the good, the bad, and the....

For the last couple Summers we've thrown a particular kind of party. Our four oldest kids' birthdays are all late in the year when Northwest Washington punishes those folk who decided to move up here after visiting in the Spring. These times not conducive to fun, outdoor parties.



So each year we pick one of our favorite read-a-loud books that we went through as a family and loosely base a party on it. This year the book was the somewhat obscure, likely out of print, but utterly riveting Wait For Me, Watch For Me, Eula Bee. Great book; pick it up from the library some time.



Last year we tried to design activities and stations that represented certain passages in the book. We were quite a bit lazier this year. Essentially, the book was set in the Old West, so our party had an Old West theme.



We encouraged people to dress for the occasion.








Some people had really great costumes that clearly took some thought and effort.

Other people... not so much.

Of course we had face painting because everyone in the Old West had their faces painted.

Eula Bee was a rather violent book. Probably has a lot to do with why our boys liked it so much. In homage to numerous battles carefully detailed in the book we "hunted for our dinner".

We hunted turkeys with a bow and arrow, hunted buffalo with BB guns, and threw knives and tomahawks at turkeys. And by "hunted" I mean we shot at pictures of the animals that we set up as targets.

We had quite the arsenal.

Of course safety was our first priority.

Seriously though, no one was hurt. Parents were involved where needed.

The only real downer came courtesy of the rain that pretty much dumped on us throughout the course of the party. Now, our house isn't exactly tiny but kids and adults numbered over 40. This created a little bit of an issue when it came time to eat. Fortunately we roll with some pretty chill folk. Families of five, six, and seven, etc found nice plots of hardwood throughout our house and formed sort of an indoor picnic.

Some even found their way to the porch with the shoes. 40 shoeless folk means a lot of shoes.

Despite the hiccups we are committed to keeping this tradition going, though we may push for an earlier date next year to lessen the likelihood of rain.

I'll end with pictorial commentary from my four year old.