Option one · the park
The Home Opener
A ballpark afternoon at a rented pavilion, run as four stations on a diamond, with a plush puppy hunt as the centerpiece.
Home plate
Check-in & papers
Name tag, a wristband in one of four colors, and a blank adoption certificate. The wristband is the rotation group.
First base
Tee-ball
Foam bats, a tee, a short base path. No score, no innings. Everyone hits until they connect, then runs while the group cheers.
Second base · the big one
The puppy hunt
Thirty plush puppies tucked through the pavilion and treeline. Each kid finds one, names it, and fills in the certificate with a grown-up.
Third base
The dugout
Shade, water, sunflower seeds in paper cups, and the spot where the ice cream truck pulls in at four.
Certificate of adoption
This puppy belongs to
and shall be known as
Adopted at Caleb's 4th birthday · September 19
Why the hunt earns its keep
Thirty four-year-olds cannot queue. Four groups rotating every twenty minutes means every kid is always doing something and no station ever holds thirty children at once.
The thing they hunt for is the thing they take home, so there's no goodie bag to assemble the night before and nothing a parent quietly throws out on Sunday.