extravaganza

FIELD DAAAAAAY!!!!!

remember how, in elementary school, field day was the best day ever, cos it meant NO CLASSES and a day outside under the sun and fun games and relay races and prizes and grass stains and the chance to basically play yr pants off?

well, to celebrate our birthdays, henri and i decided to BRING FIELD DAY BACK!! (yeah)
on saturday, we invited some friends to meet us in pease park for an old school (seriously, like elementary) day of recreation, friendly competition and general silliness.

and it was awesome. YOU GUYS IT WAS SO AWESOME!

henri and i greeted everyone at the entrance of the park with a big pile of green and yellow thrift store t-shirts. cos you gotta have teams for field day! note henri’s gratuitous use of the new hipster trend, cut-offs.

matt was the first to arrive,  and he was wearing brand new shorts that he had purchased specifically for this occasion!

btw i named the pinata felipe, even though henri said i might not want to name something that is going to get the crap (er, candy) literally beaten out of it. but i can’t help myself sometimes.

we brought markers so that everyone could personalize their t-shirt with their name (or field day nickname) and anything else that made them feel special and invincible.

john wrote something in chinese symbols on his t-shirt, cos he’s a show-off.

i wrote a special message on my t-shirt which apparently NO ONE READ. ahem.

over the next half hour, everyone arrived and got to work on their shirts. it kind of felt like a sweatshop, but with really great weather.

i can’t tell you how impressed i was with the end result of these shirts (seriously, henri and i have some pretty clever friends) so i wanted to show you some of my favorites:

matt listened to jay-z (or was it tupac?) on his iphone while making his shirt.

caitlin and emily aren’t just adorable, they’re also super artistic! note: the only thing on that shirt originally was the hat. i know, right?!

msw took the opportunity to proclaim her rule over all of field day.

caitlin’s shirt was educational and reminded me of something from a beverly cleary book. i’m not sure why, but maybe you know what i mean.

jessica totally rocked my face.

josh d, a man of few (but potent) words:

to understand the back of tim’s shirt…

you need to see the front:

seriously, thrift stores are GOLD MINES. my favorite t-shirt that i bought, btw, went to lucky winner brian, who later embellished it after jessica had to go home early:

ok, so a family made a t-shirt for their reunion, and then they put all of the DEAD PEOPLE on fallen petals? wow. that’s so… bumper sticker poetic.

selina and tommy arrived bearing gifts! YES! FINALLY! a motivational calendar!! now i can actually make all of my wildest dreams come true! while playing extreme sports!

did i mention that the weather was absolutely perfect? because, oh, it was!

i was worried that the park would be packed, due to the climate, but we actually had more than enough space. our only neighbors for most of the day were these um, renfest people? shakespearean gypsies? horse enthusiasts? i have no idea. but they were amazing. and they apparently meet at the park on saturday afternoon if you’re interested in, say, recreating a scene from “robin hood.”

so let me introduce you to the teams!! first, we have the GREEN TEAM!!!!!

(l-r: matt, dustin, caitlin, brian, me, msw, jessica, john, selina, tommy)

and on the other side of the field, we have the yellow team!!

(l-r: emily, karrie, caitlin, henri, tim, teresa, heather, chris, josh d)

as you can see, the competition was about to get FIERCE.

Game One: Spoon on a String

How the Game Is Played: each team forms a circle and drops the spoon (with string attached) through their shirts until everyone is connected by the string. when the whistle blows, the first team to untangle themselves wins!

this game is a great way to start a field day, cos you get to know yr team rather intimately. plus everyone looks super cute, like a group of little kids touring a museum and tied up so they don’t run off from the chaperone.

it’s also a lot more complicated than it seems, esp. when everyone starts FREAKING OUT and pulling the string and yr shirt gets all twisted up and YIKES!!

Winner: Green Team!! holla!!! don’t be deceived by the simplicity of this game. strategery counts!

