Now I get why my brother complained throughout his childhood about his birthday; having a December birthday really does suck. Between Christmas and ones birthday the amount of presents is overwhelming...and who needs so much 'stuff' at the same time. Plus when it comes to parties, so many friends are either traveling or caught up in festive holiday activities during December. As a result, we haven't thrown a party for K every year and when we have, the parties have been relatively small affairs. Well, that all changed this year when we hosted 25 kids for a laser tag party!
A few months ago, K announced that he wanted to have a laser tag party. Locally, the companies that put on laser tag parties do it at outside venues - fine for the summer, not so much for the winter. Luckily C had gone to an indoor laser tag party in Wimbledon so we knew it was possible. While not the closest venue (about a 40 min drive), it had what we wanted. We decided to pick an early January date figuring more kids would be able to come and generally it would be less hectic. The kids who attended were from both K's old school and new school. The kids mingled well although C was quick to point out that the kids from the new school were much better behaved.
The party was held in one of those indoor climbing/soft play locations which also had a mini-football field. Upon arrival at 5:30 the kids were encouraged to run around, play football and climb. Fifteen minutes in and K was already red-faced and dripping with sweat. At 6pm, the place shut down so all other kids had to leave except those kids attending the party. We had he whole place to ourselves! The birthday kids were taken upstairs to the party room to eat - a selection of pizza, veggies, fries & chicken nuggets - and get the instructions for playing laser tag. During this time, the parents (many of whom stayed) were downstairs drinking wine & beer and enjoying the downtime. It was the perfect setup. J&I were downstairs too until another parent mentioned that she saw a french fry flying in the room. When we went upstairs the entire floor was covered in french fries. The kids were having lots of fun but apparently weren't all that well behaved.
At 6:30, the kids were let downstairs for laser tag. The lights were turned off except fore some disco lights and the music was turned up. Since we had so many kids, there were 3 teams of 8 or 9; two teams played at a time and one team sat out (although they could play on the football pitch or in the toddler climbing area). The kids had a blast. The team guns were either red or green and the goal was to shoot an opponents gun with your laser. When it was a 'hit', you scored points for your team (10 points per hit) and the opponents gun was turned 'off' for 3 seconds.
At first the kids were running around like crazy, but by the end they were much more strategic and started working together and finding the best hiding spots. C had a great run and came 1st one round, 2nd another round and third overall. And K's team was the winning team!
Team K:
Team R:
Team A:
At one point, the kids took a break and we sang Happy Birthday to K. He wanted cupcakes rather than a cake which worked out well and was much easier to manage. The cupcakes were two designs; the ones on the top were laser themed using twizzlers and the ones on the bottom were targets (thank you pinterest, although I had to go to multiple American sweet shops to find the Twizzlers!).
We created target-themed goody bags and filled them with 'laser' themed items - glow-in-the dark shoelaces, finger lasers, keychain flashlights and american pop rock candy and neon sugar straws.
All and all a great party for parents and kids alike. K had a great time and it was fun for him to be with so many of his friends at the same time. And my bet is that all the kids slept quite well after all the screaming and running around - I know K did.
A few months ago, K announced that he wanted to have a laser tag party. Locally, the companies that put on laser tag parties do it at outside venues - fine for the summer, not so much for the winter. Luckily C had gone to an indoor laser tag party in Wimbledon so we knew it was possible. While not the closest venue (about a 40 min drive), it had what we wanted. We decided to pick an early January date figuring more kids would be able to come and generally it would be less hectic. The kids who attended were from both K's old school and new school. The kids mingled well although C was quick to point out that the kids from the new school were much better behaved.
The party was held in one of those indoor climbing/soft play locations which also had a mini-football field. Upon arrival at 5:30 the kids were encouraged to run around, play football and climb. Fifteen minutes in and K was already red-faced and dripping with sweat. At 6pm, the place shut down so all other kids had to leave except those kids attending the party. We had he whole place to ourselves! The birthday kids were taken upstairs to the party room to eat - a selection of pizza, veggies, fries & chicken nuggets - and get the instructions for playing laser tag. During this time, the parents (many of whom stayed) were downstairs drinking wine & beer and enjoying the downtime. It was the perfect setup. J&I were downstairs too until another parent mentioned that she saw a french fry flying in the room. When we went upstairs the entire floor was covered in french fries. The kids were having lots of fun but apparently weren't all that well behaved.
At 6:30, the kids were let downstairs for laser tag. The lights were turned off except fore some disco lights and the music was turned up. Since we had so many kids, there were 3 teams of 8 or 9; two teams played at a time and one team sat out (although they could play on the football pitch or in the toddler climbing area). The kids had a blast. The team guns were either red or green and the goal was to shoot an opponents gun with your laser. When it was a 'hit', you scored points for your team (10 points per hit) and the opponents gun was turned 'off' for 3 seconds.
At first the kids were running around like crazy, but by the end they were much more strategic and started working together and finding the best hiding spots. C had a great run and came 1st one round, 2nd another round and third overall. And K's team was the winning team!
Team K:
Team R:
Team A:
At one point, the kids took a break and we sang Happy Birthday to K. He wanted cupcakes rather than a cake which worked out well and was much easier to manage. The cupcakes were two designs; the ones on the top were laser themed using twizzlers and the ones on the bottom were targets (thank you pinterest, although I had to go to multiple American sweet shops to find the Twizzlers!).
We created target-themed goody bags and filled them with 'laser' themed items - glow-in-the dark shoelaces, finger lasers, keychain flashlights and american pop rock candy and neon sugar straws.
All and all a great party for parents and kids alike. K had a great time and it was fun for him to be with so many of his friends at the same time. And my bet is that all the kids slept quite well after all the screaming and running around - I know K did.
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