The Amazing Race (aka Most Awesome Birthday Party Ever)

15 teams of 2 + 10 challenges = 1 Amazing party

 Teams checked-in at our house at 4:30 where they received their race backpack and first clue. And then by 5pm, the race was on.



Race Supplies and the 1st clue box

The Challenges:

1) Disc Golf: Head to the CG Disc Golf  Course, obtain a disc and teebox number from the race official (Trevor, in this case). Alternating throws with your teammate, complete the assigned hole and retrieve a ticket from the basket. Return the disc and ticket to the race official. Then race back to our place for the next clue!

2) Detour: Ball Pit or School Pics
   
    a) Use the colored balls from the kid's ball pit to spell out Nicole's name (it had to match the way it was done in a picture hanging on the wall)

-OR-

  b) Find Nicole's 2nd grade, freshman, and 6th grade school photo from ALL the school pics hanging on the wall in random order (thanks for that, babe)

3) Tasty Treat: Choose a jar of baby food blindly from the bag on the kitchen counter. One teammate must feed the other teammate the entire jar of food with a baby spoon before you can move on to the next task.
(Let's just be clear, there were no fruit flavored baby foods in the bag... Unless you count prunes.)

4) Detour: Darts or Pong
   
    a) One teammate must successfully puncture a beer can (from approx. 10 feet) with a dart. The other teammate must then chug a can of beer or a 12 oz. bottle of milk.

-OR-

 

   b) One teammate must successfully shoot 3 ping pong balls into the cups on the other side of the beer pong table. The other teammate must then chug a can of beer or a 12 oz. bottle of milk.  



5) Tokens & Tickets: Make your way to Peter Piper Pizza. Using the 6 tokens provided in your race backpack, procure 20 tickets. Then race back to our place for the 1st pit stop. Warning: Last team to check in, may be eliminated! :-)

Pit Stop! Don't worry, Cameron/Phil didn't eliminate anyone. And during the 1st leg we quickly learned how everyone was so good about following all traffic laws, and posted speed limits. *cough, cough*

6) Dollar Store: Make your way to one of CG's dollar stores and buy Nicole something for her birthday with the money provided from your race backpack. You must have the item and the receipt to check-in at the pit stop. Then back to our place for the next challenge! Caution!: U-Turn Ahead!

7) Detour: Driving or Scoring

    a) Each teammate must complete one successful lap around a pre-marked course with an RC car for a total of two laps.

-OR-

    b) Using a hockey stick and either a ball or puck, each teammate must score one goal on the pop-up hockey goaltender.

8) Fingers of Fury: One teammate must text Nicole something they like about her! (Best challenge ever! My phone was going off like crazy with sweet messages!)

 

 

9) 'X' Marks the Spot: One teammate must untie yellow ribbons from the swingset in the backyard until finding one with a gray 'X' marked on the middle. Disclaimer: Race officials had way too much fun spreading out the 'Xs' and double/triple/quadruple knotting the ribbons...

10) Final Challenge: Make your way to the Dickman (my sister's) household. Using the board with pics representing each challenge (in random order), sequence the challenges you have thus far completed and verify the accuracy with the race offical. Then head back to our place for the final check-in!

It was sooo much fun! After the race we inhaled tacos (mmm yummy), and enjoyed hanging out. Here are (A LOT) of pictures from the party. I do apologize that some of them are blurry!

 

 

1st Place - Nick & Jami
They kicked all our butts! So fun, love them!

2nd Place - Wes & Liz
They tie-dyed those shirts themselves. Yesss.

3rd Place - Kendra & Jeff
AKA Team Off-Road

4th Place - Amanda & Nathan
Be afraid. They have their gamefaces on. Well, Amanda does at least.

5th Place - Me & Erica
Team Sissy-Wissy

6th Place - Kurt & Chris
They definitely got asked by a stranger when this race would be airing on TV during a challenge... It was that real. :)

7th Place - Shannon & Brian
Note the Tupperware tumblers. Vital to the overall look.

8th Place - Sierra & Johnny
Team Extreme Ping Pong! We will also call them the technical 6th place winners...

9th Place - Clifton & Xochilt
Beer Pong Champions!

10th Place - My Mom & Dad
Aren't they the cutest?

11th Place - Arian & Michael
They may have knocked down a couple of teams on their way in, it was a close finish!

12th Place - April & Ginger
Team "Old Nag" Needless to say, they won the contest for best outfits!

13th Place - Brittany & Shay
Shay's text message to me during the race was that Cameron was the best thing about me. It's cool, Shay, we can be friends again. Cameron is pretty freaking awesome. ;)

14th Place - Natalie & Jessica
Don't be fooled by their sweet expressions. They stole Sierra and Johnny's "passports" during the race, which were required for check-in, causing them to go from 6th to 8th place while they waited out their 5 minute penalty. Well played, girls. Well played.

