Wills 14th B-Day Archery Tag Dec 2017

Archery Tag

For Will's 14th Birthday we took him and his friends to play archery tag.  The arrows have a large nerf button on the end but it can still hurt.  We played archery tag for his grandma's birthday a few months ago.  Scott shot Amy in the neck and left a huge welt.  Scott also shot Steph on the leg and left a huge bruise.  So yeah it can still hurt. The boys had never done anything like this before so they were pumped.  I just bought pizza, chips, and waters for the rest of it.  It was the perfect thing for a 14 yr old boys birthday party.

Ryan and Will

Jeff, Porter, Brennen, Ryan, Jackson, Ryan, Jarom, Jamison, Peter.

Fortunately no one got badly hurt this time.

14 candles on a cup cake is quite the sight.

William Bass Claranet 2018

2017

2018

William was asked if he was willing to change instruments because his band has so many clarinets.  When he came home to talk to us about it, I suggested the bass clarinet rather than the saxophone because it would open more doors and he would have more opportunities.  There are very few bass clarinets and about a thousand saxophones.

He's been liking it and even joined the marching band

Mascot Bowl Sept 2017

Every year the Skyridge Junior High football team has a game against the famous and local mascots of the area.  Its a charity game that earns money for Christmas for poor kids in the area.  All the college mascots were there, as was the Jazz Bear and the Beez mascot as well.  They have a lot of fun.  Will said "I don't know how hard to tackle them.  I'm afraid I'll hurt them."

The mascots won the game mostly because they didn't play by the rules but that's what made it so fun. It was funny to watch them deliberately take the ball away from the boys and plow everyone over.

They dropped a football out of this helicopter from  500 feet and a dare devil guy on the ground caught it and broke a record.

Real Salt Lake Lion was spraying us down with silly string.

William Skyridge Football Aug 2016

William started football this year.  He was pretty excited to try this new sport.  I found it hard for me to watch.  Not because my kid gets hurt but because I am super compatative and these kids are not.  They are all new to the sport and have no idea what they are doing but it can be frustrating for us on the side lines.He played both offensive and defensive.  It was interesting to see the varying sizes of all the players because 7th graded grow at such different paces.  Some kids were basically full grown men where others like my William were not even 5 feet tall yet.  One kid came off the field crying and saying he was sick of getting hit.  My first thought was "dude you picked the wrong sport football is all about getting hit."  what came out of my mouth was, "If you don't want to get hit than you need to run faster!"  He wasn't very happy with me but sometimes I must admit these kids are a bunch of wusses. Don't worry out of all the games that was my only slip of the tongue.  Fight on Falcons

Will's Jedi B-day Dec 2015

This

was the year we finally did a Star Wars birthday party.  As I thought and thought about what we should do to make this party super awesome and age appropriate along with Williams wishes I came up with a fabulous idea.

William LOVES a scavenger hunt so I created a Jedi mission for the boys to gather the supplies they needed to build their own light sabers.  The first obstacle I had to overcome was which materials to use for them to make their own light sabers. After searching on the Internet I got a basic idea but it had to be cost effective.  Remember I only spend $50 max on a party.  So what does any DIYer do...she goes to Home Depot for inspiration.  I knew I was going to use a flashlight for the light source the trouble was what material was I going to use for the shaft.  It had to be something the right diameter for the flashlight and be able to shine the light through.  I also wanted it durable enough to stand up to boys because we all know they are going to use them to hit things with. I found the perfect thing in the pluming isle.  They come in red and blue so and with some rubber washers a PVC sprinkler cross fitting was going to work perfectly to put everything together. Add a little duct tape and voila a super sturdy light saber the boys could assemble.  

Now came the hard part.  He invited about 12 kids and if you know scavenger hunts there is always those few kids that are left out because the quicker one get to the items first.  To avoid this I split the kids up into 3 groups.  The down side was because I split the light saber into 4 separate parts that meant I had to come up with a lot of places and a lot of clues to find each part that wasn't the same as another groups. I tried to have each clue be star wars themed and when possible a star wars character or object also near the hiding place. I put the key words of where the object was hidden in bold letters. The kids are smart but they are also 11 year old boys. Group A's went like this

1. The Sar Lac pit is the darkest abyss

 you can find on this land. 

 For your piece do not miss.

  Its back in the beyond

 and your first piece is there

  So travel on down and travel with care.

The answer to this was under the trampoline in the backyard   

2. Your next piece to collect is near the next land

over in the crevice of the tree 

in that area rover up and down 

and around and around 

until the material can be found

This answer was our big Willow tree where Yoda was waiting

3.Your Jedi quest is proving successful.  

Your 3rd piece to find will not be so restful.

  To the front in the green its a holocron shape.

 Only these ones are larger and there are 2 in the 'scape

The answer to this  were 2 big square shaped bushes in our front yard

4. In a cavern of wood 

look for your part to be used

 to add to your weapon,

 this is not a ruse

. Near the windows of the ship,

 by the side of the wall, 

under the steps made of wood 

if you choose not to fall.

 This answer was under the deck

5. The last piece that you need 

to build this grand device 

is in the receptacle that's smell is not nice. 

 The best of the 3 its not green but is blue

fear not to look in for its the cleanest of all.

  Choose the best of the 3.

This was obviously the recycle garbage can

6. You have found all your pieces now return to the shop for instructions on how to build without slip. Find Obi wan for lessons on how to become a great Jedi. You must go in now.

Once they came in side and learned how to put together their light saber my husbands dressed in his Obi wan costume and taught them how to battle where each of them got to battle it out with him.  

This was the gist of the whole party and the boys absolutely loved it.  Only  1 group needed help with one of their clues  but they had a great time trying to decipher them.  each part was put in a brown paper bag with either A, B, or C written on it so they wouldn't be able to steal another groups parts.

Sleeping Kids May 2015

I woke up to find all my boys huddled together on my floor.  I was a little confused as to why they were there and my door was locked.  Typically if they find their way in my room they leave the door wide open, they never lock it.  Then I came across this note.  I guess it explains everything.

Apparently something big went down while I was sleeping.  I guess I am just glad they didn't wake me up.

lemonade and apricots Aug 2014

The boys wanted to earn some money so they put a stand together.  We have more than enough apricots to feed the entire neighborhood so I helped them make a sign.  William was really funny, he said he needed Peter for the cute factor, Brennen as a sign twirler, and he would be the business man.  I think he nailed it.  They made $7 off of apricots and lemonade.  Not bad for an afternoon.