Revolutionary War Party

Whew, the party is over! The chairs are put back, the tables wiped off, the floor vacuumed. It was a lot of fun, but now I'm so tired! We ended up with 13 kids and 11 adults (not counting Anna). First we made our "Sons of Liberty" medals. For those of you who need some "Revolution review", the Sons of Liberty were a radical group of colonists who protested a lot of the British taxes and whatnots, and they wore medals with a liberty tree picture on them to identify themselves to each other. So we wrapped these little wooden disks that I got from Michael's in foil and put a string through 2 holes in top that Bob and the boys had already drilled. Then we put a sticker of a tree on the front.

Now that it was proven that we were all patriots here at the house, we went outside to our own Liberty Tree, where we discussed our plans for the British tea that they were trying to make us pay tax on. We decided we would find that tea and throw it into the harbor! So we had a little tea bag treasure hunt. I had hidden tea bags all around the yard, and when they found some, they went on the deck behind our house (also know as the British ship "Beaver") and tried to throw them into a tub of water on the ground below. Kudos to my dad for coming up with that great Revolutionary War game! The kids had a ball with it.

Then I realized I had forgotten to make the tricorn hats for everyone, so they trooped back inside to get "fitted" for their own custom-stapled construction paper hat. After everyone was wearing the proper headgear, we went back outside, since we had heard that the British were coming. We had a Paul Revere relay race where everyone had to ride around the house on a stick horse shouting, The British are coming!" By the end, it all sort of fell apart. Actually, it fell apart at the beginning, LOL, as we could hardly get everyone to stand still long enough to divide them up into 2 teams! But everyone made it around the house, and I am sure that everyone in the surrounding neighborhood heard that the British are coming, so they could take proper precautions!

We were all hungry by then, so it was back inside for dinner at a cozy local Colonial tavern, LOL. We served stew, cornbread, and cooked apples, with gingersnaps and candied orange peel for dessert. It all turned out quite good, even the stew, which I had never made before. I needed a recipe without flour, and I sort of picked one at random from my crockpot cookbook that fit the bill. The apples were a big hit--almost none left over, and I sliced up 17 of them!

After we cleaned up from dinner, everyone made a construction paper "Betsy Ross" type flag, with the stars in a circle. Then the grownups visited for awhile, and the kids all played in the basement--probably their favorite time, LOL!

Nathan is already asking what next year's theme will be. Not even going there right now, thank you! I tried to post a few pictures, but I couldn't get them to upload into Blogger. (Bob did get the camera software working again, so they are on the computer already, praise the Lord!) I'll try again tomorrow. And now I'm pooped. One more time to feed Anna, and then it's off to bed for me!