Cheez Whiz vs. Shark Attack: Season I

This weekend was Buttermilk Sky's birthday. Here are his "then" and "now" photos to commemorate this special occasion.

What a cute boy!

To celebrate, we threw a "Survivor" party which was pretty fun. I'm going to go into a lot of detail about this party in case anyone else wants to use these ideas, and also so that if I want to throw this party again when the younger boys get older I'll have all the info right here. Also, as a reference, I got a lot of help from this website.

Check out the cake made by the Silly Grandma.

We LOVED this cake!

Look at the detail in these gum paste palm leaves...

...and in these gum paste people yelling because they are surrounded by sharks. It's hard to see the sharks in these pictures because they are the same color as the water, but there are a lot of gummy sharks swimming around.

To begin the party we split the kids into two "tribes" (we had them line up in order of height and then counted off by ones and twos) and they made up names for their tribe. They were the Cheez Whiz tribe and the Shark Attack tribe. Then we embarked on the challenges. I wrote a poem to introduce each challenge. Here is the first one:

Double double toil and trouble
Through frothy foam
Find gob and blow bubble.

For this challenge each child got a bowl full of "frothy foam" (whipped cream) and without using their hands they were to find the "gob" (bubble gum), chew it up and blow a bubble. The first one to blow a bubble won a point for their tribe.

It turned out to be a bigger challenge than we anticipated because for some reason the gum mixed with the whipped cream didn't hold together as well as normal and it took them a long time to chew it up enough to be able to blow a bubble with it. But finally someone succeeded.

If you want to find out who dove and who dipped, click on this photo to enlarge.

The second challenge:

Who will survive the flying bands?
How good is your aim?
How steady your hands?

We lined up 16 plastic cups, alternating half with a piece of tape on the bottom, the other half without. The cups with the tape represented one team and the blank cups, the other team. The kids each had a turn to shoot two rubber bands and try to hit the other team's cups. The tribe with the most cups remaining won a point. This was pretty challenging, too. Only three kids were able to hit a cup. But that was enough!

The third challenge:

On "X" do not tread
Sideways, forward, or back you may go
Be the last one in the grid
And your awesomeness show.

This game didn't sound that fun to me when I first read it, but it turned out to be really fun. We made a 12 by 12 grid with chalk on our driveway. Each child was to choose a square to begin in. When Brandon said, "Move," they were to move one square either forward, back, or sideways and mark an "X" in the square they just left. They could not step into squares with "X's" or other people in them. If Brandon said, "Move," and they had no place to move, they were out. The last child remaining in the grid won the point for their team.

And...the winner!

The fourth challenge:

Plump, juicy prehistoric ticks
Preserved to perfection through the ages
At long last to be released
By your warm, wet licks.

I told the kids that these "prehistoric ticks" (raisins) had been preserved in a glacier. We now had the pieces of ice with the ticks inside. (I had filled an ice cube tray half full and froze it and then put the raisins in and filled it the rest of the way and froze it in an effort to keep the raisins from sinking to the bottom.) We distributed three ice cubes to each team and they were to melt the ice and eat the tick. They could pass the ice to others on their tribe when their hands got too cold. The first tribe to eat all their ticks won the point.

The fifth challenge:

Roaches, snakes, and refuse, too.
How strong is your stomach?
How daring are you?

This was the gross food challenge. I don't know why, but this game excited me the most. As it turns out, it excited the kids the least. Oh well, I still enjoyed it--it was entertaining. I tried to come up with foods that would be a challenge but nothing that was really, truly gross. Here is what I came up with:

This was ham lunch meat cut up and mixed with ketchup.

For this "juice" I mixed water, some red food coloring, about a tablespoon of lemon juice, a tablespoon of sugar, some cayenne pepper, and some taco seasoning. I just put the seasonings in until there was a little kick but not super spicy.

Baby food peas.

Vienna sausages torn up.

Two egg whites with salt and food coloring, scrambled.

Pitted, dried dates.

Cooked white rice mixed with barbecue sauce.

Celery sticks.

This really is dried seaweed.

Spinach leaves.

Mashed bananas.

Bread crumbs soaked in milk.

Refried beans mixed with chopped olives.

Applesauce mixed with cream cheese.

I had each plate covered so they had to choose their food without knowing what it was. The tribe that had the most members eat everything on the plate that they chose--no changing plates after the covers came off--won the point. Four of the kids bailed at first sight of this game (birthday boy included). Others tried a bite and then bailed. Three kids actually ate everything on their plate.

This one tried so hard! He got halfway through. I wonder if he'll ever be able to even look at celery again.

Notice the Silly Grandma in the picture below. She's eating something on one of the plates. She wasn't on anyone's tribe and she wasn't playing the game. She didn't eat lunch before she came and she just liked the spread.

Here she is dipping into someone's plate.

And here she is eating the "pureed grasshoppers" which she had microwaved.

Silly Grandma!

Then we had cake and ice cream...

...and presents.

Then we had planned to have our "tribal council" around the fire (really just roasting marshmallows) but chaos and anarchy ensued at this point and we just sat back and let it happen.

We hope that Buttermilk Sky had an absolutely terrific, perfectly wonderful, fantastic day!