Adventure Awaits

I couldn't think of what to do for Mr. C's birthday party.  I wasn't motivated at all.  And I would have just had  a simple family affair, except he hasn't had a big, fun friend party in awhile...so I pulled up my boot straps and thought.  And thought some more.  Mr. C and I had talked about an Adventure theme, but I was having trouble putting it all together.  And then it hit me.  

As I've mentioned before, Mr. C is a book fanatic.  I thought it would be great fun to plan the party around a book full of thrilling adventures.  For the invites, I remembered that my friend Kendra from My Insanity, had once made an invitation that looked like a book for her daughter's birthday and so I set out along those lines.  I had to create it in one afternoon, since they had to be delivered that very day.  Eeeek.  I grabbed a picture of Mr. C, made it look hand-drawn (ish), added a title (based on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), some fun text, and even a bar code.  Mr. C and I got a huge kick out of writing all the text.  He helped me spice it up with adventurous words.  

This is what it looked like pre-print.  I printed it at Office Max on cardstock and just folded it to look like a book, with the blue stripe as the spine.

On the inside we glued in one page that read,

Chapter 1

The Party

                                     The boys all  met at  Mr. C’s  house  on Friday,    March 4^th at 4:30 pm.  

                      They  embarked on  many  fun and exciting adventures.    Treasure was found, 

                      glorious treats and fanciful feasts were eaten, and obstacles overcome.   Sadly, 

                      at 6:30 pm,  Mr. C’s friends returned to their own homes  with  great memories 

                      of all they had accomplished.

 

                                     But this is only  a summary.    For the entire story… come join  Mr. C for

                      his Ninth Birthday Party Adventure.

Then I set to work.  I made seven drawstring knapsacks with some rugged-type fabric I had hanging around and added bags of trail mix, bottles of water, cheapie cheap compasses from Walmart that didn't seem to work (oh well), and some Field Journals (mini composition notebooks covered in scrapbook paper).

We started the party by reading a simple "book" I had typed up and stapled together consisting of six chapters.  We read Chapter 1, which directed us to pack our bags and head out on our journey where danger awaited...

On our trip we discovered a pit of snakes and had to refer to the Field Journals for help on how to cross the snakes safely.  The Journals said that each boy had to capture one of the large snakes with a metal hook (a hanger) and only then would it would be safe to pass.  So the boys took turns rummaging through the yarn snakes, trying to catch hold of the big rubber ones.  Once they all had their snakes tucked in their knapsacks, we were met with a very rickety bridge we had to cross (a 2x4 set up on two logs).  The Field Journals said that to cross, only the spots marked with an X were safe to walk on.  It was so fun watching the boys cross the "bridge" and use their imaginations about the canyon and river below.   They even took notes in their Journals as we succeeded or found something note-worthy to record (like dog prints).

Chapter 2 sent us on a Treasure Hunt.  For this, I divided the boys into two groups and they each made the other team a map and hid the corresponding treasure (they were both the same).  The map-making skills cracked me up.  It was a complete hoot to watch them draw landmarks, count out paces etc.

Once they found the treasure, they unloaded treats, parachute guys, water balloon grenades and small foam dart crossbows...which turned into an immediate dart war in the green belt.  

 

After that, the chapters got a bit muddled, but we had a water balloon grenade fight that lasted .04 seconds, 

roasted hot dogs in the backyard,

and then hurried and opened presents as parents arrived.  We sent the boys home with S'mores that we toasted in the toaster oven since we ran out of time.

And we never even got to the cake!  Mr. C requested a cake topped with dirt, a fire and a tent.  This is what I came up with. And lemme just tell you how yummy brown sugar is on top of a cake.  Yum.  That's what.

I'm just so glad it all worked out and I made it on time.  I procrastinated so much, that the on the big day I was still sewing knapsacks, making the cake, writing the chapters to the book of adventures, covering the Field Journals and filling them with hand-written notes, not to mention cutting bunches of yarn "snakes".  Thanks to my handy husband  for setting up the "bridge", running to the store for frosting so I didn't have to make it, and taking care of the fire and hot dog roasting.  Sheesh.  The things I get myself into.