Next Time... On Survivor

 Tonight's blog title was brought to you by Peyton. 

Today, was a super fun day. Asa claims it's the best activity I've ever done. Now, we've played Survivor before. Usually it's a Christmas time activity, as that's when Survivor wraps up for the season. I decided if we were doing it for reality show week though, I had to up the authenticity of it. 

So, I gave the boys and Asa and laundry basket full of sheets, rope, scissors, and sunscreen (I couldn't just let them burn like they do in real Survivor). 

They then made their camp for the day. I suggested they might way to make it by the lake (the baby pool), and near the watering hole (the cooler filled with ice water) 

I was pretty impressed with their camp. 

Of course, they had tree mail to know when reward and immunity challenges were happening. (They weren't allowed to talk to me if I was outside with my camera. I told them they had to ignore "the camera guys") 

In an effort to have all the boys participate in some things, and not just getting voted out right away after sitting in the Florida heat, I made some reward challenges first. 

First up: The food auction. I put some monopoly money in an envelope for each of them, along with a clue as to what they were in for. Then I put it all in tree mail. 

I brought out food, covered, and had them bid on it. There were m&m's, Popsicles, and even a clue to the hidden immunity idol (that I had previously hidden outside.) Calib saved all his money hoping the clue to the idol would be the last thing up for grabs, and he bid all $100 on it. 

A little while later, I put another note in tree mail for another reward challenge. We drew for teams. (you either got the Trinadad and Tabago scarfs we got on our embassy tours in DC, or the buffs that were a giveaway at one of the Bucs games. Calib and Peyton were on a team, and Hayden and Asa were on a team. 

The challenge was to build a tower as tall as you could in two minutes, while contestants from the opposing team threw ping pong balls and tried to knock them down. Tallest tower after two minutes won. This got a little more violent than I had anticipated, so I called it after about a minute and 20 seconds. Peyton and Calib won. Their reward: One electronic device from inside. Peyton chose the WiiU pad, and Calib chose Asa's Nexus (to try and win good favor) 

I left again, and apparently Hayden had an outburst (possibly about losing the challenge) and made a mess of camp. 

Meanwhile, Calib looked for the hidden immunity idol. He was on the right track, but Asa had already found it sans clue. (Sneaky boy, when I noticed it was gone, I asked him if he had it-- and he said he didn't!) 

Hayden looked for the immunity idol too, but to no avail. 

Then it was time for the first immunity challenge. This is what I got when I asked "Worth playing for?"

In this immunity challenge, the contestants were asked to collect three objects. They could only bring back one at a time. First person to complete their page was the winner. 

Asa narrowly beat out Calib, and had immunity. 

It was finally time for our first tribal council. I had a hard time figuring out what to use for torches. Since we usually play Survivor at Christmas we always have wrapping paper rolls around. I improvised with the remained pool noodles from our other various projects. I just taped some red tissue paper to the top of them, and used a sharpie for everyone's names. 

After a discussion, it was time for a vote. 

When I asked "If anyone has the hidden immunity necklace, now is the time to play it", Asa pulled it out of his pocket to give to Peyton, and Calib knew he was done. He didn't even wait for the vote. 

(I like the picture sequence here )

So, Calib's torch was extinguished, and we were down to three. 

After a little while, and another tree mail it was time for the final immunity challenge: See who can hold a bucket of water on their head for the longest. I had three different size buckets to even the playing field a bit. 

Hayden was out early, he tipped his bucket and spilled his water everywhere. Then it was just between Asa and Peyton. They talked about the deal they had in place. 

Then Asa dropped the bucket, giving Peyton immunity. 

We convened a bit later for tribal council. 

Of course, our bitter jury member was there to see it all go down. 

Peyton made his decision, voting out Hayden. 

"Hayden the tribe has spoken" No more tissue paper flames for him. 

Peyton and Asa were then served the customary final two celebratory breakfast. (They both love the new protein Cheerios's, so they each got a small bowl)

Then it was time for the final tribal council. 

We brought out our jury, and they were allowed to ask questions of Peyton and Asa, such as "why should we vote for you"

The last Survivor vote, you vote for the person who you want to win. Calib voted for Asa. 

Hayden voted for Peyton. 

In the event of a tie on survivor, they draw rocks. (I don't think they'd do this for the last vote, but that's never been a tie-- so I had to improvise). Since I didn't have different colored rocks, I used blocks. Whoever drew the blue block would be the winner. 

Our Survivor Winner: Peyton! 

Hayden was the first to congratulate him. In case you're wondering, Asa is kind of throwing things in the kids directions. (Notice last night Hayden won, today it was Peyton, look for Calib to take home some title soon)

Also worth noting today: Asa passed his Java class! It was a toughie, and he got it in under the wire (his term is over the end of June), but it's done and over with. Rootbeer floats all around tonight! 

Oh, and I told you yesterday I was going to kill it at Publix today. Check out what $28 bought. Now, those six boxes of fruit loops is a little excessive. But you see, I essentially got them for free, and then got $1 off each gallon of milk to boot. Since we were going to buy the milk anyway, seems like I might as well get it for $3 a gallon, instead of $4 (and then get free fruit loops). 

I also made a very quick trip to Target today. Here's what $3.70 bought me there. 

Talking about good deals, we won another $6 M&M movie give away, and I was able to couple that with one from a couple of days ago. I bought Hayden two new workbooks (third grade ones, yay!)-- one cost me 1.89, and the other a whopping 6 CENTS. 

That's it for today. Hope ya'll had as much fun as us today! 

Up Next: This.... Is American Idol.