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So, did you watch Minute to Win It on Wednesday?  Mark your calendars for next week, people.  Just to review, on Minute to Win It, contestants compete in challenges of increasing difficulty using common household items or office supplies. Each challenge must be completed in 60 seconds or less.

Hubby spearheaded the game portion of Logo's Minute to Win It birthday bash, and he did a great job coming up with games the kids would enjoy and be able to do.  It was such a relief to just hand that part of the evening over to him--I manned the camera, and got to try a couple of the challenges, too (seriously addicting--one feels an overwhelming compulsion to keep trying until one succeeds).

LEVEL 1: Defying Gravity

In Defying Gravity, a contestant must keep 3 balloons up in the air for 60 seconds.  Try it--it's harder than it sounds.  Hubby modified it for 8 year olds by having them work in teams of 2.  None of the teams made it past 20 seconds, but they sure had fun trying!

LEVEL 2: Egg Roll

In Egg Roll, contestants must must fan two or three raw eggs with a pizza box into a pre-determined zone on the other side of the stage.  The eggs, not being perfectly spherical, tend to go in unanticipated directions.  We used empty plastic Easter eggs and pieces of cardboard.

LEVEL 3: Nose Dive

 In Nose Dive, the player must transfer five or six cotton balls, one at a time, from one serving bowl to another using only petroleum jelly on the nose. 

LEVEL 4: Ruler of the World

In Ruler of the World, the contestant must guide a marble down a yardstick so that it comes to rest in a hole on the ruler's far end. It must be held for three seconds.  This is harder than it looks!  We didn't have a yardstick, so Hubby improvised.  A couple of the kids succeeded.

LEVEL 5: Rapid Fire

 In Rapid Fire, the contestant must shoot rubber bands to knock a triangle stack of six cans completely off a platform.  Hubby modified this game by having the boys work in teams of two to knock 3 cans off a table.


LEVEL 6: Caddy Stack

In Caddy Stack, the contestant must stack three golf balls on the table. The stack must remain in place for three seconds in order for the contestant to complete the challenge.  Our party guests only had to stack two golf balls.  Code-man's friend, Ize-man, was one of two successful competitors...guess who the other one was!

LEVEL 7: Face the Cookie

 In Face the Cookie, the contestant, using only their face, must move two Oreo cookies individually from their forehead to their mouth.  For our contest, we asked the boys to try one cookie.  Wild Thing was one of about half of the boys who completed this challenge successfully.  I could not do this to save my life...but that didn't keep me from trying...over and over again...and eating my failures :)

LEVEL 8: Sticky Balls

The contestant must roll marbles down a table to stick five of them onto double sided tape at the very end. Roll too soft and the marbles won't reach their destination; too hard and they will fall off.  We used...what else?...duct tape.

The boys waiting patiently for their turn.
From left: MC, Peanut, Thing 2, Hay-man, Wild Thing, Bri-guy, Ize-man

What was really great about this whole concept is the kids didn't really care if they were able to successfully complete the challenges or not--they were just having a terrific time trying, and cheering each other on. 

Only one of the boys ended up spending the night, and this was a very good thing.  Wild Thing ended up staying awake most of the night; he was up until at least 4:30 a.m., which is the last time I heard him.  Reminded me of the not-so-good-ol' days about 8 years ago, when Logo was the one keeping us up.  Later on, Hubby commented that he was trying to decide if it would have been better or worse to have more boys sleeping over.  Personally, I can't see how it could have been better to have even more boys not sleeping in our house.  I haven't talked to WT's parents to see if he fell asleep on the ice at hockey practice that day, but WT's dad didn't seem too surprised when we informed him his middle child had been up almost all night.

And so, the party came to an end, and our middle baby is officially another year older.  Happy Birthday, Logo!

For a list of most of the Minute to Win It challenges, you can go here (wish I had found this one before the party--it would have been helpful).

For video blueprints of the challenges, you can go to NBC's website.