I'm all partied out.

Jessica had her 15th birthday on November 14, the day she got home from her mission trip on the East Coast. We had a small family party that night, and one of her gifts from Mom and Dad was a sleepover party with a few friends. We scheduled the party for Sunday night-Monday morning (yesterday and today), and Jess invited three friends from AIM, including Jenny, AIM's Missions Director. We had a blast.

First we played Guesstures, which is like charades, only on a time limit. We found that although Jenny incorporates very good mime technique into her charades, Mom is the best of the best when it comes to Guesstures. And I'm the worst of the worst. But that's OK.

Then we had supper - creamy Italian chicken with salad and garlic bread. Then the treasure hunt, a uniquely Roberts tradition that deserves a bit of explanation.

Treasure hunts were a staple of every Roberts birthday from about age 5 up to age 11ish. A treasure hunt consists of a series of clues - riddles, usually written in rhyme, that direct you to the location in the house where you will find the next clue. The last clue leads the hunters to the treasure, usually cheap dollar-store toys for each party participant.

By the age of 12 or so, the treasure hunt is gradually outgrown. However, Jessica decided to revive this tradition for her 15th birthday, and asked Mom to make the clues really hard, because Jenny is very good at riddles. Mom, who jokes that she is anointed to write treasure hunt clues (and she's actually not far from the truth), created the most difficult treasure hunt she'd ever done. It took us a rip-roaring total of 62 minutes to find the treasure - candy and other junk food for everyone, hidden in the freezer because one of Jenny's treasures was a quart of coffee-flavored ice cream.

Jenny LOVES coffee, and Jenny LOVES ice cream, so it was the perfect gift. The other two girls were also big fans of both, and between the three of them they consumed the whole thing in one sitting.

Now, normally when you get a present (or treasure), you just rip it open, right? Not so. On the mission trip, when a team member got mail, he or she had to sing an embarassing song or do a silly dance in order to get their mail. We did the same thing for our treasures.

- Andrew danced to a Katinas song.
- Josiah did an interpretive dance to the Barney song ("I love you, you love me...")
- Jessica sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" like a cowboy/country singer/not-very-good Branson "entertainter."
- I had to sing "King of Kings" in an operatic voice, and do the motions. It was a hoot.
- Rachel sang "Jesus Loves Me" like Elvis.
- Amy... I don't remember what Amy did.
- Jenny did a single mime to "End of the Beginning."

After that, we played Dutch Blitz, a fast-paced card game intended for 2-4 players that is faster paced the more people you have, so just imagine it with seven people. It was fun. Jessica is a whiz at that game, but in the end I managed to beat her out by a small margin. Jenny really got into that Dutch thing, and I don't think she'll ever be able to live it down. It's already come back to haunt her (see next entry for details).

After we finished that, we retreated to my room and giggled and did silly girly stuff until 11:30, when we turned out the light. The next morning we had breakfast (French toast and bacon) and bounced on the trampoline. We were going to go bike riding, but we only had four bikes, and five girls.

We said goodbye at around 9:30, telling each other, "I'll see you on Thursday" (our normal AIM practice day). But unbeknownst to Jenny, we would all meet again later that day.