Charmin-Ultra: Don't Squeeze Me

Since a couple months ago, Calum had started to plan for his 10th birthday party. He is one of the youngest kids in his grade, so when most of his friends turned 10, he felt like he was left behind. And being 10 is a very big deal for the boys this age. To me, turing 10 is a big deal too because after all, how many times one can add another digit to his/her birthday. 

Therefore, to celebrate Calum's first double-digit birthday party, Calum and I started to brainstorm ideas a couple months away. First, we decided on the theme and the guest invitations. Calum wanted a sleepover and invited 14 friends over including two girls. Then we discussed about the party planning and activities. 

1. Cake. Calum, like me, doesn't really like sweets. He only started to eat some chocolate recently and claimed that he didn't want a cake for his birthday. Instead, he said, he wanted to have donuts and we can make the number 10 with donuts. So he figured out how many donuts each person should get and what flavors I should get to make it even. He figured that each person would get 2 donuts and the four flavors would include C=Chocolate, G=Glazed, S=Sugar, and J=Jelly. See the planning chart below.

With Calum's note in hand, I set out to get donuts in the morning of the birthday. You would think it should be a piece of cake (no pun intended) to get 28 donuts in four flavors. No, no such thing. The first Dunkin Donuts only had 14 donuts with what we needed. So I called the second Dunkin Donuts in town. "No, Mamme. We only 10 donuts left and they are not the flavors you needed", I was told. I was going nuts (again, no pun intended). I called my husband and yelled into the phone, "I am not driving around the town looking for donuts! This is ridiculous. I am going to get a cake!" So I drove to Bennison's bakery, a famous bakery in Evanston and luckily, they had a cake for me! So we had donuts and a cake for the party. YEAH! 

2. Activities. I did a simplified version of scavenger hunt for his 5th birthday so I thought I would make a more complicated and one that involves more problem-solving questions this time since Calum liked puzzles and mazes. So I designed two questions for two teams. These two questions were about Calum. Where was he born and where did he grow up? Since Calum and some of his friends already knew the answer, I asked them to spell out the name of the cities and countries. And to do that, they had to use coding or global knowledge to figure out the words. For example, 

Q. 1. In which town and country was Calum born?

Clue 1: The city has 9 letters. The first threeletters of this city has the same first three letters like an animal from Australia. This animal looks like a baby bear and lives on the trees. Once you get the three letters, scramble them, so it starts with K and ends with O. You will get __ __ __.

The next clue can be found at a fire hydrant on the corner of Colfax and Grant.

Clue 2: The 4th and 5th letter of this city is a sound. What do you say when you want someone to be quiet? The 4th and 5th letters are __ __.

The next clue can be found by the water fountain near the playground.

Clue 3: What is the letter when you take away the consonants in the word cut? This letter is the 6th letter of this city. The 6th letter is __.

The next clue can be found on thesouth-west corner of the tennis court.

Clue 4: The last three letters of this city is an action word. For example, if something happened in the past, we will put –ed in the end of a verb. If something is going on, what do we put in the end of the verb? The last letters are __ __ __. Have you gotten the 9 letters? The city is called __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __.

The next clue can be found at a picnic table.

Clue 5: Whereis this building?      

Hint: This country is on a small island. People speak Mandarin, Chinese there. The country is called __ __ __ __ __ __.

The final answer of the question, in which city and country was Calum born? __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __, __ __ __ __ __ __.

The following pictures were the teams trying to figure out the clues. They used their teamwork and global knowledge to solve the problems. I, followed one team, could barely keep up with them with my 6-month pregnancy. 

Then it was time for dinner. We had hamburgers and hot dogs for kids and of course Pete was the chef. 

After that, it was the free time. Boys played soccer while girls sat down chatting with each other. 

Present time! It was difficult to get Calum gifts; not because he was picky but he didn't want anything. He said he only wanted to have a great time with his friends. It was very sweet but of course the reality was the other parents would have to come to me to get information. And he did get a couple of nerf guns and puzzles. The highlight of the presents was the Taiwanese soccer jersey that my parents sent with my student's help from Taiwan. Calum always wanted soccer jerseys with his name and number 10 on from the U.S.A and Taiwan. He also got a trip to Jackson Hole with his American grandparents in August and his grandparents gave him the hiking gear, which was very cool. 

After the party, girls went home and 12 boys stayed for sleepover. We got two movies for boys and thought that would make them calm down and eventually go to sleep. No such luck. They were wild and crazy. Pete and I had to get up a couple of times in the middle of night to 'shhh' them. Finally, by 3 am, with me sitting next to them, the boys got some sleep before they woke up at 6 am next day.  I was exhausted. Therefore, no pictures.

After the party, Pete and I looked at each other and agreed that it would be a good idea not to have this kind of party for another 10 years until 2-baubau turns 10. 

But, after Calum took a long nap the next day, smiled at me and Pete and claimed, "It was the best party ever". We forgot how tired we were.