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.
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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I have to say that I am stealing this idea! I love this party idea.
Thanks for the great post and your photos are looking good as well!
I love this idea! It sounds like great fun!
I think your idea is awesome!! We have four birthdays in July so this will be a winner for a mass celebration!
You are just so cute and funny- I love it! What a fun thing to do with family even if it’s not a birthday!
I think it is an awesome idea that my family would “poo-poo” right away. Pardon the bathroom language! Personally I love it! Maybe if I start mentally preparing them now for Levi’s bday in July they will be on board! Well done, Taylor, well done!
P.S. It may just be me and something with my computer, but the photo that is apparently of you and Jason–the winning team one, is just a blank square with a red x. Is it just me? I’m so disappointed not to see the pic!!
ooooh. I would totally win that game.
I am quite competitive.
And I cheat when necessary.
Kidding.
ps the picture of your team is missing! gasp!
No pic for me either 🙁 Just a box with a little red with an x, only on the winning photo, the rest are fine. At any rate, great idea and it kills some time and gets everyone out of the house, what a bonus!
Weird? It is working when I look. But it is just the same exact picture of our team by the water feature. 🙂
That sounds like fun. And congratulations on your win!!
In the above pictures you can really tell that the Lumberjack and Jason are brothers. Does that have anything to do with the price of tea in China? Not really.
2 pics arent working for me 🙁
love the idea! how fun
Our Sunday School class did this and we had a blast!
Sounds like fun…we did this on a work trip in Aruba. We were in teams of 4 and were in jeeps…we had to drive all over the island and take pics of various things. Our team won (naturally) and we got a trophy. A king size candy bar would have been better.
Sounds fun. Only, it seems to take foresight, which I seldom have, and tend to throw it all together last minute and there’s always so many people no one notices.
Except, of course my 9 yr old wants a Survivor party this year. Pretty sure that will take some planning.
Dang.
Sounds like fun to me! We used to do those a lot way back in my youth group days. I personally love to plan parties! I love the challenge of being the hostess with the mostest!
The pics with you and your mom and law and Jason and his mom made me laugh so hard! She totally looked like she was acting like she didn’t even know you!
I think that sounds very fun! My kids would love it.
And I have to confess that I enjoy the repeated photo of your dad listening (?) to the laptop even better than Jason snorkeling.
P.S. I sent an email a couple of days ago to your TLJW address. I’m not sure how often you check it, so I thought I’d mention it here. 🙂
Totally stealing that idea for a Mom’s Night Out! LJ has a CB Radio. That made me giggle. 10-4 Good Buddy!
I love things that are fun and cheap…what a great idea!
That sounds like great fun. 🙂
Marla @ http://www.asthefarmturns.wordpress.com
We play the same game! Another thing we have in common. Wait……do we have anything else in common? Well, whatever……congratulations on winning!!
This sounds like a great time! I sure hope my family goes for this. I really love your blog; you have such an awesome way with words and you never fail to crack me up. Have a great day.
Great idea! And yay! for the return of the ‘Jason photo’ Always laugh out loud when I see it now!
Thanks!
Love this! I’m going to have to incorporate this into the next party I do. Thanks for the idea and making me smile again on a not so fun evening here with my crazies.
What does it say that you loathe planning birthday parties and I love planning them, but we both came up with pretty much the same idea?… I guess I’m the one that should be worried, huh?