Eleven-teen

I can’t say my boy turned “eleventy-one”.
That would make him one hundred eleven
and if he were that old,
I’d be DEAD…

But Scooter was excited to have all the same digits in his age.
Two ones.

One.
One.

ELEVEN!!

MY BOY TURNED ELEVEN YEARS OLD!

I don’t know, but for him that was a big deal.
It’s the first time it’s happened to him, that’s for sure.
He’s only had two numbers in his age for one year.

Last year, it was a big deal when he turned 10, knowing he’d (most likely) only have
two numbers in his age for the rest of his life.
Now, he’ll only have the same number once every 11 years.

He’s a math geek.
Things like that excite him.

An important birthday like that deserved a birthday party, don’t you think?

This year, we decided to do a
”Minute to Win It”
theme for the party.

I looked all over the web and Pinterest to find some games that the kids would enjoy playing.
I think we found some great ideas!

But first things first…
THE INVITATION.

My boy didn’t want to make a paper invite.
I mean… that’s already been done to death.
He decided he wanted to make a video invitation.
It was a novel idea and I’m just weird enough that I agreed to it.
I’d love to share the video with you, but we have personal information on it.
If you know where my YouTube channel is, you can view it there.

Next came the cake.
Scooter thinks the cake is the most important.
The cake is a reflection of him, and his interests and hobbies at the time.
It’s just as important as his Halloween costume,
and is always in the planning stages.
(We start discussing both items in January.)

This year, currently, he’s obsessed with the computer game
”Spore.”

Don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of it before. I hadn’t either.
It’s a SIMS type game, where you grow from an amoeba to a more complex life form.
How in the world do you make a cake like that?
I did what I could.
It’s basically a hairy monster cake, with lots of eyeballs.

He loved it and declared,
”It’s exactly what I wanted, Mom!”
(He’s such a nice boy!)

The games were fun too.

I’ll briefly describe them:
Vanilla Wafers on the Face:
You start with a cookie on your forehead, and then move the wafer down your face to your mouth
ONLY USING FACIAL MUSCLES.
NO hands.

Balance the Fruit Loop:
Put a popsicle stick (craft stick) in your mouth and see how many Fruit Loops you can stack on it.
The boys only got up to 4.
In practicing, I got up to 6.
It’s tougher than it sounds.

Suck it Up:
Put about 15 dry beans on a plate (we learned this the hard way).
Use a straw to move the beans around the plate to make a face.
Suck the bean to the bottom of the straw to make this happen.
Again, NO HANDS and no PUSHING the beans around with the straw!!

Junk in the Trunk:
You have to have an empty, rectangular tissue box.
Put 8 ping pong balls inside it.
Tie it around your waist.
And then jump.
Jump.
Jump.
Jump.
You have to get all 8 balls out before the minute is up.
It’s harder than it looks.
I cut the opening just a little larger to make it easier.
Still, it was HARD!

(We played most of the games in teams. We had an odd number of boys, so Beast filled in to help make the games even.
He was a good sport!)

Backwash Central:
This game was Scooter’s invention.
Each party goer has 2 cups.
One is filled with water, the other is empty.
Using a straw, they are to empty one cup and fill the other.
We envisioned the boys moving the water one straw-full at a time,
but one of the boys got too clever.
He sucked up a MOUTHFUL of water, via the straw,
then, via the straw, put the water back into the other cup.
He finished the game in 30 seconds.
Not what we had in mind.

Elephant March:
Take a pair of panty hose and put a baseball in the toe.
The boy puts the hose on the head, and NOT USING THEIR HANDS swings their head
back and forth, trying to knock down water bottles.
I had them hit 6 FULL bottles, but I think more would have been better.
And I would have made it an obstacle course instead of putting the bottles in a circle or a line.

And finally, the last game wasn’t really
A Minute to Win It
type of game.
This was just a:
”These are 5th grade boys and I want them to get dirty” type of game.
We did an old fashioned
EGG TOSS!

Each team was given a raw egg.
They had to throw it back and forth to each other.
Each throw, they took a step backward.
Throw until it breaks.

The unbroken egg of the winning team was cracked open on the head of one of the party goers. It was hilarious!

I made a medal for the winner of each game.
It was just a lid from a canning jar, a little scrapbook paper, some mod podge, hot glue and ribbon.
Simple, really!
The boys were excited to get one.

We had a solemn award ceremony each time a boy got one.
(Scooter was the last to win one.)

Opening presents isn’t the same unless you play
Heavy Heavy Hangover.
It’s a staple from my childhood and I’ve insisted my children play it too.
Do you remember what that is?
The gift giver stands behind the birthday child and recites the poem,
”Heavy Heavy Hangover
Thy poor head
Whatcha gonna do
With a bump on your head?”

Then they list some things that the birthday child could do with the gift:
eat it, play with it, wear it, read it, etc. etc.
(someone always says “flush it down the toilet”)
And if the guesser doesn’t guess right, then they get bonked on the head
GENTLY
by the gift.

Playing with a bean bag chair, is… unique.

This friend warned him that the bag was VERY HEAVY!

It was a happy day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOOTER!!