Birthday party in the woods

So Saturday was the big day - the day of Tom's party.  Not being particularly great with other people's children, I once again opted to pay someone to do it for me.  Being an outdoors family, I decided to risk the weather and organise an outdoor treasure hunt in the woods. I had found someone on Facebook who arranges them and thought they looked fun and a great idea, so I took the plunge and just hoped that the weather would be kind to us.  First of all it was going to be boys only, but Tom being Tom, he wanted to invite some girls, although he couldn't tell us which girls.  In the end we went to see Miss Swindlehurst to ask her who he plays with, with surprising results.  Apparently his 'best' girl friend is Annabel - a girl he has never ever mentioned at home before! So we invited her, another girl we don't really know, Leah and then 3 friends: Evie, Caitlin and Freya.  However, both Freya and Leah pulled out at the last minute, so we had 7 boys and 3 girls - which gave a very different dynamic to their class at school.

The lady I had employed is a German lady who is into fell running etc but has children one of whom is the same age as Tom and has devised these outdoor 'healthy' birthday parties for them.  She did her job really well - she devised a treasure hunt - she had clues telling the children which paths to take to find the next clue.  Sometimes they had to find things, other times they were given things to do and other times things to find.  First of all though they had to learn to read a map and understand North, South, East and West.  This they did well.  When we arrived it was quite frosty and cold (we had to drive through snowy roads in thick fog) but as the hunt got underway it cleared and it actually ended up quite warm, with the adults having to carry lots of stripped off clothing.

Den Building

Charlie, Matthew and Tom

The first clue was at the junction of 2 streams.  This was found and they were challenged to build a den and have a photo with Tom in the middle of it.  They did well and nobody got poked in the eyes! They were then all given compasses and had to navigate to find a chocolate tree.  I think at this point the adults realised that they had forgotten how to use one (including me) so most the children went in completely the wrong direction.  Luckily Jo was on hand to put us right and the chocolate tree was found and chocolates consumed.  

Serious looking Tom

Hot chocolate and oreos

Next the children had to navigate to an orienteering post and sing happy birthday to Tom when they found it.  They all ran ahead and we were treated to a very loud chorus of 'Happy Birthday'.  Here they also found a tree hiding some oreo cookies - obviously a magic forest!  They carried on finding clues here and there and had a game of 'hot' and 'cold' to find 3 flasks of hot chocolate hidden in a wall, so everyone had a rest and re-energised themselves with oreos dipped in hot chocolate.   They then had to make arrows on the path to show us the way to another clue.  This is where the difference between girls and boys became apparent.  The boys just dived into a bush looking for it, whilst the girls actually listened and realised that the boys were looking in the wrong place and found it themselves - well done girls!  

They then found a tree hiding some jelly tots and then spent some time in a bird hide.  At this point they had found all the letters in the treasure hunt.  These were re-arranged to make the word 'Picnic Area' so they all ran to the picnic area to find the treasure chest.  It took some time for the clue to be found but once it was, there was some scrabbling around in another bush and the treasure chest was found.  They surrounded Tom as he opened it - it was full of compasses (I refuse to do party bags), they dived in.  It was a great morning - took us 2 hours, the kids enjoyed it (apart from Harrison who insisted on being carried on his Dad's shoulders because he had a stingy tongue!) It certainly was different.

Treasure chest has been found

They all dive in.

The kids then played together very very well whilst I got lunch ready.  I had made a huge pot of curry and bought poppadoms and naan bread with all the sauces for dipping.  I know from speaking to Tom and others that curry day at school is really popular so I thought I would be ok with curry - especially as it was cold and they had all been walking / running for 2 hours.  Not so, Tom and Finn ate up - the others pretty much ignored it.  Not a problem though, as the adults were hungry and ate it all up.  There was non left at the end - I had made a huge stock pot full!

Finn, Lucas and Fred

Al fresco lunch in the sun in February!

The party was rounded off with cake (of course!).  This year it was a Super Komachi Shinkansen.  Knowing the actual vehicle would be lost to everyone there, I made his name and age from lego - this was appreciated by everyone.  The cameras came out en masse when the cake arrived - I was surprised because most of the parents were male as this was an outdoor event - I didn't think guys would be so interested by it - but they were and after that I was quizzed big time on how, why, what etc.  This time most of the children and all the adults ate the cake - just as well as it was quite big.

Blowing out the candles

The children then went to play whilst we cleared up.  It was a brilliant morning - the weather as you can see from this last photo was fantastic - who thought we would be wearing just T-shirts outside in February?!  One by one the children disappeared off back home, we were sad to leave.

Not to worry, most of us met up again at the playground in Ingleton in the afternoon for a play and Matt ended up going out for the night in The Old Post Office with one of the Dads.  A good day.