Amazing Race-Birthday Style

For Lauren's birthday, Hank and Leslie put together an Amazing Race at the mall. The 12 girls were split up into 3 teams of 4 and given matching shirts and bandanas (pink, purple and black) and a parent chaperone. I raced with the purple team.

Once at Sears, the teams were given the rules and handed the first clue.

Purple team huddled together to read the 1st clue.

We were off to Build a Bear to dress a bear in purple and take a photo.

Then out to the train for a ride around the fountain.

Our clue said to find this photo and take a picture with it. The girls knew it was Hollister right away.

Then outside of Macy's for a food challenge. The girls had to taste 5 items (bologna, cotton candy, a chocolate covered strawberry, a buttered popcorn jelly belly and a lemon) and guess them correctly. Allison almost gagged on the bologna but the guessed them all and we were off...

We had to go to the Temecula Police Substation and take a photo with Paul Blart, the mall cop in the back office.

Some of the other stops that didn't require a picture were the Disney Store, Justice, buying Zoomania out of the vending machine, buying 1/2 pound of candy at Sweet Factory and completing a puzzle outside the movie theater. The race took about an hour and a half and the girls had a blast. They worked so well together with the older girls reading the clues and Allison directing them through the mall and racing to the front counter to get the next clue.

We were the 1st team to arrive but were given a time penalty for 2 mistakes along the way. Unfortunately the pink team arrived before our penalty was up so they were crowned the winners. Everyone was so tired and had so much fun that winning didn't matter much. Great job Hank and Leslie!

Happy 11th Birthday Lauren!