The Amazing Race High School Edition

Recently I have begun teaching the Teen Class at Church and Anna thought it would be fun to design an "Amazing Race" for the teens to compete in. So we recruited a few members from the congregation to use their homes for the "stops" (Reeves, Marks, Washburns) and a few others to be the "taxis" (Grace, Daryl, Brian). We couldn't have pulled off the game without these generous individuals giving of their Saturday afternoons.

All the competitors met at the church parking lot a few Saturday afternoon's ago excited about the big race.

The ladies...waiting for two gentlemen that were running late...

Madison passed the time by playing with her buddy Brian...

Orientation...

And they are off...

The first challenge had the teams uncover lego pieces from a bowl of flower using chop sticks and then construct the figure to receive their next clue which was a series of letters and numbers which directed them to the license plate number of the car they would be traveling in.

Video...the teens really got into it which made it a lot of fun...

The second event was held at one of our minister's homes close by the church building...it was a jelly belly taste testing challenge, where the teams had to correctly guess 10 flavors of the 49 jelly belly flavors.

The judge studying the flavor chart...

The last team arrives...
Waiting their turn...

Ready to go to Ralph's grocery store and solve clues to pick up specific items for the barbecue...
The Judge...

After Ralph's, teams were led to the park where teams were given a choice to memorize a short paragraph or keep a balloon animal in the air for 25 consecutive hits...each team went with the balloon...Anna, our photographer arrived after the first team had already left...

The vehicles ready to go...again...

Second to last event involved matching this picture Anna had created exactly by sifting through a bunch of pieces...the picture was on the garage of the house so the contestants had to memorize it, or run back and forth to complete the picture.

Finally we ended just before dark with a nail biting finish as you had to throw disks at a target and accumulate a set amount of points...we were surprised by how close the teams were bunched together...it was intense.

The official winners of the Amazing Race 2011

Runner's Up because the boys did not keep their receipt from their mandatory gas stop incurring a 5 minute penalty which was just enough time for the girls to finish their last task :-)

Not pictured: Third place boys

Anna did such a great job organizing this whole thing. She comes up with these events and I usually cringe, but the teens had such a great time they are still talking about it three weeks later and we hear one of the winners has the check hanging in her bedroom :-)