Happy Birthday, Lauren!

Lauren's 12^th birthday is next weekend, and she planned her party for today. The Farkas family always does a good job with birthday parties, and Lauren's request was for and Amazing Race during her party. She invited 15 girls, all came, and we prayed for no rain or snow! Uncle John and I had a little rain contingency plan, but it wasn't as fleshed out as the real plan, so we were glad that it was 40* and tolerable outside. Thankfully, all the girls had a blast. Here are the tasks they had to perform:

1. Find a backpack hidden in the yard, and retrieve an envelope with their team's color on it.
   
2. Build a pyramid with 10 dixie cups and, by pouring water into only the top cup, get water into every cup.
   
   
   
   
   

   Making a pyramid

   
   
   This was challenging due to the wind, but every team eventually accomplished the task.
   
3. Find a bag with their team's color in it down by the creek. Then, using spoons and no hands but to hold the bag, take a goldfish from the bag, pass it to the next girl's spoon, and feed it to the next girl. They had to get 15 in a row without dropping one; if they dropped one, they had to start over.
   
   
   
   
   

   Passing goldfish

   
   
4. From 2120 to 2105, pass the basketball (or soccer ball) back and forth without dropping it (if they dropped it, they had to stop and sing Happy Birthday to Lauren 2 times through and then continue). When they got to 2105, each had to make a basket. Then they had to carry the ball back with each girl keeping 1 hand and only 1 hand on the ball at all times.
   
5. Organize 2 stacks of paint swatches in numerical order. Uncle John had gotten big stacks of swatches, and this took teams between 20 and 30 minutes—a good thing, because it gave them time to warm up!
   
   
   
   Sorting paint swatches
   
   
   It was amusing to watch each team's organizational method. The team that seemed to have the strangest method (or no method at all) is that team that finished first; I was surprised, Uncle John the artist was thrilled!
   
6. Run to the other end of the street, adding up the 1s from one side and the 2s from the other (on the mailboxes).
   
7. Finally, pick 5 Apples to Apples cards, and write a poem or song using those words or phrases. Then, when every team has finished, recite the poem.

The girls all seemed to have fun, no one was too tired after having run at least a mile, Aunt Renee fed them well with delicious cake, and Lauren got some great presents. I was happy it went well and that Renee, John, Luke, and Ian were all around to help—it would've been tough to carry out without their help!

My workout for the day was the D1 bootcamp with Valerie (week 3 of a 4-week free "Resolution Bootcamp"; wk 1, wk 2). There was a huge group of almost 30 people, but Coach Sarah kept us all in line and worked us pretty hard. We did stations again, but only 3 at a time. After a few laps and the dynamic workout, we did 40 seconds of work and 20 seconds of rest for sissy squats, suitcases, and kettle bell presses. Then we did sprints. Then we repeated the station times, doing modified-to-be-harder triceps push ups, full leg circles, and kettle bell swings. Finally, we repeated the sprints. The sprints were the most fun for me, and I had some guy way on the other end of the field who was giving me a run for my money and another guy right next to me who was racing me every time. Needless to say, I ran fast (for a max of 25 yards, so fairly short sprints) and loved it! Though I did wish I had my cleats on instead of my tennis shoes.