Game Two: Jump the Brook

How the Game Is Played: two jump ropes are laid on the ground parallel to each other. everyone must jump over the ropes, and after each round, the distance between the ropes is widened until everyone is eliminated except for the winner.

you guys, this game is SO FUN. at first it feels kind of silly, cos everyone is jumping over, like, two feet of grass. but then as the ropes move further and further apart, it gets intense!!!!! and people try really hard!! and even hurt themselves!!

here’s tim in action:

the contest eventually boiled down to some pretty major jumpers. check it out and be impressed!!!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbRj0hL7MI0 325 260]

the finalists were tommy and chris, who both have the incredible ability to jump, like, two of me (if i had laid down between the ropes, which i was not about to do, but still!! that’s far!!). check out the awesome form on these guys:

chris ended up being the champion, but only cos he completely sacrificed his body in the name of victory. check out that nasty grass burn. ouchie pants!

Winner: Yellow Team!

Game Three: Egg & Spoon Relay Race

How the Game Is Played: team members must race across the field (and back) while balancing an egg on a spoon. if the egg drops, they have to go all the way back to the start and do it again. the first team to finish the race wins!i know the image of an adult running (carefully) with a spoon and an egg seems ridiculous, but this game is NERVE WRACKING. i’ve never seen people focus more on a single object than i did during this race. it was almost like people were using eyebeams to hold their egg in place.

here’s karrie with her game face on:

notice how matt already has his eyes on the goal (well, the jump rope that signaled, “turn around!”) before the whistle has even been blown. this guy is FOCUSED.

the fact that everyone was so intent on their egg made them look even sillier. it was great.

this game is hard to watch, as a team member, cos people seem to be moving AS SLOW AS MOLASSES. so you have to cheer and yell at people to go “faster! faster! FASTER!!” and “bring it on home!” and i think maybe that helps.

check out tim totally hoofing it.

i was DETERMINED to win this one for my team. you can see it in my confident, bold stride.

turns out, i was *so* determined that i forgot there was one more person after me (tommy). uh, oops? so, when josh d. and i were neck and neck, i thought, “this is it! everyone’s counting on me! it’s DO OR DIE!” and i ran faster faster faster and… my egg fell and smashed upon the ground. and then i realized that my gamble had been for NOTHING, cos i wasn’t even the last person. so i had to do my whole leg of the race again, in shame.

here’s me, admitting my mistake and posing with my shame for the public. just like elliot spitzer!

Winner: Yellow Team (sigh. I’M SORRY!!!)

Game Four: Hula Hoop Chain

How the Game Is Played: much like spoon on a string, each team forms a circle with members holding hands. a hula hoop is placed on someone’s arm, and when the whistle blows, the team has to get the hula hoop all the way around the circle without breaking the chain (i.e. you can’t let go of people’s hands). the first team to pass the hula hoop completely around wins!

i didn’t get to take any pictures of this game, cos it went really fast. but people did seem to enjoy playing with the hula hoops afterwards:

Winner: Yellow Team blah blah blah whatever

Game Five: Chubby Bunny

How the Game Is Played: everyone puts a marshmallow in their mouth and then must say the phrase, “chubby bunny.” each round means another marshmallow (no swallowing!), and if a person can’t manage to say “chubby bunny,” they leave the game. the winner is (obvs) the person with the biggest mouth and highest tolerance for nasty huge marshmallows.

(by the way, we nominated four people from each team to play, cos we thought we didn’t have enough marshmallows. HA HA HA we were so wrong)

i LOVE this game. cos i love food and i love bunnies and people make weird faces! yay! but i had no idea that it could get so… um, gross?

it starts off really cutely, like, oh look, brian has chubby cheeks!

and, like, check out tommy’s goofy face!!

and then it starts to get HILARIOUS, cos everyone’s faces take on a cartoonish expression.  does heather remind anyone else of the judge from “roger rabbit”?

hey josh, you got somethin’… there’s, uh, something coming out of… er, the side of yr… um, mouth?

ok, chris, that’s just disgusting.

i consider this an extremely psychological game, cos the pressure begins to build and people SNAP. sort of like in “hands on a hard body” when people have to stand up for days and days and keep their hands on that truck and they start LOSING THEIR MINDS.

the first sign of someone cracking is laughter. when they start to laugh, you know the End is Near.

