Birthday Party on the Cheap

I would like to submit that throwing birthday parties is the worst past time ever.

Ever.

I loathe it.

We always celebrate birthdays with both my husband's side and my side of the family, so there is always lots of people around.

I would be tempted to say that there are too many of them, but a select few read this blog, so I will keep my mouth shut.

Let's just say there might be cuts next year.

I kid!

I jest!

Two of my children, Daisy Mae and Handsome Dude have birthdays one day apart, so we combine their birthday bash.

Now, folks.

The Lumberjack is cheap.

So, our budget for birthday parties is meager, to say the least.

I would like to share with you our newest idea for family birthday parties: 

A Picture Scavenger Hunt.

Hold on to your pants, folks!

This is going to thrill you to no end.

1)  Before the party, split your guests into teams of however many you choose.  Assign each team to a car and make sure each team has a camera with functioning batteries and a clean memory card.

These details are important when dealing with parents, such as mine.

2)  Write out a list of items to "scavenge.".  This is how we do it:

We have different categories. One such category might be, "Picture With One Team Member."  Another might be, "Picture With All Team Members."

Under the categories are different "items" to try to find, with each item being assigned a different points value.

Herein lies the beauty of this plan:

You choose the pictures.

You choose the point values.

The power is all yours.

For example, under Picture with All Team Members, there might be:

Team Picture by a working water feature    50 points.

That is a picture of my team.

You may wonder why my mother, who is the lovely woman on the right, is bending.

No one knows.

She is, in fact, the shortest adult present.

And if you look to your far left, you might notice Jason.

Remember Jason?

I thought you might.

Here are the other two teams' portrayals of the water feature photos:

Obviously, this was the team with the looser morals.

My mother-in-law (left) is a little standoffish towards my side of the family, as is evidenced by this photo.

3)  Set a time for all teams to return and make sure to dock points for each minute late.

We find that being harsh, rigid, and cruel yields better results.

4)  Have a judging panel.  Give the judges a blank sheet that had the items with their points values for each team that participated.

5)  We have a laptop that you can just stick memory cards into and we also have some sort of cable that connects the laptop to the TV so you can view the pictures together on your tv.

Aren't we high-tech?!

This is the fun part.

Everyone gets to view everyone's pictures of each other.

Here are a few from our night:

Look at My Lumberjack!

His hands are at 10 and 2!

Oh, wait.

He is reading.

Keep your eyes on the road!

My niece just loves my birthday party idea.

Jason's lovin' it.

Three cheers for Jason!

Daisy Mae is scoring some major points for her team in the category of,

"One Team Member holding a ball."

Nice work, Daisy Mae.

Nice work.

Daisy Mae is not as thrilled to be winning

"Team Member with Fish."

My niece, Snups, and Daisy Mae "reading" a marriage self-help book.

Seems appropriate.

 We had one category where you had to find someone not on your team and take a picture with them.

My mother-in-law was not on my team.

So she is the one I chose to be photographed with:

I suspect she is trying to act like she doesn't know me!

But look at her with Jason . . .

She is certainly fine with associating with the likes of him.

 

 

Although, I am kind of acting like I don't know that fine chap.

He is, in fact, my husband.

****

So, you judge all the teams and announce the winner.

The winning team members all get King Sized Candy Bars, while the other, less-victorious team members receive consolation fun-size candies.

Then you feed everyone a delicious dinner, serve some cake, and then send them off on their merry ways.

Oh, and since I know you are all DYING to know which team won . . .

 

I mean, did you even have to ask?

Me and Jason.

Come on.

We are like the dream team.

Of course we won.

Have a lovely day!

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