Amazing Race Birthday Party

We love birthdays at our house! Even the smallest celebrations we try to make special! This year was my older son’s 11th birthday. Now, usually we do organized parties with friends every other year. (Even-numbered years to be exact.) This would technically have been his year ‘off’, just family, BUT, he was turning 11 – in the 11th month of the 11th year!! We couldn’t pass up this opportunity to celebrate – on 11.11.11! At 11am! To keep the party low on price but high on fun, I came up with “Sean’s Amazing Race!” The Amazing Race is one of our favorite shows to watch and I used to love doing scavenger hunts when I was a kid so I created an Amazing Race Scavenger hunt for my son and his friends!


Here’s how it works:

FIRST, find a good place where the kids can run around and solve “tasks.” We used a local outdoor mall.

Next, I came up with 11 tasks to go with the 11th birthday theme. PS: **Important** I went ahead of time to ASK the shop owners if the kids could perform these tasks in their stores. Most were very nice and agreed. I also reminded the kids to respect guests and stores in the mall during the race. (They all behaved really well!)

Here is a picture of the task card I made – I added an Amazing Race logo using my son’s name and made one card for each team:

(The Amazing Race is copyrighted by cbs.com and its affiliates. I own no rights to the logo. Just love the show!)

I then stuffed little bags with everything they needed for the race:


I put money in the bag since some of the tasks required them to play video/arcade games. I gave a little extra ‘just in case' too.

Let the race begin!!

TASK ONE: Who has luck? Roll an 11 on the dice {provided in the task bag seen above} 




TASK TWO: Are you patient? Ride the escalator two times – no walking ahead/skipping steps!



And they’re off! 



TASK 5 – Who can handle the heat? 



Racers had to go to a local restaurant and ask for the “Habanero Shot.” {Their spiciest salsa!} This is where I would be OUT! I cannot handle the heat AT ALL! But the kids did great! :) I put that little shot glass in their bags too, to make it easier for the shop owner.

Where to next?



TASK 7: Who’s got the moves? Play an opponent in the “In the groove” dance video game!




This was one of my favorite tasks!!! Fun for the players and fun to watch! Some of the other tasks included unscrambling the name of one of the shops, writing down daily specials from one of the restaurants, and an “I Spy” portion!

I think one of the boys’ favorites was the last task: Whose got chops? 

First team to lick away the center of the Oreo wins!!



Everyone left a winner! We celebrated at my son’s favorite place to eat. {Can you tell what his favorite restaurant is?}


The goodie bags had a few things inside to represent the #11: Two sticks of gum, Twinkies packaged up look like an 11 and a brain puzzle:






We had a great time! Thanks for reading about Sean’s Amazing Race! I'm also proud of my kiddo because he has decided to participate in The Birthday Project! Click here to find out how people around the world are giving back on their birthdays! Keep checking back on my blog -- I'll be posting what he chose to do for his birthday project in the next couple weeks!

And finally, to read a little birthday tribute I wrote about my sweet birthday boy, just keep reading through to the post below or click here.

Happy Birthday buddy! Love you! xo

Thank you to Laurie Turk for featuring this party on Tip Junkie!

Sharing at the CSI Project: Kids Birthday Parties

Linking up this party here:
C.R.A.F.T.; The Gunny Sack; Tip Junkie;{Junk in their Trunk}