Joel is Seven!

Joel and his friends enjoyed his party. It was a nice number of kids and they were wild and crazy - which was just what we expected!!! Carolyn joined the Party Hosting by offering the boys prizes for playing nice and cleaning up the broken pinata. It was very sweet. She also joined the fun as did Anna whenever she could.

There was a pinata:


Pizza and cake:


Treasure hunts and an obstacle course: (Matthew was the "gym leader" (Pokemon term). He created the entire event, wrote the script and led the boys through their challenges.)
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"Welcome to the Pokémon treasure hunt. At this party you will be collecting a lot of treasures and putting them in your treat bag. The Pokémon in your envelope shows what team you are on. In the next event, it will determine what YELLOW card you will be searching for. This card will give you 5 points. Also you can find smaller other cards that are not YOUR Pokémon. They are each worth 1 point, unless you find a pair of two identical cards – which are worth 3 points. The team that gets the most cards will go first in the obstacle course. Good luck."


"Now the winner of the card search will go first in the next event. You will be going around an obstacle course to collect keys to unlock a prize. I will be your gym leader and lead you through these obstacles:
-1st smash the ice boulder and find your keys in the rubble
-you must cut the rope and let your 2nd key drop
-you must spin the whirlpool so that you can collect your 3rd key

-you must surf on your belly across the table, then reach for the 4th key
-you must scale the waterfall to reach your next key 5th key
-you must use your awesome jumping skills and reach for your 6th key

-there is a mountain of snow in your path, dig through it to find your 7th key
-your final challenge is a humongous boulder blocking your path. Use your immense strength to move it away from the treasure door while still collecting your final key, which is underneath

Now that you have found your 8 keys you can go into the locked freezer room (FYI - this is our unfinished little library, that doesn't have good insulation and gets cold in the winter) to find your treasure. It is in a treasure chest."
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We also played "squash the squirtle" by putting a stuffed animal in a balloon and blowing up a bunch of balloons so the boys had to smash the balloons to find Squirtle. We also had a Poke-walker pop-rock walk. (think cake walk).

Whew- and now the fun is done and I have a (mostly) clean house! That is my birthday present!