all boy teams and one all girl team. Each team had a set of of skeleton bones that they had to put together correctly on a red poster board on the wall. Who won, the girls of course. The photo below was my favorite. Notice the femur running down the middle of the skeleton's body. The kids had a blast with this.
The other game was a fun game of charades. We had two two teams and each teams had a big bag full of balloons. Each balloon had a piece of paper in it with a spooky character (witch, Frankenstein, etc.) written on it. A player would pick a balloon, pop it, then they had to act out the character and their team had to guess who they were. It was absolutely hilarious. I had one team and Tyler had the other team and I was busy collecting the pins used to pop the balloons so I could not take photos. Trust me when I tell you that it was really fun.
During these fun games, Patrick and his other two friends were off being crazy while his friend Tyler was busy helping me out. I was tempted not to pay the other two; they certainly did not earn their pay. In the end I did pay them all.
This photo is Mitchell in his Beatle's beanie, definitely his favorite gift. It was a great party and I am so happy that I decided to throw him this welcome to South Carolina Birthday party.
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