Hosting a Jeopardy! game show party for kids

Our sweet Jack is soon to turn 10, and this year he, as ardent a Jeopardy! fan as his father, requested a Jeopardy! game show for his birthday party.

As was the case when he turned 5 and was hell-bent on a police-themed fiesta, I came up short when searching online for ideas. "Police party" yielded scantily clad women and bondage materials, and Jeopardy simply brought me to Wii games and the official website.

Tom and I thought about making a paper board but quickly realized just how much work that would be AND incorporating the Jeopardy! music and anything like audio and visual clues would be tough.

A Google search lead us to this fabulous Jeopardy Game PowerPoint template into which you type your categories, answers, and questions. It allows you to upload audio and visual files (helpful for categories like "Name That Tune" and "Famous People" identification) and have Daily Doubles. We were able to Air Drop this entire thing live to our TV (via Air Drop/Apple TV) for a real-time game show experience. 

We had a blast thinking up all the categories, answers, and questions that would resonate with Jack and his friends, and I'd like to send a special shout-out to one of the kids' 4th grade teachers who not only led them through a study of Chinese culture, language, topography and history this year but also sent me the China category clues. 

Single Jeopardy; below, one answer/question from the China category.

Double Jeopardy (we couldn't figure out how to double the monetary amounts); below, an answer/question from Star Wars, and a "Famous Person" visual clue.

We made three contestant podiums out of TV trays and a table, white newsprint, and blue posterboard. Easy and inexpensive as we already had the TV trays and borrowed a small table from Tom's mom. The posterboard came from a local party store and the newsprint was leftover from our move.

Because we were to have three teams of three players each, Jack created single "contestant" names by picking his favorite elements. I do not know why two of them are radioactive and horrible, but I'll chalk that up to #boys. The newsprint was great because it protected the tables, gave me something other than the tables to affix the posterboard to, AND the kids could right their Final Jeopardy wagers and answers directly on it, much like real Jeopardy! contestants do.

two of the three podiums with buzzers

I bought these battery-powered buzzers on Amazon for $16. Made by Learning Resources, the pack comes with four buzzers, each of which lights up a different color and makes a different sound, two features that I knew would be helpful in determining which team buzzed in first. The kids thought they were terrifically fun.

Tom was Alex Trebek, and had it not been 90 degrees here, he would have worn a suit to more closely resemble the host. I suggested we powder his hair to "go gray," but sadly, he declined. His podium was a box with a Jeopardy! print-out taped on yet another piece of newsprint.

Mom got roped into being a contestant, and Tom's mom kept score while Tom hosted and I filmed the whole thing. The kids were awesome, and the whole thing was hilarious. Plutonium ended up winning by betting bravely in Final Jeopardy.

Then we grilled burgers and hot dogs, served bowls of gumbo and watermelon, and wrapped things up with chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. All in all, a GREAT way to celebrate a birthday!

Pie, kids, cooking, to bed

I cooked all day, minus a quick trip to the farmers market. By and by, it was lovely. 

A sautéed mushroom, cheddar, speck and egg sandwich for T's Father's Day breakfast, lobster rolls and farmers market salad -fresh red leaf lettuce and snap peas and tomatoes- for lunch, chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches for Jack's birthday party tomorrow (Jeopardy; it's going to be epically fun), cold potato salad with tiny new potatoes and mustard-caper vinaigrette, and this gorgeous, scrumptious strawberry balsamic pie.  

A friend gave me the Four and Twenty Blackbirds cookbook for my birthday, and, having just bought two quarts of strawberries at the market, I wanted a special way to use them. 

This pie perfectly fit the bill, and it did not disappoint. Good thing as it took about three hours to make.  

I picked the boys up around 5. What a joy to see them, and how loud and kinetic our home now feels again. Here's hoping things are a bit quieter tomorrow. 

Happy Father's Day to all the dads, uncles, male teachers and mentors out there! 

The blackberry bush

The morning after Mom arrived, she shyly brought out a gift. It was wrapped in damp paper towels, newspaper, and a plastic bag.

“What do you think it is?” she asked as I carefully peeled back the layers, my hands trembling slightly.

“Well, it’s a plant. It has thorns. Oh, I know! It’s a cutting from your Dr. Van Fleet" (a climbing rose that’s been in our family for generations).

“No, not that. Try again.”

I guessed several times but never could figure out what the spindly, spiky plant was. Really, it was little more than two slender stalks and a dirty root ball.

“It’s one of Papa’s original blackberry bushes. It’s about 60 years old. I called the new owner of their house and asked if I could dig it up and bring it to you. I have another one, too, but it was too big for my suitcase. I’ll bring it next time.” (Papa was Mom's father, my grandfather).

Tears rolled down my cheeks, and I hugged Mom tight. “Thank you, Mom. Thank you so much.”

I looked at the treasure in my hands and noticed a lone earthworm still nestled among the tangle of roots. Its presence seemed auspicious, as if it loved the plant too, and didn't want to leave; so it stayed, amidst uprooting, wrapping, and two plane rides.

“The new owner and I agreed that you’re the one who’ll treasure it most, Em,” Mom replied, hugging me back. “Someday, the blackberries for your pies will come from this.”

I grew up eating Nanny’s blackberry pies. Nanny, Mom’s mom, was the grandparent with whom I was closest. She was one of my dearest friends. She died two years ago, and, as y'all likely know, I still miss her almost daily. She (and also Mom) taught me to make her pie crust and pie, and I now make them all the time, for blackberry is also Jack's favorite.

I have written frequently about Nanny and her pies. I have made blackberry pie more times than I can count. It’s a simple pie- just four ingredients in the crust and three in the filling. It’s the sort of dish that proves that the little things matter, that god is in the details and they needn’t be fancy.

That Papa planted some blackberry bushes in a sunny spot by a storage shed on his Lake Charles land sixty years ago changed the course of our family in a way. Those bushes spread and grew and fed not only my grandparents and their children, but also their grandchildren and friends, sons- and daughters-in-law, neighbors and great grandchildren.

Now, one of those plants sits humbly in a sunny spot by a storage shed in Maryland, planted carefully and with love by Papa’s daughter and granddaughter. It is leafing out with happy abandon, and each day, when I visit it to water and check on its progress, I see family and history and love. I am reminded of the value of falling and letting yourself be picked up, of valuing the little bits of life that make it glow and shine.