Hannah's Party was a Hoot!

We survived...and we had an absolute blast!

Friday night, Hannah celebrated her 13th birthday with 8 (one couldn't make it) of her closest friends. The teenagers arrived at our home at 7:00 and stayed until 10:00 am the next morning. They were hyped up and ready to par-tee! Here is the birthday girl waiting for her friends to arrive:

Rachel and I put together little gift bags for her friends. We used the same owl that I created for her invitations:

After the giggly girls all arrived it was time to start the big Scavenger Hunt all over town. I had so much fun planning this. The girls had to read clues to find out where to go, pick up things, take pictures, and search for items. One of the examples was: Go to the place where you "Eat Fresh" and ask for a napkin (of course the answer was Subway).

Another clue was to find a slide at the city park, find out the name of who made the slide and take a group picture. I had a group of 5 and Rachel drove a group of 4 girls. Our team won! Woo hoo!

One of the girls in my group squealed from the back seat of my suburban, "We have only been at the party for 5 minutes and I am already having so much fun! You plan the best parties for Hannah's birthdays!" ...and then I squealed with delight too! They were having fun, just like I hoped and planned that they would (thank you, Heavenly Father).

After both teams finished the scavenger hunt, it was time to eat. Mr. Incredible picked up the pizzas while we all raced around town. When he picked up the pizzas, one of the grandfather's of one of the girls at the party, who knew that we were having an all night party, said, "Now, before you pay for those pizzas, you better go get you some nerve pills because you are going to need them!" Mr. Incredible just smiled!

After pizza, it was time to open gifts.

Hannah LOVES duct tape! She has made several gifts for her friends out of duct tape and she is just sure that when she is a junior in high school, that she will make her dress out of duct tape (did you know there is a scholarship for the winner of the most amazing duct tape prom dress?). She loves duct tape so this is what most of her friends gave her:

She is smiling from ear to ear!

Little did she know that her friends had made plans for a duct tape wedding for Hannah. What?

They planned the whole thing! Hannah's groom? Mr. Duct Tape.

Here are the two masterminds of the duct tape wedding:

2 of the Hannah's bridesmaids:

Ring bearers:

And the carrier of the groom:

Hannah escorted by her father (okay this was fun until now...be still my heart!):

Dum...dum...du...dum:

The minsters...I'm using that word loosely pronounced them Mr. and Mrs. Duct Tape and then she threw her bouquet which was made out of duct tape (poor guy) and silk flowers:

They even made her a duct tape ring:

Ready to catch the bouquet?

Ah, we have a winner....or a runner, I'm not really sure:

They even staged a fight over the bouquet:

And then they made up....the future bride-to-be:

Here is the entire wedding party complete with the groom who fits nicely in the palm of Hannah's hand....I like her style....it's better than wrapping your man around your finger. Ha!

I don't have an explanation for this one:

Or this one....oh okay....maybe Charlie's Angels showed up at the wedding...why not!

The party didn't stop there! Hannah wanted to do 13 things for her 13th party. So, the girls continued with the list by having a wii sing off competition:

They all wanted to sing Lady Gaga or Jonas Brothers or Taylor Swift:

And the winner? The birthday girl!

Then, the 13th birthday tradition! My parents started this with me and I have passed down the tradition to Rachel, on her 13th birthday, and now on to Hannah! It is a beautiful, heart-warming tradition that involves....toilet paper!

Yes, you heard that correctly. For my 13th birthday my parents and I and several of my friends rolled or T-p'd, or wrapped my youth minister's house. It was sOOOOOOO much fun! They picked up flashing detour signs, for-sale signs, and a lot of toilet paper and plastic forks. For you sophisticated people, this means we forked the yard (placed the forks with the tines facing up), wrapped every tree and branch that we could find with toilet paper, and then placed blinking detour signs and for-sale signs all over his yard. I'll never forget my brother, who was having such a great time wrapping the house that he forgot all of the forks that were so carefully placed in the yard, and as we all ran for the car, he stepped on every one. The funny thing was that the youth minister never guessed it was us....even when we confessed later on.

I've never forgotten the fun of that party and I resolved to pass this fun tradition on to my girls on their 13th birthdays too. We did it with Rachel....and Hannah has counted the years until her 13th birthday party tradition.

Here I am passing the tradition to Hannah:

We all wrapped our heads ceremoniously with tp and then took the pinkie promise that we would not tell a single soul what we did....and now here I am confessing to the world. Ha!

Some had never tp'd before. Just look at their faces:

Excitement and anticipation at its finest:

Of course, being the mom that I am, I asked if any of them felt uncomfortable about doing this....yada yada yada....and even mentioned that they didn't have to do this if they didn't want to....to which they all said, rather screamed, "let's go!!!!"

We didn't get caught...yet! The girls were very meticulous about carefully wrapping the trees, and they were the quietest they had been all night. It was fun to whisper, "Here comes a car!" and they all bolted for the suburbans. Mr. Incredible and Rachel drove the getaway cars as the girls giggled all the way home.

Then it was time to really sugar them up. We ordered Gigi's cupcakes:

Those cupcakes are so sweet that they make your teeth hurt....and your sides too from laughing so hard. This one decided that she could shove the entire cupcake in her mouth at one time...and the crowd cheered her on:

After cupcakes, the girls retreated to the game room to put on their pjs and to watch 13 going on 30 and Nacho Libre. Mr. Incredible and I checked on them around midnight. The game room door was closed so we knocked on the door and then opened it only to find a thick, green hazy fog, had filled the game room to capacity...and then the smell infiltrated our nostrils. We both looked at each other and nearly dry heaved! Yes, 9 teenaged girls...who had just taken their shoes off! Whew!

I offered more pizza and lemonade and Cheetos. They all ran for the kitchen as if they hadn't eaten in 3 days....and while they were in the kitchen I turned on the ceiling fan in the gameroom, grabbed my Febreeze and went to spraying....every shoe...every sock....and every corner of that room...and then made a mental note to always, always keep Febreeze around! IT is worth it's weight in gold.

The funny thing about the feet smell is that I had been noticing Hannah's feet were smelling a bit funky and wondering if I might need to have her foot odor checked...but after her party, I have learned that she is very normal and her foot odor is really not nearly as bad as the green haze that came out of the gameroom last Friday night! Oiy!

I checked on the girls several times that night. The last giggle was heard around 5:30. They slept until around 8:30 where I had more sugar waiting....this time in the form of home made chocolate chip/peanut butter pancakes:

By 10:15 all of the girls were headed home...and I was ready for a nap! I hugged Hannah and told her that I think all of her friends had a great time to which she responded by saying, "They did but I had a great time too. Thank you so much, Momma."

Hannah's friends are welcome at our house any time. They are some of the most well-behaved, crazy-fun, creative, and energetic girls that I know. I pray that they always remain close friends-all the way through high school. What a blessing to get to spend time with them this weekend...what a blessing to be a mom of 2 teenagers who enjoy having their friends spend time at our house!