Bridget's 6th Birthday! (part 2)

 Bridget mentioned her birthday wishes to Mr. Tuttle one day (during the planning/counting down days leading up to her birthday), and he offered to throw her a party at his ranch.  

Bridget invited Ella and McKellee and their siblings, and we all headed out there on a Sunday afternoon.  (We had to wait for the weekend after Bridget's birthday and the end of The Wizard of Oz).  Mr. Tuttle had everything set up when we got there.  We sat down to eat right away...he had grilled hotdogs for us all!

 After dinner we all dug into the cupcakes that we brought and the cookies that Mr. Tuttle brought.  I think he might have brought 12 different kinds of cookies!

 Bridget hanging with her good buddy, Mr. Tuttle.

 After everyone had a bite to eat, it was time to head out for the scavenger hunt.  Mr. Tuttle had hidden two big coolers full of candy for the kids to find.  He split the kids up into two teams, and he and Mrs. Tuttle helped the them all follow some clues to find the candy.

 The kids were all pretty excited about the candy...that is, until they found the bottle with a note in it!  There was actual, real treasure hidden out on Mr. Tuttle's ranch!!!

 The kids couldn't believe their luck!  They gathered up the adults (who hadn't gone along on the scavenger hunt) and followed the directions on the note.  They ended up in this abandoned area of the ranch.  Luckily, Mr. Tuttle had loaded them up with rakes and shovels so they were able to search out the treasure.  It had been buried there a long time!

 The boys did the heavy labor of digging. 

 Bridget helped to unearth the treasure box.

 We couldn't find the keys to open up the treasure box, so Mr. Tuttle pulled his gun out to shoot off the lock!  At the last minute, we decided to take it back to his workshop and use a screwdriver to take apart the hinges.  The kids were all so anxious to see what might be in the box.

 Turns out there was a LOT of treasure in that box!

 Jewels, money, coins, knives...all sorts of fun treasures to sort through!

 The kids couldn't believe their luck!  They had so much fun digging through the box and picking out their treasures.  Mr. Tuttle suggested setting the treasure aside to split up another day and heading over to his lake for a swim. 

 We all loaded up and headed down to the lake for a refreshing evening of swimming. 

 The kids had a blast jumping and diving off of the platform that Mr. Tuttle has set up at his lake.  He followed the swimming up with popsicles and even rewarded the kids for their crazy dives.

 The next day, all the kids came over so we could split up the treasure.  There was so much candy, we didn't even know what to do with it all! 

 The kids had fun sorting it out and they even made a chart so they could see how many of each candy there was.

 All the kids ended up with money (somewhere upwards of $20 each!) and lots of treasures from the box.  I think they all left with something fun. 

 It was a pretty special birthday for a very special little girl!

Happy Birthday Bridget Boo!  We love you so very much!