Sunday, December 2, 2012

Birthday Parties

November is a busy birthday month for our family.  This year we did some fun birthday parties for the kids.  Cody was excited to have a party with friends and wanted to make it a mini-spartan obstacle course.  I didn't get pictures of all the events because I was running the party by myself for most of the time.  (Dallin and James found a deal they just couldn't pass up and had to drive to SLC to buy a RC car, so they missed most of the party...boys and their toys.) 

We started off with target shooting with nerf guns.  Next they army crawled down the stairs under obstacles set up to make it harder.   They had a RC Car obstacle course they had to navigate.  We had to cross a field of hot lava using only small blocks as stepping stones.  And the final and most difficult obstacle was the gauntlet, or the "goblin" as Darcy kept calling it.  They had to get through an obstacle course between our couches and climb over a ladder then run through the gauntlet where several of us were swinging pillows at them.  They were only safe when they jumped on the bean bag.  The kids had a great time and Cody was happy with how it turned out.  Here are some pictures from his party. 

Shelby wanted to combine an obstacle course party with a craft party.  We divided up all the craft supplies for the turkeys they were going to make and then they had to complete a treasure hunt with challenges to find all the craft supplies.  For one of the challenges we divided the girls into two teams and they each had to put on a bunch of Dallin's clothes, eat two Ritz crackers, blow out a candle and then take off all of Dallin's clothes.  It was fun to watch them having so much fun.  Another challenge was to cross the basement using only 6 blocks.  They had to pass the blocks forward and use teamwork to get everyone across the basement.  They aldo did a puzzle challenge where they had to unscramble two puzzles and put them together. 

There were a couple of other challenges, but I think the favorite activity was called All Aboard. James hooked a rope to the ceiling in the garage and the girls had to swing from the steps over to some cushions and try to get everyone on the cushions at the same time. 

After they completed all the challenges and collected all the craft supplies they painted their turkeys and ate pizza and cake.  Shelby loved her party and the turkeys turned out really cute!
We had Dallin's birthday party yesterday.  He wanted to do a Spartan Challenge birthday party.  We started planning his party right after Cody's party.   The boys started out as recruits and had to pass off several challenges to get Spartan certified and earn their bow.  To become an apprentice they had to cut a 2x4 with a saw.  They did this challenge individually and as a team. Dallin and Canyon were the fastest team and cut through the wood in only 34 seconds. 
 
To become Infantry certified they had to demonstrate strength by seeing how many times they could climb the incline bars (picture below).  This was extra challenging because the some of the bars were able to spin and the entire contraption was swinging from the beam.  They went back and forth as many times as they could.  I was impressed with how well some of them did.  I had a hard time just getting from the first rung to the second, but most of the boys made it all the way across and back. 
To become Soldier certified they needed to demonstrate the ability to use a spear.  They each needed at least two hits to move on to Warrior certification.  Dallin, Canyon and Eli were the best at this event.  But they had an unfair advantage since they were practicing all week. 
 
The Warrior certification was target shooting with paint ball guns.  I think this was one of the favorite events for the kids.  They each had 30 paintballs and shot 10 standing, 10 sitting and 10 prone.  We put about 20 tin cans out for them to aim at.  Most of them got about 5 hits. 
 
 
 
To become Captain certified they had to complete the All Aboard challenge.  James bolted a chain to our roof and hung the rope from the top of our roof for them to swing on.  They started out getting everyone on a board but that was too easy.  So we took away the board and they had to get everyone on two tires.  They were able to do that so we took away one of the tires and they tried to get all nine of them on one tire.  That proved to be too difficult.  They could get about 5 boys on but then one would fall off when the next one got on. 
After completing the all aboard challenge they became Spartan certified and earned their bow.  I made all the bows from PVC pipe,  mason twine and insulation; and dowels with erasers for the arrows.  The kids had so much fun shooting their bows.  It was a really fun party.  We got lucky on the weather.  It was 60 degrees and cloudy the entire day.  For December 1st I'd say that's pretty good weather.  Now I can breathe a big sigh of relief to be done with all the birthday parties for the year!

1 comment:

Sandra Nixon said...

