Birthday Games

When I was a kid, my family used April Fools Day as the reference point to track my end-of-March birthday. Last year, in sunnier times, I had a big birthday party, something I usually avoid. To make it sing, our friends Elise & Aaron let us use their big-enough-for-a-big-party-house. Of course Elise went one step further: she arranged a birthday piñata, stuffed with something for everyone: Kinder eggs, fruit snacks, gluten-free cookies; chocolate truffles, dinosaurs, and so on. You can see the birthday piñata below. Elise went to the internet to find a picture of me to hit, so of course she ended up with my blog's Diabolic Tutor face, minus the tutor. 

I love this Harlequinade of a photo that Lisa took while the teenager-most-likely-to-slay-the-pinata was taking his second turn. A great ending to a wonderful party.

Earlier in the party we played a game I can share. It's a human bingo game, meant to be played when you're lucky enough to be able to gather a large number of friends who don't all know each other. Lisa brought it into our lives from working in environmental education and we've used it for several big parties, including the intermission at our wedding. 

The hosts make a bingo card ahead of time with items oriented towards people they expect to see at the party. If you've got kids attending, you make sure to include a number of questions that kids will be likely to qualify for, because kids turn out to be highly active participants, buzzing between circles of adults and helping make all new introductions. 

As the card says, you're looking for signatures from party-goers who can say "Yes, I did that," and each person can only sign your card once, so you gotta mingle. Some people play super-competitively until they've scored a bingo, others fill the card. Choose the right categories and you ensure you're going to hear interesting stories. 

Here's the card from last year's game . . . .