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Fear Factor Party -11yr- Bubble Blowing Contest

July 2006

Melissa in Allen, Texas USA

Honorable Mention

For my son's 11th birthday, we had a Fear Factor party. 

For the invitations, I made our own by using the FF logo from their website.  It read "If fear is not a factor for you, then come to Tyler's 11th birthday party."  In order to start "freaking the boys out," the inside said to wear clothes they didn't mind getting dirty and to let me know if they had any food or insect allergies.  Instead of an elimination system, we used a point system so that each boy got to participate in each event.  As the boys arrived, they each drew a number which then became their nametag.  We had 4 events.  Before the party, my son drew numbers for each event and we listed them by each event.  That way, each boy could see what number they had chosen and when they would get their turn in the event.  My husband and I each had a stop watch so 2 boys could compete at a time (except the first event). 

The first event was the physical challenge.  They had to shoot baskets from 5 different points on the driveway (5 seconds were deducted from their final time for each basket made); then they put gloves on and loaded 6 bricks into a wheelbarrow, which they pushed across the yard, around a target, and back to where they started and dumped the bricks (so we didn't have to in between each racer); they then threw 3 baseballs at a target (again, a 5 second deduction for each ball in the target); they finished by getting 2 FF flags off a low branch of a tree in our backyard (caribiner clips with wide yellow ribbons attached and "Fear Factor" written on them with black Sharpie); they ran the 2 flags back to the back patio and clipped them to some twine we had run between 2 chairs.  Their time stopped when the 2nd flag had been clipped. 

The second event was the Eating competition.  Before the party, I had prepared plates with 6 random items (no plate was the same).  Some of the items we used: pickled okra, baby food spinach, artichokes, capers, canned turnip greens, and some items I found at insectcandy.com - dried crickets, dried worms, and gummi octopus, which comes in a lemon ooze and looks really nasty.  I used those new interlocking plastic plates so I was able to cover each plate and put a number on the top.  Whatever number the boys had drawn, that was which plate they had to eat when it was their turn.  In typical boy fashion, they ate the bugs but not the vegetables.  In order to rank the boys for this event, we did it by how many items each boy ate and how fast they ate them.  We were surprised that some boys didn't even try one thing! 

The third event was the gross obstacle course.  This took a little pre-preparation but was worth it.  At the first station, there were trash cans with plastic spiders, cold spaghetti, mayonaise, and milk.  Using their hands, they had to pull out 5 spiders.  At the next station, there were 3 bathroom cups, each with 1 raw egg.  One by one, they had to put the egg into their mouth and run and spit it into a bigger cup.  (In hindsight, with the threat of salmonella, I should have made the boys just put the eggs into their hands and transfer them that way). The next station had 5 dog biscuits on a plate (Meaty Bone - the kind that makes it's own gravy when wet).  They had to use their mouth and transfer the biscuits from one plate to another.  This actually turned out to be the hardest stunt! The last station had a pie plate with green and orange jell-o (which makes it an unappetizing brown), cooked rice, and plastic cockroaches.  They had to get 2 roaches with their mouth and spit them onto a plate.  Their time stopped when the 2nd roach hit the plate.  (We had 11 boys plus my daughter and I made enough cups/plates/pie plates so that the course was new for each child and they wouldn't be putting their mouths in someone else's spit). 

The last event was a bubble blowing contest.  I took baby diapers and put a snack size container of chocolate pudding, a piece of gum, and tootsie rolls inside.  Using their mouths, they had to fish the gum out of the diaper, chew it, then blow a bubble. We used a posterboard to keep track of times and awarded points based on fastest times - since we had 12 kids, 1st place for each event got 15 points, 2nd place got 12 points, 3rd place got 10 points, 4th place 9 points, etc. 

For the "cake", I stacked brownies into a pyramid and drizzled chocolate frosting over the stack.  I then put plastic insects all over it.  I have a friend who does promotional products so she was able to make us some shirts with the FF logo that said "Fear is not a Factor for me."  Each boy went home with a shirt as their goody bag.  The boys and the parents talked about this party for months.  They had a blast!

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