My baby is EIGHT

Yes, he's officially eight. I can't even believe where the time has gone, but then again it seems like he's been waiting to turn 8 for forever. He's chosen to be baptized, and many grandma's and grandpa's wanted to be here, so we're throwing in a Thanksgiving holiday and we'll have a full house at the end of November for all of the baptism fun. I'm going to be a big puddle of mama-tears. He'll be embarrassed by that. Oh well, that's what I do.

I decided to do a fun party for Jacob this year, big 8 and everything. He's in love with the National Treasure movies and detective stuff, so that's the party I went for. I got pretty ambitious and boy am I glad it's over. Here's a quick rundown.

The invites.


It's hard to read, but most of the invitation was backwards, so they had to put it in front of a mirror to read it. It basically said that the birthday pizza and cake has been stolen, join Chief Detective Jacob and solve the clues to find your lunch.

So, when the kids came, they decorated secret slap wrist bracelets and detective badges. I took their pictures for their badges and put them on. And they each got a detective bag. In it was a pair of black spy sunglasses, a notepad, a pencil and some candy.

The first clue was written on the inside of an empty Dominoes Pizza box. The people at Dominoes probably think I'm nuts, now, I bought 8 pizzas and one empty box! "I decided to take your pizza for a little ride on a covered slide."

The first clue took them to the slide in the playground behind our house. There they found a bag full of small magnifying glasses and a clue that was printed on the paper really tiny. "I was too quick for you to see, but now I'm hiding in Jacob's favorite tree." They had to use the magnifying glasses to read the tiny clue.

Second clue was a bag full of play money tied to a tree branch where the kids always climb. "Without some money you will see it's not as easy as you think it will be. To figure out the next clue, you must buy something that's blue. Find Jacob's mom, give her a holler, then choose careful and spend 50 dollars."

When they found me, I had 10 Dollar store toys, all blue colored, and they each picked one out and paid me $5. They opened them and one of them had a clue in it. "You're getting close, so the clue is hard, you have to paint color onto some cards. When you find whatever is hidden, put them together to see what is written. Go to the round table" They found this clue taped under the kitchen table.


On each card was one word each: FIND THE NEXT CLUE INSIDE THE GARAGE

The next clue was in our garage. "Your pizza looks yummy, it's going to get cold! Ready to eat, ready to feast? Find your pizza and cake directly EAST!" They had to figure out how to use a compass to point directly east where they would find their pizza and cake. Well our neighbors left their garage unlocked when they moved, so I was in that empty garage with all the pizza and cake and Jacob's present from us, a new bike. They found it and me when they opened the garage door and they all started screaming.

So, we ate pizza and cake, and played and rode bikes for the rest of the afternoon. It started raining right when we were finishing up thank goodness. We cleaned up a big mess and David and the kids' played with the toys. It was a fun day...