Caleb had his first ever sleep-over in celebration of his 7th birthday. He wanted a birthday themed after his favorite TV Show "Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman." This is a PBS reality/game show featuring kids competing on different adventures and challenges. We decided to keep it low key and do-it-yourself. Caleb chose three of his best friends to attend. I wanted to make sure the kids and parents were ready for this mini milestone so I spoke with the moms in person before sending the invitations.
We had a fun time turning the house into "Studio G." We found lots of fun images online to to use for invitations, Thank-You notes, posters, cupcake pics, and decorations. Orange party balloons were the perfect plump shape to turn into silly looking Ruff dogs. Sheri drew on Ruff's face and tummy with black magic marker, added orange straw ears and hung them from the ceiling. We changed the desktop computer screen saver to scroll "Fetch 3000" to represent Ruff's super computer which chooses challenges and calculates points. The TV became the "Ruff! Video Player". Sheri used royal and light blue construction paper and circles from the 3-hole to form a "Fetch!" sign for the wall. We decorated an old boot box with the words Challenge box!. Inside the box Sheri collected several activities and supplies from the Ruff! website.
We watched an episode of the show as kids arrived. Periodically during the party I would call the boys to the kitchen table to perform a challenge. We made toilet paper kazoos, flip-card motion pictures, rubber-band and spool race cars, and baking soda invisible ink. All the activities were well received and everyone got prizes for their efforts. We had an orange ice cream cake with Caleb! written in chunky blue letters spotted with yellow lights to mimic the show's lettering style. Not to over schedule rambunctious boys, there was time for sword fighting, Star Wars movies, pizza, trying out and sharing new toys. After PJ's and tooth-brushing the boys settled down with some serious Nintendo DS playing. It was a late night for all but eventually the kids did fall asleep.
The boys had a secret plan to get up at night to play after Owen and Sheri had gone to sleep. We heard a bump in the house at 5am. Sheri woke in time to force Caleb back to sleep before he and his friends were bouncing off the walls. The kids slept-in late enough for Owen to wake them with pancakes for breakfast. There were several parental reports of rare afternoon naps from party goers. Caleb , of course, was the exception.
