Sleepless in Roanoke!!!!! A Minute To Win It "Sleepover"?!?!?!?!

So, as the story goes, this party was a "sleepover" party!  Each boy brought along their pillow, sleeping bag, and pajamas.  When arriving to the party, they were greeted with a sign that read, 

After a movie at the Valley View Cinema, inflatable water slide fun, dinner, 5 challenges (we played more in the a.m. that I have yet to post), dessert, and gift opening, we allowed the boys to play in the basement for about an hour.  We settled them down by popping in a movie.  We actually even watched about 1/3 of it with them.  Around midnight, I told them, "LIGHTS OUT".  I confiscated everyone's ipods and e-readers, said "good night" and went to bed myself.  Never in a million years did I think that WOULDN'T be the end of the story.

I set my alarm at 6:00 am to prepare breakfast for the birthday boy and his guests.  I wanted to be "ahead" of the game, not behind.  

Breakfast consisted of the following:

 A variety of boxed cereals, spool, and bowl.

 O.J., milk, bananas, bacon, and bagels with butter and cream cheese.

I heard the boys up, as soon as I stepped onto the middle floor, but I figured, "Man, they are already up?"  Beat me to it!!!  As I called them up for breakfast and began serving them, ONE of the party guests slipped and said, "We never fell asleep last night?"  I followed that up it with "Yeah right!  I believe that one!"  They all began professing.  I turned to Tyson and he wouldn't even look my way.  He and his friends apparently took that sign a little to literal!!! Had many of the boys not had sporting events that day to attend, I would have been okay with them staying up later or all night, but I had also promised many of the mothers that MIDNIGHT would be the latest they would stay up.  I wasn't too happy with Tyson.  I didn't want to ruin the awesome party memories, so I held back as best as I could (which wasn't easy), and handled it with each parent and with Tyson individually!

I am still stunned that 8 year old boys could get up Friday morning for school at 6:30 a.m. and party until 9:00 a.m. Saturday morning without a WINK of sleep!!!!  Once I found out the truth about them staying up all night, Ty was fearful that he was in deep trouble, so he ran off to the basement.  This is how I found him and Jake within 5 minutes of running from the breakfast table.

Ty passed out COLD on a couch frame, which I can say is NOT comfortable.  I woke him up and made him go sleep in his bed.  He slept from 7:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.  The only reason he woke up was because he had a baseball game to attend. While he slept, the rest of his party guests finished a few more challenges!!!  I was a little disappointed that we didn't finish the challenges with him, but I am glad he had a blast.

When everyone left, this was the condition of my basement.  Darren and I, being neat freaks, were ready and anxious to get to work cleaning it up!

I think it's safe to say, we all had a sleepover hangover and I am sure it took those boys the rest of the weekend to recover.

Minute To Win It BIRTHDAY BOY Blows Out His Candles!!!

"Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday to Tyson...
Happy Birthday to YOU!!!"

"And many more (+)"

 Our 8 year old BIG BOY!

 Bunny ears!

 Gabe put on a show.

He blew fire out of his mouth :)

If anyone is curious, these boys are shirtless because they went on the inflatable water slide prior to starting the Minute To Win It challenges.  They never changed back into their clothing.

 Opening gifts....

 "WOAH!!!! I thought this was a tissue box, but it's a money box!!!!"

 Thanks JOSH and DONNA!!!!  So creative,

Not to mention TY'S favorite... money!

 Thanks James and Gabe.... FIREWORKS!!!!!

 We have yet to use these bad boys, but Ty keeps asking to light them up!

 A heavy duty water gun.... Thanks Jake!

 "Two gift cards?"  WOW!!!  Thanks Haden and Dawn!!!!

Opening gifts was probably his favorite part.  I wonder why!?!?!?!?!

Minute To Win It "Movin On Up" Challenge

The fifth challenge was called "Movin On Up".  Players must hold a stack of blue solo cups, with (1) red cup at the bottom.  Players must move the cups, (1) at a time, using alternating hands, from the top to the bottom of the stack, trying to cycle the red cup back to the bottom of the stack.  
Movin On Up Challenge
This was the challenge that the boys tended to try and "cheat" on.  They were so determined to beat their competitor, that they would try to sneak moving two - three cups at a time.  If they were caught cheating, it only delayed them because Darren and I made them put the cups back and start over.

You can tell from the above photo, my birthday boy was getting a little "sassy" with Gabe.  He hates to loose!

 Gabe won anyway!

The dessert bar was about 10 feet away and the boys kept asking when they could pig out, so after this daunting challenge, we paused for a break to allow the birthday boy to blow out some candles and enjoy dessert with his best buds.

Minute To Win It "Rapid Fire" Challenge

The fourth challenge was called "Rapid Fire".  Players must shoot rubber bands to knock a triangle stack of 6 cans down.

Rapid Fire Challenge

The reason I love this party theme so much is because it's affordable. All party supplies could potentially be found around the home.  Rubber bands were borrowed from Bolling Steel Company and the cans were empty from Bolling consumption.

The boys' "stance" sends a false impression that they knew how to shoot a rubber band, but they really were clueless and were struggling, which led to a little bit of frustration, but they came up with clever ways to get that rubber band across the room, which created LAUGHTER.  See Gabe's face.

This challenge was by far one of the harder challenges for this age group because they didn't have the dexterity or developmental "know how" to shoot a rubber band. Darren and I competed against each other, in this challenge, and I won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It was a blast to hear the boys begin cheering for Darren (since he's a male and they assumed he'd win), but then once I was closer to winning, they began cheering for ME!!!!

Minute To Win It "Nose Dive" Challenge

The third challenge, at the "Minute To Win It" party, was called "Nose Dive". The challenge consisted of cotton balls and vaseline.  There were 6 boys total, so we divided them up into 3 teams.  Each team had an opportunity to compete in the challenge.  We gave each boy a small bowl of vaseline.  When the buzzer went off, they had to dip their nose into the vaseline, run across the room, dip their nose into a bowl of cotton balls (compiling as many as possible onto the vaseline saturated face), and run back to empty the cotton balls into a bowl, by SHAKING THEIR HEADS back and forth.  Whoever had the MOST cotton balls, in their bowl, when the buzzer stopped, was the winner!

Nose Dive Challenge

This challenge was definitely hysterical and one of my favorite challenges we did at the party because the vaseline created a ton of comedy/struggles/challenges. The only complaint is that the vaseline can be a little messy and/or hard to remove from the party guests' noses.

 Birthday boy and James went first. 

Showing off their muscles.

 Dipping their noses in the gooey vaseline.

 Dipping noses into fluffy cotton balls.

 Trying to shake cotton balls from face to empty bowl.

 "Hurry up boys! Only 29 seconds left!"

 Funny cotton ball face!

 These boys took it very seriously, but laughed a ton!

 Gabe and Josh go next.

 Look how talented Josh is, LOL!

He had at least 3-5 cotton balls on his face at a time.

 The above photo is my FAVORITE.

I love the face I captured of Haden.

He was cheering these boys on because the timer was about to go off.

This was serious stuff.

 Jake and Haden go last.

 On your mark...

 Get set....

 Go!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't wait to have a "Minute To Win It" Party to test this challenge out at home with your kids or adult friends :)