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| Tablecloth map of Middle Earth |
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| Shooting Smaug |
This weekend we hosted Kai's birthday party. His birthday was last month, but we are just now getting around to doing his shin-dig because school start-up etc takes a lot out of you! Kai had chosen a hobbit theme ages ago because he really wanted to show the movie during the party. We have read and re-read the Tolkien book, and watched and loved the movie, so this was Kai's chance to share and enjoy the story with his friends.
Because the movie is LONG, and because his buddy did it this year, Kai really wanted his party to be a sleepover. I agreed that we would, but only on the condition that we would not invite too many kids. Kai chose three boys, and they all came bearing gifts. Usually we do donations instead of gifts, so this was a first for him.
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| Got 'im! |
First the boys shot arrows at Smaug with Kai's archery set. Kai and one of his friends have had lots of practice at this, but the other two boys had never shot a bow before and thought this was super cool. They all managed to wound the dragon somewhere!
Next we had Second Breakfast at the big table (I had covered the table in paper and drew a map of Middle Earth with runes on it). The boys (and sisters) wolfed pancakes, sausages, fruit, gummy "Gollum" fish, and gummy "rings".
After the meal the hobbits went outside to blow bubbles with their pipes. This was hilarious, and while they were enjoying that, I called them to the computer one at a time to use www.thebarrowdowns.com to find their Middle Earth name. It's a name generator that will spit out your elf, hobbit, dwarf, and orc name, which I wrote on nametags for the boys so we'd all remember who we are.
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| What's In the Pocketses? |
Next we played a guessing game with the pockets. Each guest had to feel the items in the pockets without looking or putting their hand inside the fabric. They wrote down what they thought each thing was, and then we revealed what was inside.
| Then it was time for cake! I tried for a hobbit hole, and Kai was pleased with the results. | |  |
| Fireworks over Bag End |
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Now that it's dark, we gave the kiddos a sparkler to wave around outside. We'd never done this before, and it was a hit! Already the time was getting away from us and we'd had so much fun but we still had the movie to watch. So we set them up in the viewing area with popcorn but most of the boys were so stoked to play with Kai's toys that they didn't pay much attention to the movie. Never mind, they played nicely and killed some time while the movie was on in the background.
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| Hobbit-style goodie packages |
Time for bed! We settled them into the trailer for a long night of giggling and noise-making... only to be up and ready to play bright and early the next morning! I made them a big First Breakfast, and they played with all the toys and games they didn't get around to the night before. Parents came and peeled them away from the Wii, and each boy went home with a paperback copy for The Hobbit, a bubble pipe set, and a ring-pop.
A success!
