Saturday, May 31, 2014

Family Feud

It's the well-known family game of FEUD!  That's the second game I chose for the end of the year party.  The other room parent, Stacey, created all of the questions and basically headed up this game. The marshmallow game kicked my behind. LOL!  I needed a break from trying to reign in the attention of (42) 9 year old, wild, and crazy kids.  Hehe.
Stacy did a great job explaining the game (just incase someone had never watched or played it before.) The first to "face off" were Avery and Beckett.

Question #1: "Name something that you would hate to find underneath your bed?"

Avery Willard answered: dog poop.  LOL! No, dog poop was NOT an answer, but very possible.  Beckett answered: my brother's underware.  LOL!  NO, also NOT an answer.  The kids that could hear the answers were laughing so hard.
Then Jimmy and Jaiden "faced off".  

Question 2: "Name something you do when you are sick?"
Top Answers:
Eat Soup
Vomit
Sleep
Take Off
Take Medicine 
As Stacy read the questions allowed, her little guy clung to her leg.  I love this shot. I don't blame the little fella.  It was so LOUD in the gym.  The girls, especially, kept squealing uncontrollably. 
Next up, Olivia and Rosella "faced off".
And finally, Emma and Kayleigh "faced off".
I think the classes LOVED this game and it was sad when the teachers said it was time to get back to class.

A special thanks to Ms. Rottkamp for allowing us to use her bell as the "buzzer".
Darren was the score keeper and he ruled that Ms. Scott's class won again!

Their prize was a FREE round of Bowling at the Lee Hi Bowling Alley.  I would like to give a special thanks to Lee Hi Bowling Alley.  I called the manager and asked if they would donate 22 free games of bowling and they did.  Support your local Bowling Alleys, LOL!

Marshmallow Toss

Not only was I in charge of the 3rd graders goody bags, but I was also in charge of preparing two games for the end of the year party.  The first game I planned was a "Marshmallow Toss", which consists of marshmallows and people. I was really excited about this game because I knew it would create a ton of laughs and it would also be a great stress reliever for these children who have been studying and testing for almost a month straight.  NOT TO MENTION, who wouldn't wish to throw marshmallows at their teachers.
Thinking ahead of the game, I filled up 42 cups of marshmallows, the night before the party, so that when it was time to play, the students weren't waiting on me to fill them up. 
 I used my new 31 cooler bag to store them over night.  LOVE IT! 
The Object:
Both 3rd grade teachers sat across from each other with buckets on their heads.  Both classes had a task... to fill up the buckets with marshmallows.  "Whichever class fills up their bucket the highest with marshmallows, WINS. 
 I allowed the ladies to go first.  
See Ty behind Mrs. Zimmerman?  HAHA. He was catching the marshmallows that didn't land in the bucket, in his mouth. AND if you look closely, that kid is STILL sporting his mustache for the SCA Vice President candidacy (he put it on at 7:00 am and at that point it was 1:30 pm). 
These smiles made my day!
Check out those marshmallows all over the floor.  
The boys went second!
I LOVE this photo.  Mason is so into his marshmallow tossing that he had his tongue assist him :)
Mrs. Scott's team!
Her girls were also really excited and giggly as they tossed marshmallows at their teacher.
The teachers were really great sports about it.
The boys had an incredible strategy. There were a TON of marshmallows NOT landing in the buckets (from the girls).  The boys began picking up the marshmallows, that FELL onto the floor, to use when it was their turn.
The winner was Mrs. Scott's team and each student received a water shooter.

Mrs. Zimmerman's class was so bummed.  

Here's the DOWNFALL about this game... the kids made a poor choice and smashed the marshmallows that fell, onto the gymnasium floor, making both the bottom of their shoes and the gym floor a sticky mess.  I highly advise doing this game outside, preferably on a night that it is going to rain :) otherwise you will have a massive ant farm in your backyard.  Darren, myself, and a few other amazing moms stayed behind and basically clorox wiped the entire floor.  Then the janitors had to use the industrialized machine to reclean the gym floor.  LOL!  

Orioles - Game #11

Today's game was I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E!!!! The team we played hasn't lost a game in 2 years.  Ty scored the first "point" and from then on the coaches and team were on FIRE!  We played 5 innings and were up by 3 points (score 4 to 2).  The last play, during the LAST inning, the bases were loaded and the other team hit a home run!  BOOOOOOOO!  The final score was 4 to 6.  The team was so upset.  And so were we.... the parents.  LILAH even cried when she heard they lost.  It was a very intense game and it truly kept us on the edge of our seats.  
Below are a few of my FAVORITE photos from the game, but feel free to click on the album below to view ALL of them!
Will's face explains the loss to a "T".  Did we really just loose that game?
 Tears of sorrow filled the Orioles' eyes.  This photo is heartbreaking.
 Hat off and all...
 More tears...
 What girls do while their brothers play baseball... apply make-up.

