Because he is a teenager and because he hugged me at the end of the night and said that this was one of his best birthday's ever, I will share what I did. (Those of you with teens know that these kind of words can be RARE, so I felt pretty good about this party!)
I have two boys and #1 son is in college (this always make me think of Charlie Chan). Anyway, son #1 was able to come home for the weekend, so I copy/pasted a picture of Gilligan into Word and printed it out (from the bobdenver.com website).
#1 son wrote a sweet message to his "Little Buddy" and gave #2 son a replica Gilligan hat that I found here for $19.95.
After son #2 plopped the hat on his head, I sang him the Gilligan's Island theme song with rewritten lyrics based on the night of his birth. These are specific to us, but I think you will get the idea of how you can rewrite it for almost any occasion, just use the right number of syllables and rhyme when needed. (Sorry, birth can be kind of gross, but son #2 thought it was funny.)
Just sit right back
And you'll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trip
That started on the first of May
And ended with a snip!
The dad was a mighty salesman
The mama brave and sure
Three passengers drove south that day
To North Memorial (to North Memorial).
Contractions started getting rough
The tiny babe was squeezed
Becasue of the courage of the fearless mom
The babe was born with ease!
No food, no sleep, no pain meds
Not a single luxury
The baby was in such a rush
But healthy as can be!
We looked around and decided that
Our family was complete
With mom and dad
Big brother, too
New little guy
And the pets
Livin' in ______ ______
We wish you cheer this milestone year
On your ____ birthday.
At this point, we had the dinner of his choice (which dad made) and played Gilligan's Island trivia during dinner. I used a combo of questions from here:
I narrowed it down and used the following questions with mostly multiple choice answers:
- Where was Gilligan born? (Pennsylvania)
- Who plays Mrs. Howell? (Natalie Schaefer)
- How many episodes of Gilligan's Island are there? (98)
- How many episodes were in black and white? (36)
- What was the Skipper's real name? (Jonas Grumby) I gave hints for this one: His first name is a boy band of brothers that was on the Disney Channel (Jonas Brothers). His last name sounds like a green cartoon with an orange horse (Gumby).
- Who was Gilligan's favorite band? (The Mosquitoes)
- How many degrees does the professor have? (6)
- What was Mrs. Howell's maiden name? (Wentworth)
- Who was Gilligan's best friend as a child? (Skinny Mulligan)
- How many seasons did Gilligan's Island run? (3 from 1964-1967)
- Where is MaryAnn from? (Kansas)
- What was MaryAnn's last name? (Summers) If they need a hint, "It's a season."
- Where did Thurston Howell go to school? (Harvard)
- What was Mrs. Howell's first name? (Eunice)
- What did Mr. Howell call her? (Lovey)
- According to the theme song, what didn't the island have? (No phone, no lights, no motor cars)
- What was the professor's name? (Roy Hinkley)
- What is Gilligan's first name? (Willy)
- How long was the tour on the SS Minnow supposed to be? (3 hours)*
Next, we used this quiz to determine which "Gilligan's Island Character" we are. Lots of guessing and laughter ensued.
This is getting kind of long, so I am going to break it into two parts and show you the treasure hunt (with free printables) in the next post!
Happy Birthday #2 Son! Love, Mom
Click here for Part 2!
Linking to: Polka Dots on Parade, The Gunny Sack
