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The Amazing Birthday Race

If you have ever checked out the twins' blog, you know that they,are well at least one of them is, high energy. Somehow, over the years, their birthday parties have turned into EVENTS. Planned and orchestrated by a mother who actually feels badly that they have to share a birthday.

Last year, we had a casino party. We set up a casino in the house, with a craps felt, a roulette wheel, and a blackjack felt. Then we went to Pic n Save (now Big Lots) and bought junk for prizes. Another couple helped out as dealers. If you decide to try this at home, there are two keys to success: getting into character and giving out bigger payoffs so kids win. After two hours, the craps table resembled a bachelor party. Those desiring a quieter time sat at the blackjack table with sodas and junk food while the dealer was required to hit 19s.

That was a great party. It was the talk of the social circle for quite the time. Most interesting was how many 11 year old girls leered at the craps table during the next family trips to Las Vegas.

It was going to be hard to top last year's extravanganza and we starting tossing out ideas in January. Finally, we settled on an event resembling our favortie reality show: The Amazing Race.

Essentially, the Amazing Race is a complicated scavenger hunt around the world , with some tasks along the way. Here is the La Canada 12 year old version.

I toyed with the idea of having them do the race in teams on foot around the neighborhood. That idea was quickly scuttled. At least one of my children is sure to run in front of cars in a race. So parents were drafted. Each team had at least one parent and one child. There were some complaints that larger teams had a disadvantage but I did not foresee that.

They started in our backyard where one player from a team had to hit a croquet ball through a wicket and another player had to hit a golf ball into a net and then they got their first clue. That led them down to the Apple Cart, a local store that is a favorite of the twins, where they sell lots of cute little decorative things. There they had to find and buy a particular sachet before the shopkeeper handed them their next clue.

Then it was on to La Canada Books and Toys. where they had to each buy a different figurine. When I wrote the instructions, I intended each member of the team to get a different figure. The shopkeepers interpreted it differently and added a fun twist. They thought each player in the game needed a different one and the later teams had quite a time trying to find characters that no one had bought already.

After that, they had to go to a local gas station and fill the car with exactly $1.00 worth of gas, not a penny more or less, and bring the receipt to the end. Some used credit cards at the pump. Others went inside to prepay. One clever team prepaid, got the receipt and didn't bother to put the gas in.

The finally stop along the way was Descanso Gardens. they had to find 2 clues and ride the train around the gardens. A welcome rest at that point but apparently I had overestimated how many people could fit on the train at once.

We ended at the local pizza parlor. A fine time was had by all.

Posted by Justene Adamec at August 2, 2003 04:38 PM | TrackBack