Fear Factor LIVE at the Bunton House

It all started with the idea for the cake.
A poo-poo cake.
Complete with plastic flies!
And things got messier and grosser as we began to make plans for Jonathan's Fear Factor birthday party.
This was definitely the most outrageous party we have had so far!

The invitations that I sent out were "applications" to be on the show. I wanted to start to freak the kids out by asking questions about their fears, but I also wanted a way to be sure parents understood that their kids needed to be dressed to get messy and be sure no one has allergies. It was a lot of fun reading the entries as they were returned. Some of the applications were very entertaining!

So, after the kids sent in their applications (Jonathan thought it was hilarious that I added that despite their entries, some kids still might not be selected!) they received a confirmation phone call telling them the following:

Congratulations! You have been selected from hundreds of applicants to be a contestant on the next Fear Factor show. Please arrive at the production site on Friday by 6:00 pm. You will receive further instructions upon arrival. Thank you for your application, and we look forward to meeting you on Friday!

When they arrived, I had a jar of gummy octopus candy and they had to try to guess how many candies were in the jar to "win" the prize. Next, they decorated Fear Factor bandannas to wear for the activities (or use to wipe stuff off of their faces, arms, stomachs, etc.) After dividing them into random teams, the boys made up group names and began to get psyched up for the first event.

12th birthday.
12 party guests.
12 messy challenges.
12 less hours of sleep that night.

Challenge #1: Balloon Race
Teams each got 10 balloons. They had to blow up the balloons one at a time and tie them. Then they ran across the yard and used anything (except a stick - too easy) to pop them and then ran back for the next person to go.

Challenge #2: Gum Grab
Players each had a bowl of Cool Whip with a big piece of bubble gum hidden at the bottom of it. They had to get the gum out using their mouths only, chew the gum, and blow a big bubble. Much harder than it sounds. Some of the boys couldn't stop eating the Cool Whip - even after the event was over!

Challenge #3: Quick Hands
Each team was given two puzzles (100 pieces each) with all the pieces mixed together in a bag. They needed to assemble both puzzles as fast as they could. This proved to be much more challenging than I thought it would be, so we settled for the first team to get one puzzle assembled.

Challenge #4: Marshmallow Madness
Players worked with a partner. One was the "target" and one was the "thrower". The thrower got a glob of peanut butter and some mini marshmallows. They had to cover the marshmallows with the peanut butter and then throw them at their "target" to see how many they could get to stick to them. Again, harder than I thought it would be. Another event that had kids eating things off the ground! Gross!

Challenge #5: Spaghetti Dig
Teams each got a bowl of spaghetti noodles and cherry pie filling layered together. Without using their hands, they had to get all the cherry pieces out and spit them on a plate. It was so funny listening to them offer suggestions to each other on how to best extract the cherries from the slimy mass of noodles.

Challenge #6: Glob of Goo
I had purchased 12 baby food jars and removed the labels. And I did NOT just get the yummy fruit ones. Each player was given a napkin and a spoon. The number written on their napkin was the number of the jar of baby food they had to eat to earn points for their team. IF they could guess the type of baby food correctly (without tasting it) they earned exemption from the challenge. Of all the events I had planned, I never would have guessed that this one would end up causing someone to puke! Yep - Jonathan got sick on plum baby food! Poor guy. But he ate the whole jar and earned 10 points for his team!

Challenge #7: Know Your States
(A filler activity so I could get stuff ready for other stunts.) They had 2 minutes to list all the states they could remember starting with the letters: C F H I M N T.

Challenge #8: Iron Toes
I had tubs filled with ice, water, and marbles. Teams were given one minute to retrieve as many marbles from the bottom of the tub as possible using only their toes. I was accused of causing frostbite during this stunt.

Challenge #9: Bad Hair Day
Each team was given a bottle of shaving cream and had to create the wackiest hairstyles in each other's hair as they could. It was - interesting.

Challenge #10: Soda Slurp
Partners had to drink soda from a 1/2 liter bottle as fast as possible. The catch was that they had to use a straw...well, actually three straws hooked together to make one long straw. I had expected it to be seriously hard for them to suck the soda up that tall straw, but they were able to do it without a problem. What I hadn't anticipated was the amount of burping that would follow this stunt!

Challenge #11: Garden Gourmet
Each team was given a handful of gummy worms (that had been rolled in honey and crushed Oreos) for their team to eat. They could either have one person eat all the worms or split the task. They were a little timid at first until someone bit into a "worm" and announced, "They aren't real worms guys!"

Challenge #12: Drop Zone
(I love having a deck!) Players worked as a team. They have two people on the ground below the deck holding large plastic crates on their heads. The others were on the deck with LARGE water balloons. I'm talking 12 inch water balloons! They had to toss the balloons off the deck into the crates on their teammates' heads. In a word - WET.



Overall, the party was a huge success. Jonathan said his friends had a blast at the party! I had a good time too, but I sure had a hard time getting them to settle down that night.

Hmmmmm.
Could it have been all the sugar they ate?

NOTE: Sammy was the only girl attending the party and was given the challenging task of acting as a security guard during the party. She got to help set up for the events, tell the boys where to go next, and remove any rowdy participants. She took her role very seriously and even wore a black Fear Factor SECURITY t-shirt. Cute!