You guys are AMAZING!!! Quinn and i are sitting here on the couch reading all about this and having major jealousy, we wish we could come to the kiddie parties:)
I really loved Dallin's party. That is like the ultimate boy party of all time. I hope we can do something like that for our boys someday:)

Funny Quotes

  • Darcy came up to me the other day with a permanent marker and said, "Mom, is it okay if I use this pregnant marker to draw a picture?" January 2012
  • Darcy was in a bubble bath the other day having a great time. She made a beard out of bubbles and put bubbles on her head to make herself look like Santa. When it was time to clean off the bubbles I parted the bubbles to get down to the clear water and she said, "Oh, I didn't know there was water down there!" December 2011
  • Darcy calls hangnails or snags on her nails "Pinchies". She says "Mom, can you get this pinchie off my toe?"
  • Whenever we do something fun Darcy always says, "Lets to dat adain." I love her little voice when she says it.
  • Every morning Cody comes into my room while I'm still in bed and tells me, "Mom, it's light outside. It's time to get up." To which I reply, "Okay, let me get dressed." So now when Cody is getting dressed and I call to him his response is, "I'm getting my dressed on!" I love it. No more getting dressed at our house...its now know as "getting our dressed on".
  • I like to make fruit smoothies for breakfast sometimes. Cody calls them Smoot Moolies, so that has become the name for them at our house. The other day when I was making a smoot moolie Cody asked if he could help me make it. I said he could so he jumped up on the counter and picked up a banana. He proceed to peel it and then handed me the peel and said,"Here's the armpit mom." I wasn't sure if I heard him right so I asked him what it was called. He said, "The armpit...you know the thing that the banana is in." November 2009
  • This afternoon when we were driving to the store I had a funny conversation with Cody. “Does Matt have a house?” Cody asked. “Well, Matt is here to buy a new house.” I replied. “Ooooo, that sounds fun!”Cody said. About a minute passes and then he says “How is he going to carry it?” I’m trying my hardest not to laugh. “I think he needs a big rope.” Cody said, happy that he figured out a good solution to the problem. I just love Cody…he keeps me laughing all the time. January 21, 2010
  • I was really tired one afternoon so I flopped down on the couch and said, "I'm pooped out!" Cody came over and snuggled up to me on the couch and said, "I'm having poop time too!" July 2009
  • When I told the kids that James was going to be going to California, Cody sat up straight and excitedly said, "Like Lightening McQueen! He went to California!" October 2009
  • The other day James said to Cody, "How's my buddy?" Cody got a very serious look on his face and said, "Name's Tody!" (He still can't pronounce C's very well.) The only things he will let us call him, other than his name, is big boy or funny kid.
  • When we were first potty training Cody he said he needed to go to the bathroom during sacrament meeting at church. So I took him to the bathroom and sure enough he did his business in the toilet. This was one of the first times he ever did poops in the toilet so he was really excited. When we walked back into sacrament meeting (we were sitting near the front of the chapel) he loudly proclamed "Daddy, I did giant poops in the toilet!" December 2008
  • Cody comes up with cute names for things. Mostly because he has troubles prononcing some of his letters. Some of my favorite names are "Daddy's Toke-Toke" for Coke, "Dr. Seuse" for Dr. Pepper, the "lurnal" for urinal, and "peanutbutter jam" for peanutbutter mixed with honey in a bowl.
  • Shelby had a hard time saying her G's when she was little. So we were working with her on how to say Grandma. She could make a growling sound pretty well, so we we had her growl then say grandma, so she used her best growling voice to say "GRRRR AMA"
  • The sun was shining in Cody's eyes the other day and he pointed at it and said, "Mommy, that circle is burnin' my eyes!" January 2009
  • Heres a list of funny words our kids have come up with for things: Fwaps (Cody's word for patting Darcy's back), bednight snacks, square noodles (ramen noodles), peeps, giant poops, dishwasher (Cody says this is where we wash clothes), low-low (lawn mower), regular grandma (Shelby's way of describing the difference between Great Grandma and her (regular) Grandma, oopadaisy (Shelby)
  • When we were building our house Shelby and Dallin spent a lot of time here with me working on it. One day when I was putting up the finish trim I couldn't find the hammer. I was looking all over for it and just didn't have any luck finding it. Shelby (2 yrs old) made two fists with her little hands and said, "It's okay Mommy, you can use my bammers!" November 2005
  • When Dallin was 1 yr old, he used to love making car noises. His favorite noise to make was the sound of tires screeching and then a crash. So EVERY time we would apply the brakes in the car we would hear his little voice from the back seat..."errrr kshhhh"
  • When Dallin was about 3 years old, he always liked to sit between James and I on the couch. But his way of saying it was cute. He would say "Can I sit in the tween of you?"
  • When Dallin was about 4 years old, I let him and Shelby skip naps because we needed to go somewhere. As we were driving on the road Dallin said, "Wow, look at all these people who are skipping naps too!" I guess he thought everyone had naps during the afternoon! Summer 2005