The Amazing Race...mom style

The four oldest cousins were playing "The Amazing Race" late this afternoon. Jeffrey came up with the clues, which sounded fun to everyone until HIS team won the race. Then cries of injustice were heard and the moms were quickly called in to officiate. Julie and I agreed to come up with some new clues to host another "Amazing Race" after dinner. Little did they know what moms can come up with while planning a race (insert diabolical laugh)! First, we did away with the teams and put everyone on the same team to race against the clock. Problem #1 solved. Next we came up with clues, including a "Roadblock" and "Detour". If you don't watch the show, I realize that means nothing to you. A Roadblock is an activity that only one person of the group can perform and you have to decide who it will be before reading the clue. A Detour gives a choice of two activities to perform. The things we had the kids do were fun, but of course, not without a purpose.

The first thing we had them do was a relay on the scooter in the driveway, two laps each person. Then it was on to the Detour. They had to choose "Paste Down" or "Upload". Either make a collage out of magazine photos of families having fun together or upload a picture of their team onto a blog. Here's the picture that got posted on Jeffrey's blog. We KNEW they would choose the "Upload" option, and they didn't disappoint.

The next step was to head to Daniel's room where each member of the team had a pile of Daniel's clothes to unpack (from a suitcase) or put away from clean piles. See, I told you...no task without a purpose. When else would you see four kids racing happily to put away a bunch of clothes???!!!

The next activity was the Roadblock. One member of the team had to earn 10 Kinscash on Webkinz.com. Ok, not so much purpose on this one, but we had to keep it fun!

Purpose returns with the next job. Everyone had to race downstairs, find a broom and sweep up the floor under and around the table! Sneaky, huh! Again, no complaints AND a clean floor! The thing was to earn their next clue the "attendant" (me) had to say they had cleaned everything off of the floor. It took a couple of tries, but they got it done. BTW, I had no idea how much stuff Jackson must eat off of our floor! It really shows up when there's no dog around to eat it all!!!

After they finished here, they had to run around the outside of the house, come through the front door and arrive at the "Pitstop" right outside the kitchen.

Breathlessly, they made it with 1:00 to spare. The prize...apple crisp with vanilla ice cream.

Believe it or not...they've asked to do it again tomorrow!!! Julie and I already have things running through our head....drink green smoothies or green lemonade, sort and start a load of clothes, pack up a suitcase, hmmmmm what other tedious household jobs...I mean Race Activities can we come up with.

Snow White was right....whistling (or racing) DOES help you work!