Lifenut

Bananas and Barrels: A Donkey Kong Country Returns Birthday

Sam was welcomed to his teen years by a gorilla on a mission and his red-hatted little monkey pal. Really, running through a jungle while smashing barrels and fighting banana-stealers is a lot like being a teen. It’s tough, but fun work and often involves frantic searches for food with friends.

One of Nintendo’s newest 3Ds games is Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. I remember when the first Donkey Kong Country came out for Super Nintendo. I was in college and my brother was in high school. We’d play it on weekends and have a ton of fun. I got really good at it, too! It was a great bonding experience for us, so when I learned of this newest incarnation, I knew I wanted to give it a try. Planning a big birthday party around Donkey Kong Country was icing for his cake.

Ready to Roll!

Nintendo sent FIFTEEN loaner 3DSs so that all the partiers could get in on the action and play together. At Sam’s request, Lee took all the younger siblings away so that our house could be taken over by teenagers for an afternoon. We had a great time decorating our house—inside and outside—in a Tiki Jungle Primate theme replete with five large pizzas, tons of soda, and candy candy candy.

Teenagerfood

I was so fond of the decorations, we may have left them up for several days, baffling the neighbors. We are good at that.

Tiki Time!

The guests dove right in to game play the moment they arrived, pairing up and then switching with friends. Only the siren call of pepperoni dragged them away from smashing barrels and saving bananas. Sam had a great time playing host, showing off other Nintendo goodies like the WiiU and Nintendoland. I thought someone might call the cops because eleven screaming teenagers attracts attention. Mostly, I stayed in another room because I have no Cool Mom aspirations and believe the less I interject in their fun, the more fun they’d have. That’s a great thing about Nintendo, too. Kids who weren’t totally familiar with Nintendo were up to speed in no time because the playing systems are so user-friendly.

Chocolate coins and root beer barrels---fun party food ideas!

The party lasted an hour longer than planned, but I didn’t notice right off the bat. Sam’s guests left with cool party favors thanks to Nintendo, including new hats and candy. One of his friends left with a brand-new Nintendo 3DS XL and a copy of Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. We did a random drawing out of a hat and it’s the best thing we’ve ever given away. Usually, we give away cold viruses and stuff. Not that day! Sam’s friend was shocked and loves it, his mom reports. Our birthday boy also received his own 3DS XL and game. The 3D effects look amazing on the big screen. It’s been fun watching him shoot videos, play games, and he used it to keep track of out of state license plates on our drive home from Grand Junction.

Big screen! Big gorilla! Big smile!

Sam’s birthday party was one of the highlights of his summer. It was one of the highlights of my summer, too. It came together beautifully and it was so much fun. I heartily recommend the game and Nintendo’s variety of playing systems for all group gatherings. Game playing brings people together!

Disclosure: We are Nintendo Ambassadors. Nintendo of America provided loaner 3DSs and games for party guests to use. They also provided party decorations, food, and favors as well as prizes. The party experience was solely ours and the opinions generated by all aspects of the party are solely ours. They set us up and we ran with it and had a fabulous time.

Three Days in the Life of a Person Who Writes in her Head

A week ago, I signed up at Conversion Diary to blog for seven days straight. I thought this was doable. I thought this would get me back into a blogging and writing groove. When Thursday arrived and it was time for me to write that day’s post, I decided to take my middle child, Joel, to get ice cream instead. I could have written the post before or after ice cream, but I didn’t.

My post that day was eating apple pie ice cream after a thunderstorm while my fifth child ate pumpkin chip. As we ate, classic old-school Christmas tunes played while big red bows flapped in the wind. Our favorite ice cream joint was celebrating Christmas in July with their holiday flavors. As I devoured the sweet cold cinnamon-swirled concoction, I wrote about middle children and how they need to hear Silver Bells, alone, and go down a slide, alone.

On Friday, I did laundry and fried tortillas for a cheese tostada lunch with tuna salad on the side. The post I wrote as oil sizzled on medium was how that lameness was a sign I’m ready for summer break to be over. At the beginning of summer break, our lunches are planned out with precision on the white board. The main entree is accompanied by fresh fruit and milk or lemonade. Two kids are designated Official Lunch Helpers. They help prepare and serve lunch, then the rest of the gang cleans up. They rotate so everyone gets to enjoy arranging apple slices to look like daisy petals on plate. But by late July, the beautiful lunches and organized labor pool deteriorates to me frying tortillas in my pajamas and dumping canned pineapple in a big bowl, alone. “LUNCH!” I bellow up and down stairs. The post I wrote as I topped crispy corn with shredded sharp cheddar was in sonnet form.

I met tortilla from Mexico land
Who said: “Please top me with cheese on the dish
After burning yourself from the oils-panned,
then inexplicably serve me with fish.”

Saturday’s post was written while riding a small red plastic train. I was one millimeter tall and competing against four others in a quest to establish rail dominion across the United States and Canada. The theme of my post was “Do not judge the player by her age, life experience, or grasp of geography.” Beatrix of the Blue Trains played Ticket to Ride against three adults and one teenager and nearly won. Second place, yo! She was patient, smart, and strategic in her empire-building. The most hilarious part was when it was her turn, she’d always say, “I’d like to waste these cards…” as she’d fan them out. They were never wasted. Ever. Unlike me, who misread “Montreal to Atlanta” and then promptly started my route in NASHVILLE. I was red. I came in last. I’d been honestly schooled by a six-year-old and I loved every moment of it.

Week Seven ~ Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

I’m a few days late doing my weekly summer break pictorial recap because I left my card reader in Grand Junction. I took hundreds of photos on my phone and what I call The Big Camera, my Canon DSLR. I’m glad I took it with us because some of my favorites from our trip are thanks to dragging it along and taking time to get it out and fiddle with settings.

We had a lovely time. I’ll let the pictures talk: