11953

Fear Factor -12yr- Taste of Fear

September 2005

Kay in Frankfort, KY  USA

Special Mention

For my daughter's 12th birthday, we wanted something that both boys and girls would enjoy.  "Fear Factor" was an obvious choice! 

The invitation was worded something like 'If Fear is not a Factor for you' and 'We'll have some fun and exciting challenges, but don't worry: rats and snakes aren't on the menu!' I also mentioned in the invitation 'Be prepared to get messy and wet!' We initially invited 14 kids, but wound up with 17 there!  The evening started out with a cookout.  We grilled burgers and dogs, had chips, etc. I figured that after the Fear Factor Challenges nobody would feel much like eating.  I took big handkerchiefs and made iron-on transfers with the Fear Factor logo.  These were passed out to each guest for them to wear as their "buffs".  We came up with ten challenges, and gave each of them a cool name.  Each challenge was given a certain number of points, and rather than eliminate anyone, we let everyone that was willing participate in each challenge.  Everyone got a point for each challenge they participated in, then whomever had the most points at the end of the party was the winner! 

The first challenge was "The Taste of Fear", which made each person hold a wedge of fresh-cut lemon in their mouth for one minute. 

Number two was "Mine Field".  The kids paired up and had to be the fastest pair through the obstacle course we created.  The trick was that one member of each pair was blindfolded and the other member of the pair had to talk his partner through the course without touching him!  It was hilarious. 

Number Three was "Egg Pass".  The kids split into two teams, and each team was given a dozen eggs.  The first person on each team had to break the egg and pass the contents to the next person on the team, and so on down the line until the last person on each team dumped whatever was left into a bowl.  The team with the most yolks, etc. in the bowl won. 

Challenge four was "Snake Pit".  A baby pool was filled with cold water,ice cubes and little rubber snakes.  The child then got on their hands and knees in the pool.  They had to pick up as many rubber snakes as they could using only their mouths in 30 seconds. The kids really got into the "countdown" as they surrounded the person diving for the snakes!  Challenge five was called "Lock Up".  The kids broke up into pairs again, and one member of the pair would sit in a chair with their wrists and ankles chained and locked to the arms and legs of the chair (I used lightweight plastic chain and different types of locks).  The other member of the pair was given a handful of keys and had to try to be the fastest to unlock his teammate.  Everyone got involved and was cheering on each team. 

Challenge six was named "Dirty Worms".  Earlier that day, I had taken packages of gummy worms, rolled them in honey, and then rolled them in crushed Oreos.  They looked exactly like earthworms lying in dirt!  Each child had to roll a dice and whatever number they rolled was the number of "worms" they had to eat.  The faces they made were unbelieveable!  Rather than being gagged by the grossness of it, they were gagging and making faces because they were so sicky sweet. 

Challenge seven was "Drop Zone".  The kids broke into two teams, and were armed with a folding chair, an empty plastic milk jug, and a bowl full of dried beans.  Each team member was given three beans, and they had to put their knees in the seat of the chair and rest their elbows on the back of it.  Then, without lifting their elbows, they had to drop their beans into the top of the milk jug.  The team with the most beans in their jug won and each member of the team received points.  It wound up being boys against girls, and the competition was wild!  Each team had members "watching" the opposing team to make sure there was no cheating, etc. 

Challenge eight was "Spaghetti Dig".  I filled two baby pools with cooked spaghetti that had been coated in vegetable oil.  I dumped a couple of packages of plastic bugs in the pools and mixed them up.  The kids split into teams again, and the object was to be the first team to find twenty bugs using only their teeth.  What a slimy mess, but the kids loved it!  Rather than picking one representative for each team, they took turns by finding one bug and then allowing the next person on the team to climb in to find one.  They were all greasy and covered in wet spaghetti! 

Challenge nine was called "Gum Grab".  Each child sat down at the table with a pie plate filled with Cool-Whip in front of them.  At the bottom of the pie plate was a piece of bubble gum.  When we said 'Go!' each child buried their faces into the pie plate looking for the gum (no hands allowed).  The first child to find the gum, chew it and blow a bubble won!  What was so funny was that the sugar in the Cool Whip reacted with the gum and made it nearly impossible to blow bubbles!  The kids were chewing their hearts out and I have hilarious photos of the faces they were making while trying to blow bubbles.  This challenge turned into an unplanned event:  pies in the face!  Even a few parents fell victim to that game! 

Once we hosed everyone off, we played the final challenge:  "Organ transplant".  We took two large plastic pails and filled them with cooked oatmeal, old coffee grounds, cooked spaghetti and cooking oil.  Pails were set up about 20 feet apart.  We then put each of the following into one pail as everyone watched:  liver, pigs feet, tripe, brain, kidneys, cow tongue, pig tail.  We then held a timed relay where each kid ran to the filled pail, pulled out one item at a time, and relayed over to other pail where items were deposited. They kept running back and forth until they had transferred all the items from one bucket to the other.  Although I thought this would gross out everyone, I believe it was their favorite event!  A few of the girls squealed, but everyone participated.  We presented the winner with a framed certificate that named them the winner and a video store gift card. 

After the challenges, we had ice cream and cake, and my daughter opened gifts.  The party started at 6:00 p.m. -- it was 10:00 before we got the boys to go home, and then most of the girls spent the night and didn't leave until late the next day!  My husband videotaped the party, so we used the footage to create our own episode of "Fear Factor" using the music from the TV show and burned it onto DVDS to give each guest a week or so later.  At the end of the DVD my daughter thanked everyone for attending and congratulated the winner of "Fantasy Fear Factor".  We even put in closing credits that listed each guest as a "cast member" and put in a disclaimer about how no snakes or bugs had been harmed during the filming of the episode.  The kids loved it!  My daughter's birthday was in July, but by the time school started a few weeks later in August word had spread about the "Best Party Ever" and now everyone begs for invitations to our parties!  It's been over a year and they still like to get together and watch the video, and they laugh as hard now as they did that night!  It took a lot of planning, but the grownups had as much fun as the kids.  Having a few good adult friends coming over to help keep score, act as "judges", etc. also was a huge help.

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