Don’t let her fool you. She may be a high-ranking government official, but she knows how to throw a party. A kid’s party. A Ninja Party.
That’s my sister. Able to whip up a theme party on a kid’s whim and a moment’s notice. So for those of you who are getting requests from your kids for a Ninja Party, here’s what she came up with:
The Goal: To work as a team to accomplish a mission, as training to beat all evil in the world.
Reward: Cupcakes.
Brilliant. She’s put them all on the same team. To train against evil, not compete with each other. Which keeps this bunch of kids from cheating, fighting and whining about it not being fair that Billy’s the biggest. And the reward isn’t world domination. It’s food. Genius.
Then she spells out N-I-N-J-A and each letter stands for a challenge.
N - Ninja Strength. Each kids has to choose an adult to battle, using Mashoonga bats as weapons. You can only hit us in the shoulder or on the leg. Just FYI, adults, Mashoonga bats really hurt when you get hit in the shoulder or on the leg.
I - In The Hole. More specifically, the Cornhole. You have two minutes to toss as many bean bags as you can into the Cornhole board. Then run to the basketball goal to shoot whatever the difference is to make a total of 30 points. Note – this is where you have to remind everybody they are on the same team – a concept that will never really sink in, because they’re cousins, and they’ve been fighting all week.)
N - Ninja Kindness. Here, they have to say or do something nice to one of the adults. I was going to suggest you amend this to say they need to extend kindness to each other. But then one of my kids gave me a foot rub, so I would just keep it like it is.
J – Just Trust. The team must lead one of their own to the top of the mountain (up a ladder and into the tree fort) – blindfolded. It was cool until they got him halfway up the ladder and couldn’t reach him anymore. So they decided to go shoot hoops. I used my own Ninja powers to run up the slide and extend a Mashoonga bat to keep him from falling.
A – Awesome Brains. Too late. OK, never too late, but they did have to answer eight Brain Quest brain-teasers. And all before the sugar buzz.
With training complete, we had a Ninja feast of sushi. And pizza, for the kids who wouldn’t eat sushi. Followed by chocolate cupcakes with creepy black Ninja eyes on top.
Seems like a lot of work for a Monday night. But it’s one way to get a foot rub.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/02/3358310/ninja-theme-mashoonga-bats-its.html#storylink=cpy
