Jack & Zeke's Birthday Festivities!

For Zeke's birthday present from us, all he wanted was to go out to dinner with his family at Olive Garden. 

So on Wednesday, May 22nd, Zeke's actual birthday we all met at Olive Garden to celebrate. We normally have family night with Ga-Ga & Pa on Wednesday nights so it worked out perfectly! 

Justine even got to come celebrate with us. Ella and I went and picked him up early since he has early release on Wednesdays. They got to hang out a bit prior to us coming to dinner. 

Zeke does a great shark impression! 

Zeke got to open the OJEZ box from Ga-Ga & Pa! 

Of course it was filled with $112!!! 

He also got this cool shirt from Ga-Ga & Pa! 

He got a LEGO helicopter from his siblings. He also got a game we already had from Papa & Ruth so they took it back and got him another game at a later time! 

On Sunday, June 2nd we had Jack and Zeke's Birthday BBQ with friends and family! 

Of course Ga-Ga & Pa were there! 

Micah, Kim and all their kids came. Caitlynn had a little bit of a cold, but she felt fine! 

Michelle, Jordan and Sean came to celebrate with us. 

Jhaycee, Justine and Micah joined us as well. We actually got introduced to two new things from them. Jhaycee made Pancit to share and it was so yummy! They also showed us a new card game. 

The siblings pitched in and got Jack another Amibo for the Switch. 

Jack also to open the OJEZ box and lo and behold there was $116 in it!!! 

Ga-Ga & Pa also got Jack a cool t-shirt! 

They both got cards and money and gift cards from their friends. 

Jack wanted pie and Zeke wanted cake....ask and you shall receive! 

For Jack's present from us he just wanted to go to an Escape Room. I did a bunch of research online and ultimately I asked the Des Moines Community Group on FB for suggestions and a bunch of people recommended Sure Lock Escapes. My main concern was I didn't want there to be gore or for the kids to feel freaked out at all. I also wanted to make sure that the escape room could easily handle 8 people where it wouldn't feel crowded or it wouldn't feel like 4 people had nothing to do. We went to the Renton location and they have 4 different themed escape rooms. Jack chose the Abandoned Mineshaft. Michael and I have been to 2 escape rooms so I knew kind of what to expect. One thing I did was read reviews and I saw that a bunch of people said they were given hints or tips even when they didn't ask for them. I did not want that at all. I really wanted the kids to have to struggle and use their brains to try to solve the puzzles. I also didn't want to pay all that money for a 70 minute experience and have the kids get out with 40 minutes to spare. I get wanting to do the experience fast, but at the same time you should enjoy it. 

Originally Zeke didn't want to go and Michael was going to come with us, but then Michael wasn't feeling good and Zeke decided he wanted to go so it all worked out. It was me and 7 kiddos...Owen, Jack, Ella, Zeke, Andrew, Josiah and Justine. Honestly I think it really worked out with Michael not coming because he's so good and these sorts of things he can drive you crazy. :) 

We were the only group there. Prior to going into our room we needed to use the restroom so we went back to this hang out area. We didn't know that those horizontal planks behind Ella and Justine would end up being the door we came out of when we finished. 

I can't really say much about the room, but general things...I don't want to spoil it for anyone if they might go. First, while our game master was explaining things I did explicitly tell her that we did not want any hints or tips unless we asked directly. We wanted it to be hard. She was totally cool with that. With that being said we did ask for them. We struggled a bit in the beginning and then finally asked. What I loved about the hints and the tips was they weren't overly helpful. They just pointed us in the right direction and then we still had to work it out. I also loved that their were so many puzzle that could be worked on simultaneously so we were all busy and no one really felt like they didn't get to play. It was definitely hard, but very cool and in the end we escaped with 5 minutes to spare. To me that was the best part we really got our monies worth! I would absolutely love to do another escape room there and I have a feeling that Jack might pick this next year as his birthday present again!