Maddie's 7th Birthday

It is hard to believe that Maddie is already 7 YEARS OLD!!! In some ways it seems like only yesterday that we were eagerly awaiting her birth - and on the other hand, it was a lifetime ago! This year, we decided to do a scavenger hunt birthday party for her. This was quite the undertaking for the anti-creative soul that I am!!! But, I don't know about everyone else, but it seems like they are charging more and more to host birthday parties "off location" these days. I mean come on - why should it cost $250 - $300 to have a birthday party somewhere.

So, I decided we would do this party at home. I bought little wooden treasure chests that my dad spray painted purple (thank you Dad!), that the kids decorated with stickers, and gem stickers and I had a Bible verse that we pasted inside.

Once the kids were finished with this, we divided them up into 2 teams. Each team had a digital camera and would have to find the clue but also do an activity for a picture. I hired youth from our church to run the hunt (and do the craft) - they would have things like - "I have keys but they don't unlock the door . . ."KEYBOARD. "I made Snow White fall fast asleep" . . .APPLE.

Well, it ended up that they looked for the clues which led them to the final Treasure Chest and then they filled up the mini chests that they had decorated earlier - IT WAS A FABULOUS PARTY!!



Now, let's rewind - Me and Maddie had spent the night in the ER - she started having breathing problems during her soccer game the day before - it later escalated into major abdominal pains. So, after a battery of tests thru the night and the diagnosis of Maddie needing to poop and maybe has exercise induced asthma - we returned home at 4 AM!!!



So, these clues that I came up with were from sleep deprived state in about one hour's time before the party - and it went well - I am so excited!!