Heather had a birthday / Halloween party this year to start off her celebration. I ran a minigame competition with a "Top Banana" trophy as the prize. They competed in 5 events: jigsaw puzzling (complete a small puzzle), dice stacking (stack dice on a tongue depressor held in your teeth), cup shuffling (alternating hands, remove the top cup of a stack and put it on the bottom until the first cup is back on top), Ping Pong carry (using a tiny, sample spoon carry Ping Pong balls across the yard), and the toilet-paper spray (use a spray bottle to spray a hanging strip of toilet paper that has a clothes pin on the bottom until the strip breaks and the clothes pin falls).
Then there was pizza, treats, and the general silliness of middle-school kids. Then back outside for "ghost pictures" (double-exposures using a flash).
Once our spooky pictures were complete it was back inside for birthday/Halloween trifle and filling up 3D-printed pumpkins with candy to take home. A good time seems to have been had by all.
The Birthday Adventure
On her birthday it was school and homework, but once finally complete it was time for a Warrior Cats Birthday Adventure (Heather's costume this year was Firestar from the book series).
In the stories, cats train to become warriors who hunt for food and defend their clans. After an apprenticeship they must complete an assessment and if successful they have a formal ceremony.
Heather received a letter inviting her to take her Warrior Assessment which would challenge the five essential skills of a warrior: Smell, Sight, Tracking, Hearing, and Touch.
Her first trial (scent) required matching each scent-marked name to the appropriate cat. The cats were under glasses to help isolate their scents. I found a simple cat model online, modified it to have an empty space inside with holes through the back and then filled them with smelly things: cinnamon, vinegar, liquid smoke, cologne, and lavender oil. It worked pretty well, though oddly, the vinegar had no smell when she played the game just a few hours after prepping them.
Correctly identifying the cats revealed the code to the cryptex needed to begin the second trial (sight). I used the same cat model, but scaled it down to about an inch tall and printed cats in four colors. She had to find all ten hidden around the house and the number of cats in each color provided the combination to the lock for the third trial (tracking).
The trial of tracking required following a prey's path through the backyard without getting lost until she caught up with the prey and obtained the code to the fourth trial. This involved a string run all over the backyard in one continuous length with false leads crossing it and confusing the issue. Although she made a mistake early on, she made a countering mistake shortly after and ended up with the right mouse while skipping about half the path. The prey was a 3D-printed mouse I grabbed from online and modified to put text on the incorrect ones ("Try Again", etc.) and the code to the next trial on the correct one.
The fourth trial was hearing. I had recorded the cats meowing as well as myself and Jess and created an audio file for each of us. She had to listen to each file and identify which creature was meowing. Heather found this quite amusing and aced it without issue. The correct identification of the meowers provided the code to the fifth and final trial.
Warriors are sworn to protect their clans and this can require sacrifice. To honor those sacrifices Heather needed to identify four veteran warriors who had been permanently injured serving the clan using only touch. I used the same cat model from before, but modified one to remove the tail, one to remove an ear, one to remove a foot, and one to have a deep scar down the side. I placed each one in a paper bag and she needed to reach in and determine which cat was which. The order of the cats provided the code to the final chest.
The treasure chest contained a letter of congratulations and direction to present herself to the clan leader for the official induction ceremony where she would set aside her apprentice name of Heatherpaw and receive her warrior name, Heatherstorm.
Once the ceremony was complete it was time to celebrate with gifts! She had a blast. Grinning so big she could hardly read the letters and notes out loud.
Then it was off to dinner at Chili's and home again for cake--pumpkin chocolate-chip cake with cream cheese frosting.
