SURVIVOR.....Teenage Tucker Style! (LOTS of pictures here!)

This year Noah decided to have his party at home (yay!). He wanted a themed party and since we all love watching the CBS show SURVIVOR, that's what he wanted to do. He made it very clear, that he wanted to keep it as authentic as possible, with challenges, tribes, hidden immunity idols, and, yep, you guessed it, Tribal Council! Whew! That was quite the feat for the party planner (a.k.a. me), but it was a challenge I was willing to take! No pun intended!! We ended up having 14 kids here, so 2 tribes of 7. My friend, Erica is an awesome graphic design artist, and made his invitation logo. Very cool! I'll have to see if I can post a picture of the logo later. At any rate, the Island Name (our house) was Nimajneb Island, and the 2 tribe names were Haon and Rekcut. These names were craftily thought up, by moi, and are his first, middle, and last names in reverse! Very cool, and a little exotic! The buffs were 2 kinds of camo bandanas, white, grey & black for Haon tribe, and traditional green camo for Rekcut. Instead of a school yard pick for tribes, we did a blind draw, and some kids drew marbles, where others drew rocks.

Candles represented the torches at Tribal Council, and each kid that got voted off got a consolation prize of their choice of assorted chocolate bars or boxed movie candy & gum. We even had the traditional merge feast in between challenges, which consisted of Noah's very favorite restaurant......footlong subs from SUBWAY. During the "feast" we actually overheard one teen exclaim, "This is the BEST party I've ever been to!" I was so relieved to hear that, as I was afraid they'd think it was too structured or lame. But I was thrilled to hear that wasn't the case! Every kid that got voted off was a part of the final jury.

Poor Jackson, he got voted off first, and was a bit devastated by it. But, he quickly got over it when he learned he'd be voting FOR the Ulimate 13th Birthday Party Survivor later on! Revenge is sweet, I guess!

Here are some pictures of the shennanigans we called challenges....

I copied this game from a friends in Arizona....We ran this in 3 heats. Each tribe had to eat glazed (messy) donuts off of the string without using their hands. If it falls on the floor...well, you eat it where it lays! First 2 done, moved on to the next round.

The next game was called Chinese Ping Pong. Which, was much like a Chinese Fire Drill with your car, except it was 2 tribes. Comical at best!

Next, they had to drink baby food that had the labels off (so that they didn't know what kind it was, or in their case, wasn't) with straws. There were 5 flavors (the yucky mixed meat kinds and prunes.) Their faces were hillarious, as you can see! And, I have to give it up to Daniel who was a real trooper! (He got the prunes) and the GIRLS, they didn't act prissy at all! In fact, they WENT FOR EVERY CHALLENGE! IMPRESSIVE!

Next, it was along the same lines......we melted 3 kinds of candy or candy bars per diaper, and they had to guess what the contents were. They could smell it, lick it, or taste it. But, they had to get the most right within the allotted time frame.

I had a challenge that when I was planning it, everyone kind of shook their head in doubt at. It was where we took 113 marbles and put them in tubs that were filled with ICE and water, and let it sit. Basically it was called Frozen Digits or something like that. The object was for them to take turns getting 10 marbles out of the water at a time...with their TOES! Do you know, that when I asked them later, they said THIS was their FAVORITE game!

We merged after this and ate our Subway subs. Then, it was individual immunity challenges.

Put 13 pieces of gum in your mouth, chew it, and be the first to blow a bubble. (This one kinda grossed ME out to watch! LOL)

Then, we did one called Chubby Bunny, where you stuffed marshmallows in your mouth one at a time, and had to say Chubby Bunny after each one. I SOOOO wish I would have counted what ended up being the maximum amount of marshmallows. We tried to not make them laugh, but we were all laughing so hard, it was hard not to distract them! Of course, they were cracking themselves up too, so it was a vicious circle for all of us!

There was also some blindfolded air hockey. Then, there were only 3 Survivors left....and they were....

I was SURE they'd vote Daniel off WAY before the final 3!!!! He was definitely one to fly under the radar, as these teens were hell bent on voting EACH OTHER off! Funny! In the end, we did a 13 things about Noah Trivia challenge. The boy on the left, Jake, got 1/2 a point! LOL! The boy on the right, Jarrett, got 2 points, and Daniel, well, he got 12 outta 13 points! Hillarious! So, it was Jarrett and Daniel in the final 2, and the winner of the Ultimate Surivor 13 Birthday party was...........................................DANIEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By a landslide! So hillarious! I think the most hillarious part of the night was when Noah ended up getting voted off when one of the 2 hidden immunity idols were played. The reason? Because every time Daniel got up to vote, he'd write Noah's name, because it was the only one he knew how to spell!!! SO DARN FUNNY! And, then, after his vote cast Noah off, he would get up to vote, and still write Noah's name! That's how we figured out what happened! SOOOOO FUNNY!

All in all, it was a fun time had by all! The group of kids Noah hangs with are funny, boisterious, and enjoyable, just like him. I'm glad everyone had a fabulous time, and that Ultimately, I SURVIVED!