the big dig birthday party

maguire had his big dig birthday party and fun was had by all. i went early to set up and to hide tons of treasures in the sand. it took longer than i planned to bury all of the tiny toys and i for sure didn't plan on it being in the upper 80's! but i got it all done and was glad i brought a big jug of lemonade because we were sure going to need it.

the kids each had sand buckets, with their names on them. in each bucket was a shovel and a pair of sunglasses. i thought the last thing we needed was sand in the eyes and they seemed to work relatively well.
caution tape designated the area that had all the buried toys. they loved digging and yelled every time they found something. they all shared really well too. they found frogs, snakes, parachute guys, army men, cats, magnifying glass, and all kinds of other fun things.

after the dig we were all hot and settled down under the pavilion for lemonade and cheese and strawberries on a stick. they looked through their buckets of treasures and then some played with the parachute guys and some went back to the pit for more digging. they also each had a black beanbag in their buckets and we used that for the dump truck game. we divided into two teams and each person tried to toss the beanbag into the bed of the dump truck. it was fun and in true boy fashion became competitive quickly.

the party favors were their buckets with their treasures that they found, a black bean bag, sunglasses and then we topped them off with a large cookie. large cookies have become my standard party favor. i wanted to make a wheel, but them remembered that black frosting is a mess, to work with and on your teeth later! so we just did orange circles with the number 6 on them. we opened presents at home and that was so much less stress than previous years. maguire said this was his favorite birthday party.....he says that every year!