With Ezra and Irene's birthdays so close together, they happened to both fall during the VoB retreat, so we decided to wait until this week to have a special day for them. We decided that the theme for them should be a Farm theme, with farm animal crackers, mac and cheese, fresh veggies, local hard-boiled eggs (doesn't get more local than your own back yard...) and a barn cake with cupcakes that looked like either hay or grass. We put the cows and sheep on the grass (all grass-fed, right?) and the chickens and pigs on the hay.
Our friends, the Vaughns, happened to be in the neighborhood for their homeschool co-op, so we told them they should come by and celebrate with us.
We set up various games for them to play. The first was Pigs in a Pen. (I kept calling it Pig in a Poke from European Vacation.)
The object was to stomp the pink balloons and get the quarters and dimes inside.
Then we split the kids up. Some played horseshoes (I swear Elijah should go pro).
Others played Pin the Tail on the Cow. Ezra Vaughn managed to nail it dead on. I think that having a cow at home gave him an advantage.
Even Irene got in on the act.
Then the kids played Pin Drop.
The idea is to drop the clothespin into the jar. It looks easy until you're standing on that chair doing it yourself.
The last event was an egg race. The kids had to carry an egg in a spoon around the hay bale while zig-zagging between the stumps. Once they got around , they were to take the egg and throw it at the bullseye. Unfortunately, I vastly underestimate how strong our chickens' eggs would be. They just bounced off the hay bale and landed in the grass. The kids finally started throwing them at the tree behind the hay.
Irene took a throw or two.
Show-off. :)
We also had a duck pool for the kids to splash around and cool off.
And last, but not least, our kids had a few sack races. Sadly the Vaughns had had to leave just before then, but we still made a go of it.
After everything was cleaned up and the littles went down for naps, I took the older 3 to see some farm work in action; namely, cutting, raking and baling hay... But that's another post. :)
The kiddos got some very cool gifts and had such a wonderful time. It's always fun to play games together as a family and with friends.
Happy Birthday Ezra and Irene!
