Party Time!

Emma and Eli are used to sharing their birthdays and both were due for a party so I started thinking of how we could have a combined party that would be good for 11 yr. old boys and 13 yr old girls. A few years ago we did ice skating and that worked great. After some thought we decided on "Jump Street". Then one night as Emma and I were reading scriptures she said "You know what I would love to do for my party? A mall party." Which I soon discovered meant a mall scavenger hunt. Suddenly lots of fun memories from my mutual days flooded my mind. I was lucky to have some really fun leaders and we had at least 2 mall scavenger hunts. However, I said "Well we already were planning on Jump Street..." She said "Ya, maybe next year." Anyway, this was Tues. night and the party was planned for Saturday even though I had yet to make an invite. Horrible I know. But, we do our best right? Anyway after phone calls to my most trusted advisers, Dana and my sisters (that I would need help from), we decided to have everyone meet here and then split off. The boys going to "Jump Street" and the girls to the mall. It was like SUPER crazy with that many kids here in our regular-sized house (esp. when a couple "active" type boys showed up about an hour early!). Oh and the kids got pizza. Probably Eli's favorite present of all :)

I had a last minute idea to make birthday shirts for them to wear that night and their friends to sign. 

I'm no artist but I think they turned out pretty cute. I should know better than to try cursive though.

 

So we had pizza, the kids decorated a cupcake (the girls seemed a little more interested in this than the boys- go figure!), and opened presents. I got a couple group pictures and we were off. Oh and sang "Happy Birthday" and blew out candles of course. 

The Boys
 

The Girls (Holly was beyond thrilled to be a part of the "big" girls)
 

I went with the girls so obviously didn't get any pictures of the boys, but Dana said they all seemed to have a great time.

To pick teams for the girls, I had 3 colors of ribbon in a bag and they had to choose one with their eyes closed. The teams worked out perfect- three girls on each. In my research for "mall scavenger hunt" online (which was WAY more popular than I knew) a few people said their malls didn't allow or like scavenger hunts so I tried to keep our activities non-annoying and the smaller groups were helpful with that too. Here's a couple of the several tasks they had to do:

• Find out what year the mall was built 
• Ask an elder person for some "advice for life" 

Haha I loved that one! Here's a far away picture I took of the girls asking a man in the food court.

   

Since I was taking a picture of something far off this girl came up and asked me if there was a celebrity over there. Funny:) Anyway, the man said "Have fun, work hard, study hard, and stay away from drugs." Pretty good for the spur of the moment I thought!

Here are a couple of the photos they had to get:

Everyone wearing sunglasses
 

Mimic a window display
 

We also had special guests: our "hidden superheroes" that my niece and her friends volunteered to be for me and the "classy lady" that my fun sister portrayed. They were so cute!

   

The list said, "Once you've completed everything, find the 'classy lady' wearing sunglasses, a headscarf, and red shoes and she will give you a clue of where you need to go to win." Is my sister the best or what?

   

At the end we compared pictures and swapped stories of things that happened. It was so fun! 

Here are the group leaders- Christine, me and Amy. I'm so grateful for their help!

   

Best of all Emma kept telling me that it was so much fun. Yea! 

 

I wish I would've gotten more pictures of all the girls together at the mall cause they're all so adorable and sweet. Emma is blessed with such wonderful friends. 

Hopefully we're all partied out for awhile (like 3 years at least?)