Our Tween Turns Twelve

Note: This party took place on August 28th. To start off the party in the afternoon we went to a local high school field and the birthday boy and his guests played soccer, football, and tag. For supper, I took seven boys to Chick Fil A and survived. We ate at our house since there wasn't enough room for our crowd at Chic Fil A. We had an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.

 

J and I gave A the birthday "bumps." We were surprised to find out that none of his friends had heard of or experienced the bumps before. Apparently it is a British/Canadian tradition.

The game "Murder in the Dark" was a big hit. It isn't as bad as it sounds. :) It was a great party game. Here are the instructions:

Get some strips of paper. Write “murderer” on one, “policeman” on another, and “civilian” on the rest. Shuffle these or something so that you give them out to all the kids in some random and secret way. Have them look at their own card, memorize it, and return it.  At that point get them to spread out around the house and turn off all the lights and everyone moves around (slowly but safely). The “murderer” then has to murder as many people as possible – often it’s just one. This is done via some agreed-upon convention such as double-tapping them on the shoulder. The victim then dies by collapsing. If a living person finds a body they shout “body” and the lights go on and everyone reconvenes. If he policeman is alive, he interviews all the living civilians to try to establish the identity of the murder. Once he thinks he’s figured it out, he gets one guess. At that point the murderer must tell the truth and identify himself. (If the policeman is dead, another person takes his place.)

The boys watched the movie Apollo 13 and it was interesting to see which of the boys enjoyed it and which were not as engaged. The boys good at math were very interested. The other boys played on their tablets and were not very interested in the movie. Almost all the boys slept over, in our living room. 

In the morning, J and I cooked pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs. To finish up, J led the boys in a few "Minute to Win It" games. They are quick games that are usually timed.

1. Ping-pong ball off a small table into Styrofoam cups. Kids had to stand a couple of feet from a small wooden table, bounce a ping-pong ball off the table, then into a Styrofoam cup. There was a ring of cups that were 1 point each, and a center cup for 2 points. Team with most points after all team members tried it won.

2. Straw & Cotton Ball Relay: Kids had to move cotton balls as a team from a bowl at one end of room to a bowl at the other end using just a straw, all in one minute. The second team wasn’t able to figure out the technique.

3. Pedometer: The teams had one minute to pick a strategy and a representative and then a minute to see how high that representative could get a pedometer without using their hands. One team opted for attaching it to their glasses and shaking their head, and the other team attached it to their sock and ran in place. The team that used their head won.

Sorry, no photos of the games. I needed to run an errand during the games.

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