BEST.PARTY.EVER!!!

Said my kids at the end of their 10th birthday party.  They haven't had a friend party in a few years and really wanted to do friend parties this year. That's a challenge with boy/girl twins when they are turning 10.  I told them they could each do their own party if they wanted to.  I really intended to go somewhere and pay for a party but we couldn't find anything they really wanted to do.  

Then my friend posted on FB a party she had just put on for her daughter - it was an AMAZING RACE party.  That was it!  Perfect party for 10 year old boys and girls.  We are HUGE fans of the show and watch it every season.  Jared and Kamryn loved the idea and started thinking of ideas right away.  The only bad thing was I couldn't really involve them in the planning because that would be unfair to the teams.  They were ok with that.
They did come up with who they wanted to invite and how to divide up the teams.  We invited 16 kids.  Everyone could come except one girl who had gone on vacation with her family.  We had scheduled it for May 19th but had to postpone for bad weather.  And then on the day we rescheduled it for it still rained during the day but was cleared up in time for the party, thank goodness.
Once all the kids were there we had them all gathered in the living room - probably the most people, esp most kids, ever in our living room. They were all excited!
We went over the rules and sent them on their way.  We actually don't have too many photos of the event - all video, which will be turned into an awesome show by Justin.

the book club team working on the puzzle challenge

the same book club team doing the RED DRAGON challenge

TEAM RED came in first and won the MILLION DOLLAR prize

TEAM PURPLE came in 2nd and won the 100 GRAND

The boys came in 3rd, or were the last team to arrive, but were not eliminated.  Their prize was a bag of chocolate coins.

After the racing we came inside to open presents.  Jared and Kamryn's friends were very generous and gave them some very nice gifts.

Everyone was a good sport and waited patiently during the present opening.

After the gift opening we sang happy birthday, gave the kids some more sugar in the form of cupcakes and then let them just play for a few minutes while parents came to pick them up.
It was a super fun party and I would even do it again :)