The Last Blast

Warning: lots of pictures coming!!! We hosted a scavenger hunt and pool party for several of B1 and B2's friends last night. I think a good time was had by all. We decided to call it "The Last Blast" (before school begins). The party began at 3:00pm and by 3:15, everyone was here except one girl who had a soccer game and arrived later. There were 23 girls so we grouped them into 4 teams of 6 each (one team had only 5). We had 4 "coaches" who were the adults that followed along and each team had a list of 44 items they had to try to go find. Between all the teams, we probably knocked on the doors of just about every house in our little town! We gave the teams a 1.5 hour time limit. If they weren't back within the required time, they were disqualified.

Here is a picture of B2 and a friend filling up water balloons earlier in the day. These are the teams with their "coach."

Below is the team that ended up winning. They were very competitive and found ALL of the items on the list! According to their coach, the girls pretty much ran for the entire 1.5 hours!

Ths list of items included:

1. 1993 penny
2. blue ribbon
3. empty Mountain Dew can
4. piece of sidewalk chalk
5. green button
6. red ink pen
7. stuffed animal (cat)
8. Werther’s original candy
9. red Dairy Queen plastic spoon
10. yellow highlighter
11. baseball card
12. clean baby diaper
13. artificial rose
14. chocolate tootsie pop
15. purple pencil
16. 8-track tape
17. pair of pink socks
18. 9-volt battery
19. play money
20. Reader’s Digest magazine
21. bow tie
22. orange hair clip

Below, B1 is in this picture

23. Christmas napkin
24. white glove
25. #7 birthday candle
26. matchbox car
27. some Cheerios in a baggie
28. Pizza Hut coupon
29. Hawaiian lei
30. picture of a boat
31. Monopoly hotel
32. clothespin
33. pipe cleaner (any color)
34. lid from a plastic Pepsi bottle
35. comic book
36. small plastic army man
37. popsicle stick
38. child’s wooden block
39. seashell
40. bendable straw
41. 2005 calendar
42. used airline ticket
43. red plastic ruler

44. picture of a boat

Below, this was my team. B2 is in this picture also.

While we were out scouring the town, Hubby was back at home setting up an obstacle course. It included shooting a basketball, jumping over some "hurdles," running with a balloon between your legs, sliding down our slip-n-slide, dribbling with a ball, soccer style, through some upside down buckets, swinging over a mud pit (we had a buy a cheap blow-up swimming pool just for this purpose!), sliding down the slide on the swingset, and then crab walking backwards until you crossed a line spraypainted in the grass. Below is a picture of the winner of the "4th grade and under" category.

Below here is a picture of the "5th grade and up" category. They are both very athletic young ladies.

These gals have already completed the obstacle course and are now watching their friends!

Oops! Although I regret not getting a good picture of the mud pit itself, here is one of its casulties!

After the winners were declared on the obstacle course, we had dinner! I chose to serve kid-friendly food which included hot dogs, corn, mac-n-cheese, various kinds of chips, and friendship bread. B1 requested the friendship bread a couple of weeks ago specifically for this party, so I had to go online and find a starter recipe. The bread was definitely a hit and both loaves I had baked earlier in the day were devoured. Later in the evening, we also had ice cream bars.

After dinner, we also did a water balloon toss. I was participating in this, so didn't get any pictures!

Finally, it was swimming time. The weather was so humid yesterday and into the evening that I'm sure the pool felt wonderful. I didn't get in myself. Later in the evening, the hot tub was a hit as well. Here is a picture of my friend's son, who is 3, hanging out with all the girls. I told her that someday when he turns 16, we should have this picture printed in the local newspaper!

We gave out prizes of $5 (whoo-hoo, dont' try to spend it all at once, huh?!) Wal-Mart gift cards to the winners of the scavenger hunt, obstacle course, and water balloon toss. The ages of the girls here ranged from 7 to 15 and it appeared that everyone enjoyed themselves!