... it's been 42 days, 23 hours and 25 minutes since my last party...
As dear friends of ours set up in Melbourne for the first time in 15 years, and their kids start new schools - I am both extremely excited for them, but saddened at the same time. Distance means visits are going to be few and far between. But I have some great memories from when they lived here and when they lived in Jakarta as well - 'popping-in' frequently for a weekend or so. Any party, they would be here... but the most significant of all was Master J's 16th that we hosted. It was an international event as they flew in from Jakarta and all his friends in Singapore attended.
This was the second 16th I've hosted.... strange you would say, considering my oldest is 8. The first was held as a joint 16th/leaving party, she chose the theme - I just ran with it (more on that one another day) This party I was given free reign. I had to reveal the theme, but the activities were saved till the day. Ideas were flooding out my head for this party, I didn't want the kids to just come hang eat talk and leave - it needed to be fun, but not lame, a party that would be talked about for months later.
So I decided to base it on Fear Factor.
As are talking teenagers here, I designed the invite to be sent by email and a Facebook event was created. (yes I now am 'friends' with with 35 sixteen year olds!)
We ended up changing the time to 6pm, due to sporting commitments and the change ended up being perfect as at 3pm on the dot we had a torential downpour - - nothing worse than rain just before a party that was to be outside right?? Wrong, I couldn't have staged the set more perfectly.
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| pre-party downpour |
At 6pm droves of teenagers flocked into our place, mulling around as we waited on the last few taxied arrivals. As each one arrived we put their name in a bucket (we did this at arrival just incase we had no shows or late comers) whilst feeding them with Mr Hoe's fabulous Fish n' Chips, I organized the adults of the group that had agreed to attend with their duties as race officials. Each was given a clipboard and a team for scoring purposes.
Names were drawn randomly out of the bucket and and were placed into 5 teams of four (originally 6 but we had a couple of no shows... which meant two adults also participated in the events) There were numerous races, two were team effort, four were individual events. Each team member had to participate in one individual event each (they had to choose which one they would do and couldn't do two)
First up... Obstacle Course - - Team Event
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| Half The Arena in Daylight |
This started with all team members joined together with hands and feet by a chain and then locked with a bicycle lock in colours matching their team. When the whistle blew, they had to hobble their way to the other end of the yard as a team (minus 1point for not going as a team), where a bucket waited full of compost, blood & bone, worms and anything else disgusting we could find. Buried somewhere in each bucket was the key for the bike lock, they had to dig it out, unlock each other, once all chains were off they had to run back down the yard together as a team (minus 1point for not going as a team) where a stick in their colour, was stuck into the ground. First team member had to spin around the stick (with the forehead on the top of the stick) ten times, then run (HA!) further down the lawn to a basket full of eggs, which they then had to throw one back to the next team member. Each egg caught successfully earned them 2pts each. First team to finish and have everyone behind the line got 5 points and would be the first team in the next race. 2nd got 4 points etc..
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| Digging For Keys |
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| Digging for Keys |
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| Spinning - and that is the Birthday Boy's Father 'trying' to run to the other end of the field! |
Second Event - The Slide - Team Event.
In order of teams determined by the last race. Each team slid down a slide running with water and soap around the edge of the slide were poles, each team member was given rings and the object was to get as many rings on the poles as possible whilst still moving. Points awarded per ring and points awarded for time.
Third Event - The Skull - Individual Event
**Warning the following may be disturbing for some readers**
All Good Fear Factors have some kind of eating competition in it. Without knowing what they would be consuming someone from each team had to put their hand up for this event. Now if you don't know what is in a concoction, your imagination can run wild, especially if gross ingredients are on display. Earlier in the day, I went to the local wet market and picked up some items (that I didn't put in the milk shake... actually one item was put in) after the team members had lined up, I bought out the plate first, which contained, pigs hoof, frogs legs, durian (really stinky Asian fruit that smells like feet), heart & liver. I do have a close up of this plate, but won't sicken you all by posting that picture.
The actual milkshake (which honestly is just as gross, but actually edible) was made with-
Rice Milk, Durian, Durian Ice-Cream, avocado, and for a bit of lumpiness, Gummy worms.
Points awarded in order of finishing...
OK - SHAKE IT OFF!!!
Fourth Event- Ice Dive - Team Event.
All team members had to line up at one end of the yard. When the whistle blew, first member had to run to end of the yard, where there was a bucket full of ice (not just a little ice.... FULL OF ICE) containing 4 dive sticks. Without using their hands at all, they had to bob for the dive sticks - -talk about brain freeze! They had to pick one out with their mouth and place in the basket beside the bucket without touching it. Then run back and tag team member... and so on. Points deducted for touching the dive stick, points awarded in order of placing.
Fifth Event- The Snake Dive - Individual Event
Single team members lined up infront of the table and then blindfolded. Keep in mind, that it was FOLLOWING the Skull, and they would not even get to see the plates I put in front of them- Brave kids!
This one actually wasn't that bad, but it was more the fear of the unknown. Prior I had made massive bowls of Jelly, mixing in a gazzilion natural confectionary snakes and one rubber snake into each bowl.
Simple first to find the rubber snake wins.
Sixth Event - SCREAM factor - Individual Event
Kinda Speaks for itself.... scream your lungs out- loudest wins. Glad I warned the neighbours on this party... as was insanely loud (may want to adjust speaker volume now) and yes, one team was kind enough to let little Miss S & little Miss R compete together for their team
Seventh and final Event - Pool Challenge - Individual Event
One member from each team had to glide across the pool, using a boogy board. Had to travel as far as they could without using their hands or feet as momentum. Other teams were able to shoot them with rubber balls to try and stop their attempt. Two attempts given each.
CAKE TIME
A friend kindly offered to have a cake made at the American Club, using the graphics I had created for the invitation as edible icing, saving me some time in cooking the cake myself. Unfortunately it wasn't as big as they had said it was and was a little bit of a disappointment when it arrived, but it was delicious and did the job in the end.
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| A few of the filthy animals |
Whilst we tallied the points, kids just kept getting messier and messier (as I said, the afternoon downpour was perfect!)
Once my backyard was completely trashed, points were tallied and kids washed off a little bit, Mr & Mr C awarded prizes to the teams, which consisted of
1st Place - Megazip Passes
2nd Place - Gold Class Vouchers
3rd Place - Indonesian Goodies
4thPlace - Indonesian Goodies
5th Place - Interested Bug Infested Keyrings
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| Overall Winners (I think they were the White Team) |
Testament to what a great party was, that those not on curfews, hung around into the night, playing bullrush in the mud, swimming in the pool and basically just hanging out with us oldies as we put our feet up and relaxed.
Talked about for months to come -
CHECK
Every couple of weeks, I still get comments on the FB album of the photos, which spurs other comments reminiscing about the party.
Sweet 16th?
... maybe not, but it definitely did have the Josh Factor.
It's not a list of things like 'I will get healthier' 'I will lose 5kg' as most New Year's resolutions are. It's more about things that enrich me, my life, make me smile and make my personal relationships stronger. Some are insanely silly little things that I've wanted to try, but never have. Some I have taken from Jess's birthday list from last year as I just loved them. You may giggle at some of the items, others you may find yourself wishing to do.
