Moms can't be stopped by Mother Nature

Yesterday we had a neighborhood birthday party for five of the kids with birthdays in August - the twins being two of them. Since the majority of the birthday kids, and kids in general, are much older we themed it and planned it more for their age group. It was a Super Secret Spy School party.

The kids all received their spy badges and spy glasses and then decorated notebooks for their spy missions. They then went onto training at the laser maze and the obstacle course to refine their skills for the top secret mission - which was really a scavenger hunt of sorts. We ended the training/mission with the detention of a bomb - a.k.a. pinata. After all this fun, we opened gifts. Then we had a big pot luck dinner and continued the party until the nighttime hours.

The twins, along with a couple other younguns' in the neighborhood, hung out in the neighbor's backyard (watched by the dads and Aunt Krissy while the moms chaperoned the scavenger hunt teams) which we equipped with our sand and water table, a small blow-up bouncer, a pool with balls (too cold in shade for swimming), a climber and a bunch of other things for their amusement. They had a great time.

All this planning, all this thought and time, all these kids and... it drizzle rained the entire time. The. Entire. Time. We were soaked. SOAKED. But there was no stopping us after all that preparation and planning... no way. And it's not like the kids cared about getting wet at all. However, for gifts and dinner, we invaded Kris and Kurt's house (sorry guys, but thank you!) and didn't miss a beat.

Here are a few (thousand) highlights:

Ethan's spy badge, notebook, spy glasses and some of the clues from the top secret (scavenger hunt) mission.

Birthday cupcakes (ice cream and cake together) - the five birthday children are on the right end - Collin, Oliver, Ryan, Andy and Anna. Yes, we loaded them up with sugar first thing!

Collin enjoying his cupcake. (Oliver just wanted to play)

Some of the kids enjoying their cupcakes.

Oliver and Aunt Krissy playing.

Daddy and Collin playing.

The laser maze.

Decorating spy notebooks, with spy glasses on.

Collin loving the airplane swing (which apparently Oliver did too).

The little bounce house.

This is hard to see, but it is all the kids running to the next training mission, which was the obstacle course. (it was quite funny)

Here is Jeff explaining the obstacle course. First, you started in the tunnel and as you came out the octopus arms would get you (foam pool things being shook by someone), then you ran to the cones where you tried to get a big rubber frog into a bucket of water, then you had to ride a razor scooter along a narrow piece of wood, then roll over a giant ball (literally roll over it), then kick a soccer ball into a net, then run a course of like 10 cones and kick them all over and then it ended with taking a ride on a wagon down a hill. Whew! Sugar energy be gone!

Here are some photos of the scavenger hunt. The clues were mostly riddles, which the kids had to figure out. There were a total of eleven clues (places). They led them to places in all our yards on the court. Once they figured it out and went to the place, there was an activity they had to do. And then they got a sticker in their passport. Alyssa and I had team #2, which were the four and five year olds. Here are a few of the activities they had to do once they solved the clue and went to the place:

Here they had to get water balloons into the pool from behind the cones. If you look close you will notice this is mid toss and there are some balloons in the air.

Here is a hidden area under some pine trees that they like to go and make mounds and things. The activity, once here, was to build a mound for a volcano. The moms then put the baking soda and vinegar in which caused an "eruption."

They had two minutes to build a castle here.

Judy and Mike were nice enough to put out their Halloween spider (in their front yard) for the event. This clue was "I am big and black and sometimes hairy, when you see me it can be scary. What am I?"

They had to all, obviously, pile up on the slide at the same time.

Oliver going through the laser maze after the party. (Collin went through with Aunt Krissy, who is ahead of Oliver)

The final mission, the detention of the bomb... pinata that is.

Getting ready for gifts pile up in Kris' house. Look at all those kids (and that's not all of them).

Collin and Oliver with Click the Camera.

I somehow didn't get any photos of dinner in the house and garage. Probably because there was a mad dash by all, as the weather went from the constant drizzle to a downpour, to get tables and chairs and food grilled in the pouring down rain. Kurt and Kris were out in the rain cooking the burgers and Kris said water was literally pooling on the burgers when she would open the grill to flip them (and yes, that was with an umbrella over her). Regardless, the food was fabulous and the company was great. The party over all was a HUGE hit.

So Mother Nature, you should know how head strong moms are... you couldn't "rain on" our party.