15th Place - Brandy & Rick
Poor Brandy was sick during the whole race, but they fought a valiant fight!

Photobombed by our bro-bro

"Nagging" us not to touch the cheesecake tower

The Enforcer. Keeping racers out of the backyard until race time.

Cam reading us the race rules.

And we're off! Kindly note the yellow blur in the middle of the pic that is Nathan jumping over the caution tape!

My parents meant business! They were the 1st ones done with the disc golf challenge.

Disc golf challenge

Trying to figure out the school pictures...still took us 3 tries even though they were my pics!

Trick from the masters: tip the jar back and shovel it in!

Shay needed a beer to get through the baby food challenge...

Their faces say it all...

At one point she reached for a napkin so when I tried to get it for her she yelled at me, "There's no time! Keep feeding!" Classic.

Party planner extraordinaire

Getting ready for the second leg of the race!

RC cars

Fingers of Fury!

She body-slammed her once she got ahold of her. Ok, not really.

Are the glasses for show or were they needed to read the clues? Hmm...

Mike & Matt. Super excited to be in charge of the Driving or Scoring Detour.

2 of my "gifts" from the dollar store. A menopause test and an ovulation predictor. Ha. Ha. Ha. Still laughing...

Photobomber strikes again!

Someday I will meet Phil in real life!

U-Turn Board
If you were U-turned, you had to complete both sides of the detour. In this case, Driving AND Scoring. Sierra & Johnny were U-turned by Jami & Nick and Kendra & Jeff were U-turned by Wes & Liz.

The menopause test. Not sure why Wes and I are the ones checking, but don't worry, Nathan. You're not in menopause. And while we're on the subject... Matt isn't ovulating. Good news all around. Glad those tests got put to good use. Poor, horrified Shannon in the background.

Look closely... Wes trying to turn his shorts into Daisy Dukes... I found pieces of denim around the house and yard for a few days.

I can't say enough times how wonderful he is! Love you, hon!

It was an amazing day, made even more amazing by my friends and family. Thank you all SO much for such a great birthday. I will treasure the memories always. I sure am a lucky lady. 

Happy Birthday to Meeeee! (part 1)

It's official. I'm no longer in my twenties. But 30 is good, and 30th birthdays are AWESOME! I woke up on my birthday to a fresh, warm blueberry muffin delivered to my door from my lovely friend Shannon.

It was delicious, mmmm.

My super-amazing-best-husband-in-the-world had been planning an Amazing Race party for several months. It is one of my favorite shows and we always say that we are going to be on it someday, hah. So he had been very secretive planning the party and "The Race" as we would start referring to it. There were places in the house that I was not allowed to go, and bank statements I was not allowed to look at for fear I would uncover something about the The Race that was privileged information. The night before my birthday, I went to workout with my girls as I usually do, but was told I had to stay out of the house for awhile because he was working on some "race things". When I was allowed to come home, I had to stay downstairs. This was a Wednesday, and Wednesdays are my *hardest* days because I am still recovering from my work night and I watch all the kids (mine and my sister's) that day, then go workout, so by the time I come home, I just want to go to bed. So, let's just say that I was not in a very good mood about being told when and where to be on this night specifically, when there were many other nights during the week when these secret race things could be completed. So finally, around midnight, Cam lets me come upstairs to go to bed but is working in the closet with my brother and his mom on this operation. (Also, I definitely did NOT snap at my wonderful mother in-law that night, "Why are YOU allowed upstairs and I'm not??"... She was also running in The Race you see, so it didn't make sense she was helping and this only fueled my grumpiness...) As I lay in bed stewing, "Why are they working in here?!" "Why do they need to be in the *&%$-ing closet?!", it occured to me that maybe this was not something for the party... *insert 'duh' sound here*

So after waking and scarfing the above pictured muffin, I was told I was allowed to go into the closet now...

"Happy 30th Birthday" and pictures from the kids on the closet door

I walked into my brand new "closet makeover". The pics don't do it justice, it is just amazing. Before it was crammed full of stuff, no real organization, just kind of a mess. Now it feels like my own fancy dressing room.

What I call the accessory corner

You can see part of the rectangle trim that is now on the ceiling.

I didn't get a good pic of it, but you can see the new light fixture up top!

So THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to Cameron, Matt, and Ginger for working so hard on this and surprising me! I can't even describe how much I love it. And thanks for putting up with my grumpy attitude all evening!


So after hanging out in my closet for the morning (because that is totally normal), Cam and I went to see Ironman 3 and then to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.

Me and my main squeeze

It was such a perfect day. And we weren't even done celebrating yet because we still had the party coming up on Saturday! Stay tuned for that post and party pics!

 I kinda wanna turn 30 every birthday.