Boy VS Wild - Season 2

Since we Homeschool, our kiddos really don't get an End of the Year party like other kids do. And we don't get to do a Field Day, since doing a Field Day with a class of 1 - and a half - really isn't fun, instead, we throw our own End of the Year Party/Field Day. Only ours includes a Mud Pit.

Last year, the Boys Vs. Wild Party was a huge hit. We started off small and had about 10 kids go through the obstacle course. This year, Season 2, well, we had 31. Yeah, 31...this year was just a tad bit bigger.

The Boy Vs Wild is kind of a twist on the show, Man Vs Wild, where the host shows how to survive in some of the most weirdest places and eat some crazy stuff.

In our Boy Vs Wild, we offer some crazy obstacle course complete with a mud pit and swimming pool belly flop, along with some exotic foods to taste. Rounding it out with a BBQ to start the summer. I could try to tell you how much fun it is, but the pictures below will be enough.

Invite for Season 2:


Join us as we dive into the summer! (Girls included too!)

This year, the obstacle course will be bigger AND better! We’ve included a rope swing, hunting for wild animals, and a slide into a BIGGER and DEEPER mud pit!

Come with an appetite as we will serve Leg of Zebra and Snake on a Stick!

**OH! We’ll have some burgers and hotdogs too for the weak stomachs**

Please come dressed ready to get muddy!

Bring a towel and a change of clothes (or 2, or 3) - we all know the pull of a mud pit doesn’t stop,

EVER.


Date: Saturday, June 1, 2013

Time: 4 o’clock pm to WHENEVER

Place: Ted and Carrie’s (Aidan and Luke’s too!)

Preparations:



Crazy Foods:

Snake on a Stick - Grilled chicken tenders on a skewer:


Lizard Eggs - Hard boiled eggs with cracked shells that caused the "crackle" look to them after we dyed them:


Worms - Really, just Jell-O in a straw:


But the show case of the foods this year was the Leg of Zebra - I took a flour tortilla and painted zebra stripes with black icing watered down. Then I rolled it to look like a leg bone and stuffed it with pastrami slices and placed it on a bed of spinach. YUCK! ;-)


Both Aidan and Luke ate EVERYTHING! I MEAN EVERYTHING! (totally off their food radars!)



Then the Registration happened! Kids came pouring in with their parents! We signed them up for their age heats and showed them the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place medals. They chose a bandana to wear and to keep, then they were escorted outside to walk the course before we began. Of course, they ALL experienced the mud pit before the actual course began. I mean really, who wouldn't?


Then it begins! The course is explained!



And they're off! Each kid was timed as he/she went through the race. Age Heats: 3-5 years; 6-9 years; and 10-15 years
1st: Swing over the Amazon river (a blue tarp)
2nd: Knee highs in 6 tires
3rd: Shoot a lion with a bow and arrow
4th: Use a gunny sack (potato sack) to hop to the spider web
5th: Zig-zag through the spider web 3 times
6th: Climb the jungle canopy (A ladder suspended in the air over 2 saw horses)
7th: Burrow in a tire tunnel of semi truck tires
8th: Climb the ladder, and slide down the slide into the giant mud pit
9th: Belly flop into the pool






We challenged the 10-15 age group to belly flops. We said that if they rolled in the mud and got super dirty, we'd take off 5 seconds. If they belly flopped, another 10 seconds off. They took the challenge, and WOW!


After all was done, we handed out medals:
Ages 3-5



Ages 6-9



Ages 10-15



Then it was BBQ time and hang out time!


So if you missed out on the Boy vs Wild Season 2 for any reason, I hope you be sure to make it to Season 3! See you next year!

Survival Week - Summer Theme Weeks

I couldn't decide on which to post these theme weeks - either here, where we are recording our Family's Bucket List being filled, or on our School:reThunk page where we document our homeschooling.

So I put it on both places. There. Problem solved.

This summer I decided to try something different. Each week of summer I planned a different theme for the boys to explore and experience rather than being plugged in most of the summer.

This week, as we lead up to the Boy vs Wild Season 2 party, we are experiencing Survival week.

Sunday evening, Aidan had his first camp-out sleepover in the backyard with a neighbor friend. It was cold. Brr. But they survived!

We visited the Army Surplus Store with Daddy on Memorial Day as well as the Sportsmans Warehouse were they were introduced to more than BB guns! ;-)

The next day, we went out to hunt for frogs. By listening and looking for places where frogs might live, we concluded that we don't know that much about frogs and were out of luck. Too bad, Aidan was interested in eating Frog Legs to survive. I told him that if he would eat a piece of lettuce, he'd be on the right track to survival in the outdoors.







After deciding that frogs weren't going to be put into our jar, bugs and leaves were the next best thing.


On Wednesday, we worked on tying knots. For a kid who refuses to learn how to tie his shoes, he picked up knot tying quickly.


Afterwards, Aidan spent time reading his new Survival Book that we bought him in his hanging chair. (Yes, the chair is back. Oi Vey.)


On Thursday, we had some friends over to help us explore how to make shelters and start fires. However, we aren't experienced survivalists, and quickly realized that teaching kiddos how to put up lean-to shelters and start a fire in wind of 23 mph and wind gusts up to 35 mph just wasn't the smartest thing to do. So we set them lose in the backyard (quite literally - as I'm sure the blew around the yard a time or two), and poured ourselves another cup of coffee. We can survive another time.

Friday, we set about making Bow and Arrows from PVC pipes, nylon string and wooden dowels. The kids had a ball and while we were at it, I painted a lion for them to shoot for lion meat (aka chicken nuggets for lunch).



All this led up to our big mud party. A party we like to call, Boy vs Wild. This was our second season, and talk is already happening for Season 3.

This week: SPY WEEK