Minute to Win It- 'Cause That's How We Celebrate a 13 Year Old

 Is this not the cutest picture?  

Cameron has so much energy we thought we'd strap Cannon to him to see if we could wear him out!

 Harrison has become very interested in studying our family calendar.  He loves numbers and easily memorizes birthdays and the ages of people. While Aunt Mindy didn't appreciate Harrison greeting her with, "You're Aunt Mindy and you're 39!" (That's what Mindy WISHED he had said.  What he actually said was her REAL AGE!)    Cameron loved Harrison telling him he was about to turn 13!  Harrison said, "You'll get to play T games and watch PG-13 movies!!" 

 

No birthday can pass in our house without being celebrated, but to turn 13, we had to plan something special.  My mom is great at organizing games, add to that a little Pinspiration  and we came up with a 
Minute-to-Win-It Birthday Party!

 To begin our  Minute-to-Win-It Mega Game 13th Birthday Party, we first had to get plenty of energy. We discovered that Cameron's favorite food is hamburgers.  He'd never been to a Fuddruckers, so, off we went.  What are Minute-to-Win-It games?  Well, site back, relax, and enjoy the show, because these are games that put the F in Fun. 

Game 1- How many M&M's can you transfer from one bowl to another, in a minute, using only a straw?  As clearly indicated by the W and L, McKinzie won that round.  I think the score was something ridiculous like 8-1.  Cameron even tried to claim he had a bum straw, but changing it didn't bring him much luck.

Fun-filled Game 2- Using only a toothpick transferring as many Cheerios from one bowl to another, in one minute.  Gavin was so into this game his mouth was completely agape with drool steady-streaming from it.  Despite his best effort (and even a little cheating here and there) he lost to Harrison with a score of 17-15.

Game 3- Steve and I were slated for this competition.  This is a picture of us squaring-off like boxers before a match.  We had to slide Necco wafers down our face and into our mouth...and see who could get the most from forehead to mouth--in under a minute. 

Steve won by something like 5-1.  I would like to think this is because my face is so baby soft the wafers just slide right off, verses Steve and his, well, not so baby soft face.  There really should be a sarcasm font created.  Whatever the reason, I lost terribly, but not nearly as bad as our other face-off, game 4--bouncing quarters from the table into a bowl (sorta like Beer Pong but without the beer..or the pong)  I was losing so badly I threw Steve's bowl off the table and he still managed to score 10 to my 2.  He wants me to also include that one of  his shots was tossing the quarter from under his leg, bouncing it off the table and landing it in that dang bowl!

Game 5- Oh, did I mention that we were split into two teams? Kinz, Gavin, and me versus Harrison, Steve, and Cameron.  G-Jo and Mindy were the judge and jury, and trust me, when you play any game with Steve you need a firm judge, that man will stop at nothing to win.  Game 5 paired Harrison and Gavin against one another and required them to carry in their mouth, using only their mouth to secure the block,  as many blocks as they could from one box to another crawling on their hands and knees.  Even though Gavin lost to Harrison he loved this game so much the next morning he was playing again by himself.

Game 6- Taking turns within your team (meaning you can't leave the little ones out!), stacking as many blocks as high as you can without having it fall.  Our tower was a lot taller than this but toppled right before the buzzer, we still managed to win!  By this time Harrison was SO into the games that he shouted, "Cameron's birthday is the best!!"

Game 7- Kinz versus Cam in a wild game of slide a quarter between the straw goalie without it sliding off the table.  I honestly can't remember who won this game, but since Kinz is on my team I'll say she was the winner.

 

 Game 8- Bouncing a ball at least as high as your waist, as many times as you can in, you guessed it, a minute!  I think Steve won this round, too, but everyone took turns trying their luck with the ball.

Game 9-This one was probably my favorite.  Each team was given a cookie sheet and we had to fill it with 25 items picked around the house.  The cookie sheet was then given to the other team and given one minute to study the contents before one item was removed.  The first team to identify the one item missing wins!  This might have been my favorite game because I won this round for my team.  

We were all so competitive we ended up with a tied score that required Mindy and Mom to create a sudden death match.  They had to corroborate in the laundry room and emerged with a picture on their phone and whichever team was able to decipher the picture first won.  It took a couple clues, but Team K.G.G. emerged victorious!

Cameron is the kind of, now, teenager that makes me look forward to having my boys growing up.  It was fun getting the low down from him (dang it, I forgot to ask him if 'low down' is lame to say) on what's hot and what's not. He can still get rowdy and play along with my little ones but then tell me during his birthday interview that he wants a wife to be smart, funny, and look kinda like Taylor Swift.  Happy 13 Cam-the-Man, hope it was a memorable one!