"Have A Kool Summer!"

As co-room parent, I've taken on some major responsibilities this year.  The room parent and I, Stacey, have worked incredible together.  When she has been unavailable, I would just assume the roll as room parent and visa versa.  The entire 3rd grade, at Fort Lewis Elementary School, has been very limited on parties this year.  They are getting BIG! No time for play, sniff, sniff. Since they've had an entire month of reviews and SOL testing, the teachers rewarded them with a party.  "Class Zimmerman's" class  (Ty's Class) chose to be in charge of the goody bag and the games, while "Class Scott's" class agreed to do snack and drinks.

I took the lead at heading up both the goody bag and the games.  I had 42 students to shop for. This would be no easy task.  First, I emailed the parents and asked for cash donations.  I collected over $115 dollars, so I had a decent budget to work with.  I knew I NEEDED an affordable gift, but I also knew I wanted something impressive, yet practical.  I think these kids are over pencils and erasers AND the parents are over mounds of candy and little toy trinkets.  Here's what I decided on...

Water bottles filled with goodies!
 Filled with colorful bouncing balls.
 "Kool"-aid packets!
Colorful bubble wands.
Airheads
The bottles were so colorful and fun looking, but I just felt like something was missing.  And then it hit me. They needed to be personalized.  YES!!!! That's it.  I considered purchasing vinyl myself and attempting to create the names on my cricut, but I chose to try Etsy first and see if it would be in the budget to just pay someone to do the names for me.  I contacted 3 sellers on Etsy and chose to go with Blue Moon Boutique NC.  Her first quote was $1.00 per bottle... YIKES, but then she agreed to $20.00 total (.50 cents a bottle).  YEA!!!!!! Originally, I inquired about much larger vinyl lettering (I didn't realize it), so her price went down since the names only need to be 5" tall.

I literally ordered the names four days before my deadline and Blue Moon Boutique delivered AND on time.  Fortunately, she is located in Raleigh, NC.  Below are the 42 names.
Eeek!  This meant my job was NOT done and it also meant, with less than 16 hours until the party, I needed to "get cracking!"
I applied all of the names to the bottles.  It would have been a SIMPLE task, but I ordered 5" names when I should have ordered 4" names.  Some of the children's names were so long and I was having a hard time fitting their names on their smoothly.
You see the letter "e" here?  Rest assured, I did NOT leave this water bottle looking this way.  I had to carefully "tuck" it under the cap's ring. That part took time and several attempts sometimes, but eventually, I got it looking flawless.
The item would NOT have been complete without a fun printable attached, so I went ahead and used the Kool-aid packet, located in the very front of the bottle, visible for the kids to see, as my reference point for my printable. The printable reads, "Have A Kool Summer!"
Tada!
 There's my Ty guy's bottle!
 Here are a few others.  They really photograph well, haha!
The Front: Above
The Back: Below
The back!
When I was passing these out, you could tell the kids were super excited to have a personalized water bottle filled to the brim with goodies.  They arrived at the perfect time... FIELD Day is Monday and hopefully they will bring them to Field Day to use, to keep cool!

So the million dollar question everyone probably wants to know is... "How much did the end result cost?

I'll break it down for you.  

Water Bottles: Purchased at Michael's craft store.  Originally, $1.49 each, but I had a 30% your ENTIRE order. Yahoooooooooo! 

Water Bottle $1.04

Vinyl Names: Purchased at Blue Moon Boutique: $.50 cents each

Name: $.50 cents

Balls: Purchased at Michael's craft store.  Originally, $1.99 (12 balls to a pack and I needed 4 packs), but I had a 30% off your ENTIRE order.  Yahooooooooo!

Ball: $.17 cents

Bubbles: Purchased at Michael's craft store.  Originally, $1.99 (12 bubbles to a pack and I needed 4 packs), but I had a 30% off your ENTIRE order.  Yahooooooooo!

Bubbles: $.17 cents

Kool-aid packets: Purchased at Wal-mart 5 for $1.00.

Kool-aid: $.20 cents

Airheads: Purchased at Sam's Club.  90 airheads for $7.00.  Each child got TWO LARGE airheads.

Airhead $.16

Bubble Gum: Purchased at Sam's Club, but I ALREADY had it from Ty's Valentines he did back in February for his classmates.  I believe a bucket of 200 pieces is like $7.00

Gum: $.5 cents each

GRAND TOTAL: $2.12 EACH x 42 students equals: $89.04 give or take a little due to tax.  

I have a little over $29 left over for games and prizes.  I'm pretty proud of myself for such a "KOOL" gift, for such little cost.