Amazing Race Tweenager Birthday: The Race

after the Pre Party, 

we piled the kids into two cars and headed to the mall for the Race!

before we left the house, each player was given a lanyard that sported their team colors... 

...on the back were game rules, 

what to do in case of emergency, 

emergency phone numbers, 

and a plan if anyone were to get lost... 

[the tragically sad Clackamas (our runner up mall of where to host the race) 

mall shooting literally happened days before the party.  

We definitely felt a heightened  responsibility 

to make sure the kids knew what to do in case of an emergency] 

2 days before the race, Rhett and I cased the mall and planned the race.  

{I blogged about it here, along with my feelings on being in a mall so soon after the shooting}

we tried to make it creative, from one end of the mall to the other, and back again.

To keep it straight, I created a spreadsheet in excel and used it as a guide 

for organizing all of the clues.  Rhett, myself, and my sister Karley were "Pit Stop Managers".

I printed a copy of the entire race for each manager

and separated all the clues by manager

and then, it was Race Time!

and they were ready for the first clue!

Pit Stop Challenge #1

teams had to find the sweet shop in the mall that sold Mentos for under $2,
and return to the pit stop with a roll of Mentos

Pit Stop Clue #1

you guessed it!  find Santa!
teams had to make their way to Santa's Station where the next clue awaited them.

I was sooo busy making sure I was hidden from the kids so they wouldn't spot me at the Santa stop

while they were completing the first challenge, I literally ducked behind clothing racks inside nearby JC Penney

when I spotted Tristen and Mimi walk by.  I didn't realize that they were done with the first challenge!  Poor them.

I set them back a good 10 minutes   Oooops!  It was then and there that I set up a GroupMe text group on the fly so we "managers" could communicate when teams made it through the Pit Stops.

Pit Stop Challenge #2

teams had to win tickets in TILT, the arcade in the mall.
70 + 70 indicated the number of tickets needed to win 2 dice from the prize counter

suuuuuuper funny,
one of the teams took off with challenge #2 in hand in a huge rush, 
not realizing that "Tilt" was the arcade that we were literally standing 10 feet away from,
and came back about 25 minutes later.. they had finally found somewhere to BUY two dice.  :) 

...winning tickets and getting those prize dice... 

Roadblock Challenge #1

teams had to roll some combination of 12 using the 2 dice they won in the arcade

rolling for 12!

Pit Stop Clue #2

teams had to make their way to the entrance to Abercrombie,
which was lined with palm trees,
 between them was the next pit stop.

Pit Stop Challenge #3

teams had to find a photo booth and take a picture

poor Ian and Claire,
their photo machine ate their money.  :(
no picture for them. 

Pit Stop Clue #3

teams had to find Rhett, chillin' in a massage chair, across from Kay's Jewelers

Pit Stop Challenge #4

teams had to find the blood pressure machine and take their stats!

I was up on the second level of the mall, manning my next post, and had a great vantage point of the blood pressure machine below.  It was hilarious!  #1, that darn machine is a hot spot!  my gawd, who knew: maaaaany people go the mall and check their blood pressure while there.  The kids had to wait patiently for their turn.  And then they had to get the darn thing to work.  They had to put their arm in jusssst right.  It took a couple tries for some of them.  And then there as Dean and Lily.  They bickered the whole time, I was busting up.  Dean couldn't get the machine to read his arm, and then he lost the pen and Lily had to go get one from Macy's, she was ticked!  

Roadblock Challenge #2

teams had to take a ride in the Hurricane Simulator

Pit Stop Clue #4

teams had to find their way to Champs Sports Store
and stand by Clyde Drexler, the mannequin in the window

Pit Stop Challenge #5

teams had to find the bubblegum machine outside of American Eagle,
get a Juicy Watermelon bubble gum,
and return to the pit stop for the next clue

Final Pit Stop Clue #5

first team to the life size chess board wins the race!! 

and the winners were Mimi and Tristen!!!
by a landslide!

their secret:  they found a group of young kids working a shoe shop
that helped them out with a clue and they kept going back for help.  brilliant!
 the mall worker's knew the mall and were able to point them in the right direction,
every time.  smart 12 year old, no?  ;)

i tell my boy this on the regular:
it's not about knowing the answer, it's about knowing how to find the answer.  

`1

I call THAT /\. 

PARTY SUCCESS!!! 

the kids loved it.  

it was fun, it was challenging,

and it took an hour and a half!!  

much longer than I had anticipated it would take.

but the timing of it all was perfect.

the kids were still having fun when it was all over,

as far as mall security? Their presence was everywhere, as mall security had been extremely heightened following the weeks' events, and they were great.  They did ask us what we were doing at one point, but were fine with it. Other mall goers were curious too, and we got several "great idea!  I want a party like this!"    comments.  The teams even got unsolicited help, just cause people wanted to be involved.

our amazing racers

after the race, the kids were Hungry!

as we anticipated they would be, 

so to Red Robin, for the after party we went... 

that tomorrow!

I'll sign off with on-the-way-to-the-mall out takes,

from the boy's car

 

our Amazing Race Pre Party 

our Amazing Race / Mall Crawl
our Amazing Race after party

buy all the stuff here