It's Hayden's 16th Birthday! Last year, of course, the coincided with the Superbowl, and this year, he gets an Olympic birthday. What a lucky guy!
Our event today, per Hayden's approval is ski jumping!
And our country is Ghana. We're not having a dinner for it, though, since it's Hayden's birthday, he's getting birthday dinner instead. Still, I told everyone the Spotlight Countries would get harder, and Hayden was the only one to get this right (he did write "Ghana.... maybe?" But it still counts!
And today's betting was on Mixed Team, Normal Hill Ski Jump. Fittingly for his birthday, Hayden was the only winner here as Canada won the bronze (and any medal gets you a pay out). Slovenia took the gold, and ROC took the silver, after a bunch of choas thanks to some DQs.
We had birthday donuts for breakfast, of course (Valentines themed too!)
After our lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup (a favorite of Hayden's for years)..
we got on to his treasure hunt for birthday presents. I'm pretty sure he started this tradition on his 7th birthday, and he still asks for it at 16. I make a map of the house on an old paper bag, and then wrap his presents to look like treasure.
So he got to finding his presents via treasure map
Calib helped him out. But as Hayden said he was a "terrible First Mate"
Hayden got a few gifts, but mostly the big news was that he got his own phone. That's right, there's finally 5 phones on our plan now.
And sadly, grandma couldn't be here, but she sent a card and bought us dinner from wherever Hayden picked.
Of course, there were board games. I made the Catan board special just for Hayden.
A 16, obviously.
And we played some Carcasonne.
And then, per tradition, which we've played for years, Hayden wanted to play hot lava. A couple years ago, I decided it needed more structure than just throwing and pushing each other into the lava. So, the way it works now, is you have to collect one of each reasource: a weapon (light saber) , knowledge (a book), rations (a granola bar), and technology (a xbox controller). Once you've collected each of one of those, you can offer it up (in the basket) and challenge someone to a duel (a duel of throwing burritos that is). It all takes place on the dueling grounds, of course (and this year, Hayden insisted whenever we held a duel, we had to play 'The 10 Duel Commandments"
You have to get one of each item by trading with your enemies. Calib usually sets up in the kitchen and has the food.
Hayden set up in the living room with all of his weapons. And added the Candy Corn god to his station. He insisted you make an offering to the candy corn god, to even begin talks with him.
Asa set up at his Downtown District (this sign has been here since Hayden's last birthday, everyone said it was up so long they refused to take it down).
And I set up in Peaceful Pillow Pool Patagonia, per usual.
We take a few minutes to set up some safe spots to traverse the lava.
And then we get to playing. I usually stay out of it. This year, I was hoping to make an alliance with Hayden, and get Calib and Asa to duel first. Take out a heavy hitter. But, somewhere along the way, Asa made an alliance with Hayden and the candy corn god and the downtown district merged. Calib took down Hayden, and then he said he was going to challenge Asa, but he backstabbed me and challenged me instead. Then, when it was down to Asa and Calib the first duel was a draw. We went to video replay, and they were both hit with the burrito at the exact same time. On the second duel, Calib got hit by Asa, making Asa this years winner of hot lava. (Fun fact: nobody loves this game more than Phenom who has a ton of pillows to lay on throughout the house).
After hot lava, Asa and I ran out to pick up Fords Garage for dinner, a Hayden birthday staple. I threw together some PB&J milkshakes when we got home to add to dinner.
And then after dinner, we got to our event for the day: ski jumping! It's basically the same thing we did four years ago, but of course, we don't have our table with the countries painted on it anymore. But, I do still have the map we used to make the outline on the table in the first place, so I taped that to the table.
And then I made a ramp for "jumping", and got back out our jumpers (water bottle lids colored in for each contestant), and yes, I saved these for four years too.
So, for the event, we would draw a random country from our flags, and then each person got to slide a water bottle lid off the ramp. Closest water lid to that country got a point, and we did ten rounds. Since Hayden got an advantage by being the only kid to guess Ghana correctly, he got two "jumps" (tries) each time. All five of us competed in this one.
Hayden was the winner! He was the closest four times! Peyton and I had to do a tie breaking jump for silver.
But, I came out victorious there. So here are your Ski Jumping 2022 Medalists:
After the event, we played some Mario Party, and Etta climbed up in the chair with me.
And then we had cake! I made Hayden his usual chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.
And of course, grandma zoomed in for the event.
Hayden texted her with "guess what I got for my birthday" and then grandma called him on his new phone.
We finished the night with some Lilo and Stitch and Cards Against Humanity. What a combo. Anyway, Hayden seemed to have a great birthday!
And, a look at the leader board.. it was also a good Olympic Day for him, as he hauled in 2 bucks.
Next Up: Moguls has to be delayed a day due to weather. It's cold and rainy today, so we need to have an indoor event. We're going with Snowboarding. Because, that's obviously indoors.
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