Henry's Birthday Party recap

We celebrated Henry's birthday on Saturday. My mom and I did our cake artistry on Friday night, creating Optimus Prime. We knew we had succeeded when the other little boys recognized who it was :)

We had ten kids at the party--six girls and four boys, ranging in age from almost 3 to 9. We divided them into two teams--red and blue. Looking back, this was a better idea than Autobots vs Decepticons--no one was the "bad guys". First we played "pop the other teams' all sparks (balloons tied to their ankles). Henry was the master of this game. In general, the boys loved it, and the girls cried when their balloons were popped.


We then had a scavenger hunt to find the All Spark (a cube pinata in our case). Each team had an adult reader and ten different clues to find. The teams tied, finding the All Spark in our car ("the Mazdatron"). Then we had a relay obstacle course, with the kids safely escorting the all spark (a much smaller cube than the pinata one). They had to crawl through a carboard house, under ropes tied between two chairs (the boys did some kind of football roll), between some 5 gallon buckets, across a balance beam (4x4 set on cement blocks). Not really a win or lose game, but they liked it, and we did it twice.

Then it was pinata time. After last year's adventure in paper mache, this one was a pull one. We had everyone grab a ribbon and pull at once, so there was no waiting.


Then it was inside for cake, ice cream, and gifts. Henry was THRILLED to get Transformers, Star Wars (especially a purple light saber--he now has four), and even beter, Star Wars Transformers. The girls ended up playing in the bedroom with Harmony, while the boys played transformers in the living room.

After the formal party was done, nine of the ten kids (and their parents, thankfully) headed to the indoor pool at the high school. I think by the end of the afternoon, there were lots of very tired but happy kids :)