My son is now the ripe old age of 11. When it came time to plan his birthday party, we realized he’s at that age where little kid parties just won’t cut it any more. We figured there would be about 25 kids (boys and girls) to keep occupied for 2 hours. After a not so quick perusal of the internet for kid party ideas, I decided to plan an Ultimate Challenge party by modifying some popular Minute to Win It challenges.

After randomly splitting the kids into 4 teams, the Ultimate Challenge Party began. I planned for 9 games, but only got to 7 of them. (We probably could have used another half hour to have enough time to play the games, open the presents and eat the cake.)

The kiddies seemed to have a blast and everyone participated in every game, which is really important when trying to corral a large group.

The Ultimate Challenge (Minute to Win It) Party

Face the Cookie

The Goal

The first team with three different players to successfully move a cookie  from the forehead to the mouth using  only facial muscles, wins this challenge. NO HANDS ALLOWED!

Equipment Needed:

Oreos

This Blows

The Goal

The players have to blow up 1 balloon each and use the air in the balloon to blow 15 cups off of a table. The balloon can be blown up as many times as necessary to accomplish this task. The first team to blow all 15 cups off the table, wins.

Equipment Needed

1 balloon per child, 15 cups per team, and 1 table per team

Spare Me

The Goal

Contestants roll marbles through the hole in the middle of  a pool noodle to knock down five pieces of sidewalk chalk. First team to knock all 5ive pieces of chalk down, wins.

Equipment Needed

1 pool noodle per team, 5 pieces of sidewalk chalk per team, marbles

ABC Birthday Balloon Relay

The Goal

Players must pop balloons (which have rolled up little papers with letters of the alphabet inside – one letter per balloon) one at time until the correct letters have been found to spell the word ‘BIRTHDAY’. This is done in a relay. First team to spell  ‘birthday’, wins.

Equipment Needed

26 balloons per team, 26 papers with the letters of the alphabet

Marshmallow Head

The Goal

Team members try to toss the most mini marshmallows into a bucket being held on the top of a team member’s head. Make a line the players cannot cross and time the event. At the end of time, the team with the most marshmallows in the bucket, wins.

Equipment Needed

1 bag of mini marshmallows per team, 1 bucket per team

Balloon Pop

The Goal

Each contestant has a balloon tied to his/her ankle. Each team has a different color balloon. The goal is to pop the other team’s balloons. The last player left with an unpopped balloon, wins.

Equipment Needed

1 balloon per player (1 color per team), string

Tissue Relay

The Goal

Players must run one at a time to their team’s tissue box, pull out ONLY two tissues, run to a can and deposit the tissues, and then run back and tag the next team member. The team to empty their tissue box first, wins.

Equipment Needed

1 box of tissues per team

End Results

Even as the party ended, the kids didn’t want to leave, so I’m marking this birthday party as a HUGE success! Give it a try for your next ‘tween-age party. With a little planning, preparing and organization, you’ll be the Queen (or King) of the Ultimate Challenge in all things ‘party’!

-Kate

Ingredients:

• Cake mix
• Tub of frosting
• Chocolate to melt
• Sucker sticks

Prepare the cake mix according to package directions using any of the recommended pan sizes.

When cake is done, crumble while warm into a large bowl.

Stir in the frosting until well blended.

Use a melon baller or small scoop or your hands to form balls of the chocolate cake mixture.

Insert sucker sticks into cake balls and freeze for 2 hours.

Melt chocolate coating in a glass bowl in the microwave, or in a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.

Dip the balls in chocolate using the inserted sucker stick.

Add sprinkles, if desired, and place on waxed paper to set.

Enjoy!

Other recipes

OK readers…I challenge you to play my Guess the Celebrity game!

Guess the Celebrity Bride Game

We’ve glued heads of various celebrities to the bodies of models in bridal gowns.   Play along – see how many you get right!  Answers at the bottom of this post…but don’t cheat, ok?

#1 Who is this celebrity?

* 2 Who is this celebrity?

# 3 Who is this celebrity?

# 4 Who is this celebrity?

# 5 Who is this celebrity?

# 6 Who is this celebrity?

# 7 Who is this clelbrity?

# 8 Who is this celebrity?

# 9 Who is this celebrity?

# 10 Who is this celebrity?

# 11 Who is this celebrity?

#12 Who is this celebrity?

# 13 Who is this celebrity?

#14 Who is this celebrity?

# 15 Who is this celebrity?

How do you think you did? You can check your answers  at the bottom of this post.  This game can also be adapted to fit other types of parties by putting the celebrity head on other types of bodies.  The trick is to only use the face and NOT the hair – using the real hair makes it too easy.

The other game we played was Movie Love Songs.

Movie Love Songs Game

We  made a CD of 15 of our favorite love songs from movies…some easy, some hard.  The guests numbered a paper from 1 – 15 and then we played a clip from each song and they had to guess the movie it came from.  We also made copies of this CD to give to guests as their party favor.  You can make your cd using your favorite movie love songs.  Here’s a list of what was on our cd to get you started…

• Titanic – My Heart Will Go On
• Lion King – Can You feel the Love Tonight?
• Dirty Dancing - Time of My Life
• My Best Friend’s Wedding – Say a Little Prayer for You
• Sleeping Beauty – Once Upon a Dream
• Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Moonriver
• First Wives Club – You Don’t Own Me
• 50 First Dates -  Forgetful Lucy
• A Walk to Remember – Only Hope
• Grease – You’re the One that I Want
• Across the Universe - I’ve Just Seen a Face
• Hairspray – Without Love
• Click – Linger
• Twilight – Flawless Bird
• Pretty Woman – Pretty Woman

The prizes for the game winners were…

Popcorn tub from the dollar store with popcorn and candy. Cute, easy and inexpensive!

The Invitations…

The invitations were handmade by my daughters, but I’m sure that if you didn’t want to spend the time making invitations, you could find some suitable ones at the store.

The inside of the card says…

It’s a movie Bridal Shower!

Pick your favorite movie or just one that you really like, and get the bride-to-be items that go with the movie.  Say you like Breakfast at Tiffany’s – you might get her a waffle iron or pancake mixes or other breakfast type items.    Be creative.  Wrap your movie separately so she has to guess what the movie is based on the other gifts you bought to go with it.

Some of the gifts…

Here are a few of the clever gifts the guests brought to the shower.

Flushed Away

House Bunny

Spice World

Sunshine Cleaning

21

This gift idea would also work for birthday parties,  Christmas parties, or  housewarming parties.

And now for the answers to the Guess the Celebrity Bride Game…

#1 Angelina Jolie, #2 Robert Pattinson, #3 Heidi Klum, #4 Christian Bale, #5 Katie Holmes, #6 George Clooney,

#7 Nicole Kidman, #8 Alec Baldwin, #9 Hillary Duff, #10 Zac Efron, # 11 Gweneth Paltrow, #12 Brad Pitt,

#13 Sarah Jessica Parker, #14 Steven Spielberg, #15 Taylor Lautner

How many did you get right?  Tell us your score if you’re brave enough!

~Kate

Enjoy your Coffee Break

Want to submit your own story to be considered for the Guest Headline post to run on Fridays?  Just let us know at lizandkate@live.com.