Exhibit A: tim

he starts to laugh and then…

BAM! he can no longer control the marshmallow, leading to total disaster.

Exhibit B: matt

matt’s like, hey, this is kinda funny… heh… heh… haha…

ON NO THIS ISN’T SO FUN ANYMOOOOOREAAAUUGHHBLAAAAH!

matt ended up tossing not only the marshmallows, but everything else he’d eaten that day. poor chubby bunny. he shouldn’t feel bad though, cos just watching this game can make you feel nauseated. notice how this movie ends abruptly cos henri had to walk away before he started hurling.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcFaxEu3frk 325 260]

Winner: i actually can’t even remember cos it was so gross. was it tommy? dustin? all i know is, we had a lot of plastic bags filled with marshmallows and spit.

Game Six: Three Legged Race

How the Game Is Played: duh!!!!! everyone partners up and ties their inside legs together. in relay fashion, partners must cross the field and back, and the first team to finish wins!henri and i decided to use duct tape to keep people together, because duct tape works for everything.

when was the last time you were tied via leg to someone else? it’s actually a really funny experience, and i felt like everyone kinda made new best friends during that game.

like two peas in a pod! squee!

since we’d lost a few folks by this point (CALM DOWN, it wasn’t due to injury or marshmallow chokage. they had other places they had to be, that’s all) we didn’t have an even number of players. so each team nominated one person to jump with their own feet tied together. it was pretty darn cute.

this race was definitely one of my favorites. caitlin and i just couldn’t stop GIGGLING like two little girls high on pixie stix. and i kept thinking we were about to fall over and lie on our backs like helpless turtles but we actually made it. and so did everyone else!

you can practically feel the childlike giddiness in this video:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKBQCZ0J8Hk 325 260]

after that exhausting race, it was time for a CUPCAKE BREAK!!! YAY! CUPCAKES FOR MY BIRTHDAY!! msw was sweet enough to bake chocolate cupcakes for everyone!! she’s like, the best room mom ever.

by this point, all of the games and merriment had turned everyone into six year old versions of themselves. just look at these faces!

MMMM nom nom nom. you can’t have a field day without cupcakes. them’s the rules.

Game Seven: Pinata
How the Game Is Played: ok, i think everyone knows that the goal of this game is beat up a poor pinata with a stick (while blindfolded) until all of the precious, precious candy spills out. however, henri and i decided to add another rule to make things more *interesting* (and kid-like): the team who gathers the most candy by the end of the game wins!!here’s poor felipe, awaiting his cruel, cruel destiny.

you can literally see the fear in his eye.

henri had a lot of fun pulling felipe up and down so that the players were swingingly wildly at nothing. this never stopped being funny.

yep, still funny.

our new rule totally worked, too, cos every time even one little piece of candy fell out, everyone made a mad dash towards it and ended up in a scrambling heap. just like when we were kids and actually *cared* about eating tootsie rolls!

we did eventually learn to yell “STOP!” so that the person with the stick would stop swinging it around. fortunately, we learned this lesson without someone’s brains getting smashed out (well, besides felipe’s).

Winner: Yellow Team. sigh. of course.

here’s josh with the spoils of his hunt:

you know, a lot of hunters turn their prey into products, like alligator skin boots and stuff. felipe got made into a hat!

Game Eight: Stomp the Balloon

How the Game Is Played: everyone ties a balloon around their ankle with a string. when the whistle blows, the object is to pop everyone’s balloon while protecting yr own. the last person with a balloon wins!ok, first of all, can i just say how cute everyone looked with balloons tied around their ankles?

it’s like we all had little balloon friends!!

note, after the first round of this game, matt defected to the yellow team, because he said he “wanted to win.” whatever, TRAITOR.

the only complication with this game is that the grass itself can be yr worst enemy. lots of people’s balloons popped without any stomping required, but i think that made the game more exciting!

teresa disagreed. she feared for her new balloon friend’s safety.

