Keep it Cracking - Friend Style

June has such a great group of friends. She had such a good foundation to start with when she started Junior High because she had all her A.L.L. friends, but throughout the year, she just keeps adding more to her circle. She has found friends in orchestra, and most recently through track. I love to see new faces when she has get-togethers.

We really wanted to try and find a time to come do a Crack Off at school, but it gets trickier with Jr. High. June doesn't have all her friends in one class. We thought about coming during flex time, but there was Battle of the Books the week before Easter. Eventually, we gave up and had it at our house in the evening. I actually think that worked out best because the girls could bring their eggs already decorated.

We have never done a decorating contest with kids. At school, they only get a few minutes to decorate eggs and it would take too long to vote. But this time, it was really fun to see the designs the girls came with.

When they first showed up, we played some Kubb on the front lawn. I'm happy it is warm enough outside to play again.

You can always tell when a block is knocked down.

We also played a new game I found. It is called the Lap Game, but we renamed it, 'Share Your Seat.' (We played this with the adults too and it was really fun.) Everyone takes a seat and then questions are asked to the whole group. If you answer the question 'yes', you move one seat to the left. If you answer the question 'no', you stay in your seat. Naturally, if you answer no, but your neighbor answers yes, they are sharing a seat with you. If a third person tries to share a seat with you two, they are out. The goal is to make it back to your original seat without getting out. The girls really liked it. We played it several times.

Back to the eggs now. Let's see what the girls brought.

The blue one is supposed to be a ninja, but for some reason, I was always looking at it upside down and it looked like a blue pig to me.

The voting is intense. It is always hard to choose your favorites.

Marinn came in first with her color switch. (She had dipped it in swirled nail polish - it was so cool) June came in second with Girly Grenade. I think this picture is funny, because their shirts kind of match their eggs.

 Now to the cracking.

There are always sweet victories.

And sad losses. (But good sports.)

June was amazed to beat the nail polish egg. You never know what might protect an egg?

June came back from the loser's bracket to tackle the winner. Sophie had been doing amazing, but right before the final battle, she accidentally dropped her egg. Her second egg already had a crack, so she also had to rely on a stand-in Cazier egg. But she still won! Good job Sophie!

The really weird thing was that at the beginning, when I was explaining the Crack Off to the girls, I had used Sophie and June as an example. I said, "Let's say Sophie is winning, June could come back from the loser's bracket to battler her." Guess I was prophetic.

We still often do a gift for the first egg cracked. Zuzu was our winner of that with her blue pig.

It was so fun to have all the girls over. I'm thinking we will need to have another friend Crack Off next year. Maybe Sophie can defend her title.

Four Down, Two to go. Are you sick of eggs yet? There are still some more amazing eggs to come!