“Hurry up, Amanda, we have to finish setting up the games so we can start making snacks,” Jessie told her nine year old sister. Amanda hurried to catch up with Jessie, “Why do we have to hurry, the party isn‘t until 5:00, and it‘s only 12:00.” Jessie sighed, “I know it‘s five hours till the party, but I want to make sure that we get everything done in time. We still have to make the cake, small ham and cheese sandwiches, and spice crisp cookies.” They walked a little farther then Amanda asked, “Why do we have to set up the games in the woods, can‘t we just set them up in the front yard?” “We are going to set up some games in the yard, but if there are too many, then they will know what we are going to do.” Jessie said. By now, they had reached the clearing in the woods where Jessie wanted to have most of the games. She had planned to have a potato sack race, three-legged race, pumpkin bean bag toss, and last, which was Amanda, Peter and Alisha’s idea, to jump in a huge pile of crunchy leaves. Jessie was thinking about how fun she was sure this party would be. Especially since it was with her friends, Allie, Jeremy, ----“Is Ashley coming today?” Amanda asked interrupting her thoughts. Jessie laughed “I kind of knew you would ask me that sooner or later. She is coming, and yes, I invited Sarah, now help me set up this bean bag toss board”

In the kitchen, Jessie and her mom were finishing the pumpkin cake by drizzling it with chocolate icing. “This does look the picture don‘t you think?” Mrs. Danila asked. “Yeah, I hope it tastes as good as it looks.” Jessie said smiling, “What else needs to be done?” Her mom looked at the list Jessie had made a few weeks earlier, “Well, Why don‘t you ask Amanda if she‘ll help you make the sandwiches while I help Peter and Alisha make the Spice Crisps.” Jessie nodded, “Sounds good to me,” then walked into the living room, “Amanda, will you help me make the sandwiches please?” “Hmmm…….I guess I could,” she teased as she hopped from the pink bean bag chair. “Oh yeah, where are Peter and Alisha?” Jessie asked as she walked by Peter’s bedroom. “I think their in the playroom, I got them a board game started, so their probably still in there.” Amanda replied. “Okay, you go and get out the things we need, I‘ll be there in a minute,” Jessie told her sister and walked toward the playroom.

Jessie opened the door, and greeted Allie, Ashley, and Ashley’s little sister, Sarah. “Nice doorbell,” said Allie. “Oh, someone must have changed it to ‘Yankee doodle’ again,” Jessie explained with a little embarrassment, “Amanda is in her room if you want to go in there, Sarah. Amanda has been looking forward to you coming ever since I told her today, which was at 11:00.” “Okay,” Sarah said turning toward Amanda’s room, “Oh, and thanks for inviting me”. “Well,” Ashley laughed, “I‘m glad you think about having parties, or she wouldn‘t have a party to be invited to.” “Yankee Doodle” sounded again and Jessie went to open the door. “Hi, Jessie,” Luke said as she greeted them. “Did you and Matt come with Jeremy, or did you just get here at the same time?” Jessie wondered. Jeremy answered, “We came together, since our houses are close to each other.” he said then stepped inside, as Jessie shut the thick brown door.

“Is everyone here now, Jessie, or do you have some more people coming?” Matt asked. Jessie sat down on the couch and motioned for the others to sit too, “No, this is everyone, so we can eat first, or do the other things I had planned, what do you want to do?” Jessie asked looking at each of her friends. “I think probably eat first, if that is okay with everyone else” Ashley said causing everyone to laugh, “I’ll take that as a yes, so we‘ll eat first.” They sat and talked for a while longer then Jessie got up from the couch and everyone followed her to the dining room.

“Those spice crisp cookies and were really good, and I loved the cake Jessie” Allie commented. Jessie turned to look at her friend, “Well, you should tell that to Peter and Alisha, they made the cookies,” she said then pointed to the games she and Amanda had set up. “Jessie and I set up the potato sack race, the pumpkin game and the leaf pile here, but the three legged race going to be in the front yard,” Amanda exclaimed proudly. “I want to do the potato race first, Jessie,” said Peter anxiously. “Is that okay with you all?” she asked looking at her friends. They nodded their reply. So they each grabbed a sack and when Jessie’s mom signaled them to go, they started hopping toward the finish line. Matt got there first, and after him were Jeremy, Allie, Peter, Luke, Ashley, Amanda, Sarah, Alisha and Jessie. They all fell to the ground and were all laughing between breaths. “Hold on, you still have more games to play, don‘t tell me your tired already!” Mrs. Danila said trying not to laugh. Amanda got up first followed by the others. “What should we do next, the pumpkin toss, or the three legged race?” she asked. They each gave their opinion, and the pumpkin toss out numbered the three legged race. (Jessie‘s thought that the three legged race should be the last game, and then the leaf pile for the “Big Ending”. And she was almost positive that her friends thought the same thing)

The pumpkin toss wasn’t really hard, but the older kids tried to not get the bean bag in the holes so that the younger kids could win. The board was a rectangle, but there was a pumpkin painted on it, and around the edges of the pumpkin were holes to try to get the bean bags in. “I think my favorite part of this game is the bean bags, they are so cute!” Ashley squealed. “Thanks, Amanda and I made them with some scrap material. Amanda picked the material out.” Jessie replied. Matt examined the bags, “I think that it was very creative to make them out of orange, brown and yellow material. I especially like the ones that are yellow with orange polka dots and the other one that is orange with brown dots. They look the most like fall, which is a good idea.”

After they finished the toss game, they went back to Jessie’s yard for the three legged race. They drew names for partners, Allie and Sarah, Jeremy and Luke, Jessie and Alisha, Matt and Peter, and Amanda and Ashley. “We can all have five minutes to practice” Jessie announced. The minutes went by fast with people falling and struggling to get a pattern down. “Alright, time is up, line up at the starting line,” Mrs. Danila said, “There are obstacles that you must walk over or around. Okay….. GO!” It was hard to concentrate when you wanted to look at everyone around you, which Jessie thought was the fun part about being the winner, you could watch the other teams trying to make second place. But, Jessie and Alisha weren‘t first, but at least they were second. Instead it was Allie and Sarah, then Jessie and Alisha, Matt and Peter, Luke and Jeremy, and Amanda and Ashley. Alisha tugged on Jessie’s shirt, “Okay, Alisha, I know what you want just wait a minute.” “Alisha has been waiting to jump in the leaves for a long time, so I told her we‘re about to, so, just run and jump in and have FUN!” Then she ran to the pile to join her friends that had already beaten her to it.