I'm not sure how my son decided that this year he wanted to have an Amazing Race Party for his birthday. We don't really watch the show....but I understand the general idea. My friend Alison had and talked about an Amazing Race party for her son Andrew several years ago now....so I did have some ideas on where to start.
Although I really tried to start the preparations far in advance, there always seems to be so much left to the last minute. I found a great site that had printable clue sheets that you could put your own information into and that proved to be most helpful. The biggest challenge for me was to come up with challenges that did not require someone to witness them. In total we came up with 14 challenges which took the teams about 1 1/2 hours to complete. I learned a lot, and would change a few things if I were to do it again, as some challenges which I thought would be quite straight forward were difficult and others were just the opposite. I had hoped to use the YUDU screen printing machine to make special team t shirts for the kids to keep, but due to my typical last minute panic attack decided to just use plain coloured t shirts. By far the most entertaining challenge was the baby food challenge where the teams had to pick a member to eat a randomly selected jar of baby food ranging from strawberry dessert, to spaghetti, vegetables and meatballs.
It appears that all flavours were texturally offensive, and the team that got the strained pears......could not finish......while the team with the pureed spaghetti managed to pull it off. Our entire weekend was under a severe thunderstorm warning, but we lucked out with beautiful hot weather with no rain. I had super cheap Canadian flag back packs which gave a spot for the teams to keep their clue sheets, pens and snacks while they raced.....I even found some dollar store rain ponchos....just in case.
I'm pretty sure the kids all enjoyed the party.....even though one team got stumped for over 45 minutes not being able to find the 'travelocity gnome'......in a little green space in the neighbourhood.
We ended with lunch and cake, and a 'fill your own goodie bag' with selection of toys and candy.
If anyone is wanting to host their own party and is interested in the clues we used, just let me know and I can list them here.
Update....here are some of the challenges we used:
Events for the race were:1) choose 1 team member to eat a jar of randomly chosen babyfood....there was a 50% split between dinner choices, and dessert choices 2) Choose 1 team member to eat cookies from a tray until they find one with a gnome game piece hiding under it....we had a 24 muffin pan filled with dollar store 'oreos' with 3 of them hiding a gnome picture underneath 3) Assemble a 30 piece puzzle, flip it over to answer the question written on the back ....question was "what is the colour of the house at 1234 Carlisle Way" 4) Challenge ...team takes turns shooting hoops until they shoot 6 baskets.....or taking turns, roll the die until they roll 12 sixes. 5) With a riddle to lead them to the school yard....count the number of wooden butterflies on the fence, write down the school address, and count the number of swings at the school. 6) Find examples of six different kinds of trees 7) Collect and return 50 dandelion flowers 8) With a clue to lead them to the school garden...dig up and return with buried treasure...we had buried 20 gold toy coins in ziploc baggies in the kindergarten digging bed at the school. 9) With a riddle to lead them to a neighbourhood green space....find the name of the gnome hiding in the woods...we had written Norman on the bottom of the gnome. 10) Match the pictures of the Provincial flags with the names of the Provinces.....time was added to their score for each wrong answer. 11) A page of three riddles with time added for each wrong answer 12) Count the number bricks in the garden wall. 13) Count the number of spindles in the back deck.
Update....here are some of the challenges we used:
Events for the race were:1) choose 1 team member to eat a jar of randomly chosen babyfood....there was a 50% split between dinner choices, and dessert choices 2) Choose 1 team member to eat cookies from a tray until they find one with a gnome game piece hiding under it....we had a 24 muffin pan filled with dollar store 'oreos' with 3 of them hiding a gnome picture underneath 3) Assemble a 30 piece puzzle, flip it over to answer the question written on the back ....question was "what is the colour of the house at 1234 Carlisle Way" 4) Challenge ...team takes turns shooting hoops until they shoot 6 baskets.....or taking turns, roll the die until they roll 12 sixes. 5) With a riddle to lead them to the school yard....count the number of wooden butterflies on the fence, write down the school address, and count the number of swings at the school. 6) Find examples of six different kinds of trees 7) Collect and return 50 dandelion flowers 8) With a clue to lead them to the school garden...dig up and return with buried treasure...we had buried 20 gold toy coins in ziploc baggies in the kindergarten digging bed at the school. 9) With a riddle to lead them to a neighbourhood green space....find the name of the gnome hiding in the woods...we had written Norman on the bottom of the gnome. 10) Match the pictures of the Provincial flags with the names of the Provinces.....time was added to their score for each wrong answer. 11) A page of three riddles with time added for each wrong answer 12) Count the number bricks in the garden wall. 13) Count the number of spindles in the back deck.
