So many things to catch up on - No.1 A Hobbit Party

   A long time ago - back in August, our youngest son turned 10.  He wanted a birthday party - his first sleep over party - and he was not sure if he wanted a "theme" or just to have some guys over.  Theme won out and it was a hobbit party.  We incorporated some of the  characters/adventures from Tolkien's The Hobbit - a life long favorite of all in our family, and some of the essence  of The Lord of the Rings.
  Here is what we did.  Preparations:

• made  "lembas bread" - a sweet sort of biscuit, sort of short bread 

• made paper "leaf wrappers"  as they had been wrapped that way when given to the Fellowship by Galadriel of Lothlorien
• created a map of Middle Earth to  help these hobbits follow the quest to gain troll treasure, vanquish orcs,  escape spiders, and obtain the Ring of Power
• made sign posts and posted them all over the farm to  give the questers points on their map to find
• bought candy with gold wrappers to create the troll treasure 
• Bought glow stick  daggers to simulate "Sting" - so they had to glow blue!
• made walking sticks from  straight branches
• Made backpacks for our trusty hobbits to carry their bounty in
• printed  orc faces and tied them to trees in Mirkwood
• filled water balloons
• made spiders from balloons and crepe paper
• made golden rings of power from locking washers from tractor Supply and some gold spray paint
• placed water bottles to cool in the stream in Mirkwood for the hobbits to drink at the end of their hiking
• iced a cake on which I was requested to  draw Smaug, Gimli's ax, Legolas's bow, the staff  of Gandalf (the white),  Sting, and Sam's frying pan!
• Strategically placed the back packs,  daggers, walking sticks, the treasure, the orcs, spiders and Rings
• The boys started out in The Shire and then followed their maps until the ultimate goal of the Ring was achieved.  
  
  
  

  

  Starting out from The Shire

  
  

  

  With backpacks, walking sticks and Sting -
  Map in hand, they were on their way

  

  Climbing the hill to the Trolls Trove

Entering Mirkwood as dusk fell - what lies ahead?

Are those SPIDERS?

Well, sort of!  (Abi and Alex, pre-party,

hanging "spiders" from the trees in the clearing.) 

These can be killed with Sting.  No lazy lobs here!

In our Middle Earth, the only way to kill an orc is with water balloons

pass through all the challenges and take a Ring

Successful hobbits heading back to the Shire

Our fellowship!

Sting, staff, axe, bow, Ring, Smaug and frying pan - only somewhat soft due to the heat!

After the quest was completed, our hobbits (along with another party goer who arrived after the farm fun)  were ready to  roast hot dogs over the fire and have tater tots ("Potatoes - boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew"), fruit and of course the requisite s'more.  They then played night games - capture the flag and such, racing around the darkened yard with their daggers glowing.  Finally, bedded down in the living room with their sleeping bags and troll treasure, they watched the Hobbit movies - or at least  most watched the first and two stayed awake through the second.  

     Since they were stuffed after all the food that night, we had cake for breakfast along with eggs and bacon.  Over all, a lot of work, but the boys had such a good time, I'd do it again in a heartbeat!