Winner: seriously, guys, i quit keeping track at this point. obvs the yellow team was gonna be the overall winner, but we were all having such a blast that it really didn’t seem to matter (ok, well, to NONCOMPETITIVE people like me).

Game Nine: Egg Toss

How the Game Is Played: everyone partners up and stands across from each other an even distance. one person throws the egg to the other person, and after each throw, the distance increases until there is only one set of partners left with a whole egg. i.e. let’s get messy!!!!

this game is really adorable, actually. just look at us!

but as the distance increases, it does get a little anxiety-producing. ok, a LOT. cos you want to catch the egg, but you don’t want it to smash into yr hand, and then you feel really guilty if you end up throwing it, say, into yr partner’s shirt or something.

selina and i made it about half-way through before our egg crashed.

fortunately, i didn’t get any of it on her clothes, so i felt ok. esp. given my negative previous experience with an egg that day.

it’s kind of sad when yr egg crashes. it’s like, WHAT HAVE I DONE? I’VE KILLED THIS EGG! and now my HANDS ARE GROSS!

in typical elementary school fashion, *some people* couldn’t be trusted to keep their eggs within the realm of the game. i won’t name any names, but there was definitely some egg hooliganism.

did i mention that caitlin m. brought water balloons? yeah.

Game Ten: Tug of War
How the Game Is Played: need i explain.

this game is AWESOME!!!!! i haven’t played tug of war in AGES, and i forgot how purely physical it is, like, the whole team is straining and pulling and applying every single molecule of their body in a battle of SHEER FORCE.

it’s like being on a ship, and there’s a storm and you have to get the sail down or whatever it is that pirates do when the waves are crashing and they’re yelling, “HEAVE HO!” it feels JUST LIKE THAT!

Winner: ok, i did keep track of this one, cos THE GREEN TEAM WON!! HOLLA!!

Game Eleven: Red Rover

How the Game Is Played: two teams line up and face each other across the field. the first team holds hands and chants, “red rover, red rover, let (somebody) come over!” and then that person, from the other team, has to run across the field and break through one of the links (people holding hands) on the team. if the person breaks through, they get to bring someone back with them. if they don’t, they have to stay on the team. eventually one team will only have one person left, and that makes them the looooser.i think we all remember what a brutal game red rover can be. i remember, on several occasions, feeling fairly certain that i had just broken my wrist and/or kidneys. now imagine playing red rover… with people that weigh over sixty pounds.

yeah. IT’S TERRIFYING.

this game ended pretty quickly, cos a) adults are big and their body crashing into yr wrist REALLY HURTS b) some of us are just a little scared of running through a pair of v. strong arms, ok?

so the green team got a little lonely.

(henri pointed out that this photo makes it look like selina and i are just happy friends, holding hands. la la la! when, in reality, we were FEARING FOR OUR LIVES).

the game ended when the yellow team called us over at the same time. notice the look of pure TERROR on my face.

and with that, the games ended, and prizes were awarded!!!

the yellow team got blue ribbons, cos they were the first prize winners. but because second place is almost as awesome as first, the green team got red/pink ribbons!

yeah, i don’t know why john got a blue ribbon. i think henri just wanted him to have the “potty training” award.

i felt so proud of everyone!! i mean, look at all we had accomplished in one day– running with legs attached to each other, hysterically stomping balloons, stuffing marshmallows into our faces, eating cupcakes…  we were ALL WINNERS!!!

honestly, this was one of the best birthday parties i’ve ever had. there’s really no better feeling than looking around at the people you adore and knowing that they’re having an absolutely wonderful time, just like you are.

YAY! WE DID IT!!!

and then it was time to leave the park. when i was a kid, i always hated it when field day ended, cos i wanted the fun to go on for ever and ever and ever. but as twilight descended and we packed up our things, i didn’t mind, cos i knew we had been given a perfect day, and we hadn’t wasted a single minute.

unfortunately, we did have to leave behind a fallen comrade. RIP, felipe.

on next year’s field day, we’ll make a shirt and put yr name on one of the fallen petals. i promise.

© 2008 Poshdeluxe.