Blake's 8th Birthday Bash

Origami was the word for Blake's birthday party. The ceiling was adorned with cranes and swans, thanks to Jack and Sam. They looked pretty magical flying through the air. I was up until 2:00am giving them the gift of flight and cutting out the construction paper streamers to hang from the walls. Smiles abounded on the kids faces as they walked into the party.
I planned for a rainy day and thought making origami would be just the ticket to fun. We could incorporate our desire to "Give Back on Birthdays" into our Birthday theme by constructing origami Blessing Boxes. Sam instructed the kids on how to make a paper swan. Blake instructed on how to make a paper boat. We finished with Jack instructing on how to make a paper box. The box was a little difficult, but in the end the kids got it.

The plan was to play " Minute to Win It" games. I had them all set to go, but when the sun comes out in the Northwest sometimes plans must be changed......SO.......
The "Minute to Win It Throw Balls at a Velcro Mom" was born. Boy, the kids loved it! Can you blame them..... I was making Origami and thinking furiously fast," What can we do outside...what can we do outside????? We had this Velcro suit and Skip had worn it for Halloween......and I knew were all the balls and cones were.....so it might just work.

I divided up the kids into two teams, set up the cones to form a gauntlet, gave each team a certain color of balls in a basket and Sam timed the game. I would run back and forth down the gauntlet, while the kids pelleted me for one minute and the team with the most colored balls on me won! I was slightly nervous about getting beaned in the face. Which was well founded...beaned in the nose twice. No blood though. Those eight year old kids have quite the arms. It was fantastic and I mean that as in crazy!... I think they had fun.
We were running late and a wonderful woman named Rain, Mother of one of the boys Blake invited, came early to help me bring up the rear of the party. Skip could not take the day off. Sam and Jack helped, but I needed one more adult. Thank you Rain!! The Cake was a yummy applesauce Vegan Cake and Blake loved it.

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The Blessing Box was an Idea I got from Skip's Sister Michelle and it has been so fun to do. Click on the three links in blue here to find out more. The kids really got a kick out of it the last time we did it, so I thought we would share it with our friends. I hope they enjoy it as much as we do.