Magic Tree House Birthday Party

Glenn's actual birthday was on a Friday, but we had his party on Saturday.  I had commissioned my good friend Cassandra--she's made all the other cakes I've mentioned--to make an awesome cake for Glenn.  Friday night it was all ready and I picked it up.  Isn't it awesome?!

I knew that she would do a great job, but it actually looked like a tree house!  The tree looked real, the outer layer looked like slats of wood, the picture of the kids actually looked like the kids!  It was so AMAZING!

So Glenn got a Magic Tree House birthday party.  He started reading the books this year and had read 26 of 52!  The basic premise for these books are the two kids--Jack and Annie--find a tree house in the woods near their house.  They go inside, see a book, start reading it and think how cool it would be to go there.  They say, "I wish we could go there..."  And magically they do!

So that's what the kids got to do at the party.  Glenn got to invite a few friends over to go on these adventures with him.

Matthew. Ophelia with Emerson. Seth. Glenn. Daniel. Emily.

First the kids had to climb into the tree house.  Paul had I made our bed the tree house.  We even went so far as to move it to the middle of the room so it would be underneath the fan and so we could hold up the 'walls' all around it.  Thankfully we had some parents stay and help us.  Thanks Denson's and Katya!

Once inside the tree house, the kids got to hear a message about their adventure.  They had 5 different missions to go on, collecting a prize and a token after each one.  The token would be part of a puzzle they would figure out at the end.  

After choosing a book, they had to say, "I wish we could go there!"  And off they went!

The words from the books say:

"The wind started to blow.

The tree house started to spin.

It spun faster and faster.

Then everything was still.

Absolutely still."

The first stop was among the dinosaurs.  The kids needed to help baby dinosaurs "pop" out of the shells to be safe from the T-Rex.  It was loud and crazy, but fun!  The best part was the little dinosaur toys that were the prize for helping them escape.

The next mission was outside.  They went to Greece to participate in the Olympics!

Here they are getting their instructions...

We had them play ladder ball and then run a relay race around the ladders and us.  Each kid got a gold medal for doing such a great job.

Back inside and back into the tree house.  Once we said the magic words, we arrived in Hawaii.  This time the kids got to go "surfing".  Once the music stopped they had to jump onto their surfboards.  If you were left without one, you got to choose when to stop the music for the next round.  And to celebrate, each child got a lei to wear!

Our fourth trip in the magic tree house was to a pirate island.  We needed to follow clues to find the pirate's treasure.  The kids took turns reading and leading the hunt.

The hunt took us all around our apartment building and finally into an open area where we found the treasure!  Chocolate gold coins for everyone!

Glenn and some friends showed us their pirate faces.  Pretty cute!

The kids were pretty excited for their last mission--and this one was pretty special.  After saying, "I wish we could go there" we landed on the moon!!

Each child needed to land their rocket ship or their astronaut sticker onto the moon--blindfolded!  

After completing the last mission, they gathered all the tokens they received at the end of each mission.  They had one final assignment--answer the riddle as to why we were all there celebrating.  They were able to see that the white letters in the top right-hand corner spelled GLENN.  Glenn was the reason we had all gathered to celebrate!

Then it was time for cake!

I'm glad Paul took charge of cutting it.  I was nervous and kind of sad to cut such an awesome cake.  

Glenn was able to choose the flavor.  He asked Cassandra if he could have chocolate chips and mint in his cake.  She made a yellow cake with chocolate chips, then the filling was flavored with Andes mints.  Yum!

Then Glenn opened presents.  He mostly got books--his favorite!  And one final gift to his friends--they each got the first book in the Magic Tree House series.  

After the party, some of our neighbors came over to give Glenn a gift too.  Swasti and Siam gave Glenn an Angry Bird game.  And "Grandma" Judy gave Glenn a maze book--one of his favorites--and a fun learning activity.  We have such great neighbors--not just because they gave Glenn a present--but because they are wonderful friends!

Paul wrote this birthday message to Glenn.  And it sums up our feelings pretty well.  We do love Glenn so much!  We were glad we put together this fun party for him.  We had a lot of fun and hope the kids did too.