The Country Mice

Oh my! How did my little punk get to be a teenager?

Ten years ago, when he celebrated an earlier birthday, I told him he was now three years old.

He disagreed, so I asked him why he didn’t think his birthday had made him a year older.

“Because my voice is still two years old.”

Thankfully, today his voice still sounds the same as it did last month. I don’t think I could have handled the octave drop at this time.

The birthday party consisted of a photographic scavenger hunt. About 75 items, some achievable, some age-appropriately immature (involving nasal fluids, for example), and others simply included to frustrate or befuddle (“A photo of Stephen Harper?”), were listed, printed and distributed along with two cameras.

They bifurcated into teams and were off!

Photos below should give you a sense of some of their challenges.

Here they had to use the self-timer and snap a photo with with all members’ feet off the ground.

Snug Cove or bust. Snug Cove is where we catch the ferry.

In addition to a pic of Stephen Harper (which I hoped they’d approach with jocularity) I also included on the list the name of their Head of School. Silly me, I thought they’d dress up or in some way pretend to be Dr. Ted Spear.

Noooooo. They telephoned him.

“Hello, Ted? It’s one-half of the Grade 8 class calling. Can we come to your house and take your picture?”

And they did. Gall, nerve or chutzpah — whatever — I had none of this gumption when I was 13.

Some other challenges:

Self-explanatory.

Ninja something or other.

Tree hugging. This is B.C., after all.

Coiffure du jour.

Opera.

More opera.

That’s chocolate on Devon’s face, by the way. A different task.

The birthday boy. Physical prowess.

Walk like a duck, although I see here they’re holding their earlobes. Will have to check in with Baby Duck to see what that was all about.

And with pennies over their eyes to boot!

A happy time for all.

Not bad for a bunch of photos on self-timer. Can’t recall who won the challenge but it didn’t matter. There were peals of laughter when the pictures were shown on the television screen.

Confession time: This birthday fete took place a month ago and I vowed today — TODAY IT WILL BE WRITTEN.

Why the urgency to get it posted? Tune in tomorrow…