Jacked up Jack-o-lanterns vs Gobbling Gobblins

Kyra turns 11 in ten days but October is jam packed with activities. So we had her birthday party early. After doing a Google search for party theme ideas, we settled on a Survivor Night theme. We designed t-shirts for the guests so we could easily tell who was on what team. Our friends at Big Frog in Snellville did an awesome job printing t-shirts for the kids. Thanks Claude! It was a huge hit!

We had two teams of six kids; the Jacked Up Jack-o-lanterns and the Gobbling Gobblins. To be fair, names were drawn to decide who would be on which team. Kyra, Sophia, Grace, Bryce, Tyler and Colleen were the Jacked Up Jack-o-lanterns. David, Kurt, Bryn, Allyson, Savannah and Zoe were the Gobbling Gobblins. After everyone arrived, we started the festivities.

1) The first activity was a scary-egg hunt. One person from each team stood still on the driveway holding a plastic pumpkin bucket. The rest of the team members ran into the front yard in search of scary-eggs. They had to bring them back to the bucket, one egg at a time. The team with the most eggs at the end won. The Goblins won this event, 31 to 25. I'm guessing my lawnmower will find the remaining 4 eggs.

2) The next activity was a frisbee toss. The kids lined up down the driveway. The first person in line threw the frisbee to the next kid, and so on. The last kid to catch it had to run back to the front of the line and the entire team had to sit down to win. The Jack-o-lanterns barely won this event. Savannah's an amazingly fast runner, but she couldn't quite catch Bryce's head start. And poor Bryce skinned his knee. Didn't he realize he shouldn't slide on concrete?

3) The third event was the Gross Food Eating Contest. I started with a base of tapioca pudding and added in random spices, seeds, fruits, condiments, etc. Two kids from each team volunteered to eat it. The winner was going to be the team that ate it all, but half-way through, I changed it to the team that wasn't tossing the mixture onto the ground. The Jack-o-lanterns were at least attempting to eat it, playing fair and not tossing it into the grass pretending to be eating, so I declared them the winner.

4) After a break for real food, the party resumed with a Skittles Toss. By this time, Lisa had returned and helped me for a few minutes. (THANKS LISA!!!) The teams lined up and tried to toss mini-packets of skittles into the pumpkin buckets. Each team had 10 bags of skittles and the team members rotated through the line one at a time. In the first round, no one rung the bucket. They wanted to do it again, so we let them move a little closer and try again. The Jack-o-lanterns scored 3, the Gobblins 0.

5) It was getting quite cold by now, so we finished the outside activities with a tri-event. The teams lined up. The first person hula hooped five circles, jump roped up and back down the driveway, then threw the basketball until the ball went in. Then the next person on the team went. It was a close race, with Zoe's ball going in the basket with Tyler's on top of it. The Jack-o-lanterns protested that a Goblin had cheated by throwing a missed basketball way too far away from the Jack-o-lantern. They all wanted another round. The Goblins won the second round too.

6) We went inside for the last few activities. The teams divided in half for the Mummy Wrap. Bryce and Grace were the mummies for the Jack-o-lanterns, while Kurt and Zoe were the mummies for the Goblins. The first team to unroll the entire roll of toilet paper in wrapping their mummies won. Although a Jack-o-lantern team won first, both Goblins teams were finished before the perfectionist team finished.

7) We saved the best for last: Rock Band. Again, the teams divided in half since there are three band players (drums, guitar, singer). Each group played Eye of the Tiger on the Easy setting and I wrote down their scores at the end of the song. Obviously, Kyra's team had an advantage since her group scored over 100,000 points more than the 2nd highest score. The highlight for me was watching them all singing along regardless of who was playing the instruments. Too cool!

The teams were tied for points up until the Rock Band event. The Jack-o-lanterns scored the highest and therefore, would have won. But both teams admitted to cheating and all decided that the fairest thing would be for a tie to be declared. So that's what we did. Then we sang happy birthday and Kyra opened her presents. Lots of iTunes gift cards, a few Breyer horses and tack, lip gloss, jewelry, toe-socks, visa gift card, Nintendo DS game, etc. Parents arrived shortly afterwards. The kids said they are all going to wear their shirts to school on Monday. I think the party was a great success. I'm so thankful for Lisa's help during and after the party, and for Sydney's help cleaning up!