The Amazing Race: Birthday Edition

We had such an AMAZING (get it?) weekend celebrating Qee's birthday Amazing Race style! We were sooo thrilled with how all the clues turned out, how perfectly everything timed up, and, of course, how much Q enjoyed everything!! 

It took us 5 HOURS to get out to mum and Q's with traffic, torture! But we made it out around 5:00 and all frustration was forgotten when the race began and Q opened his first clue! 

Quick explanation of the clues in case anyone hasn't seen the show:

Route Info: directions to the next location or activity

Detour: a choice between two different challenges or activities

Road Block: a single challenge that only one team member completes 

Speed Bump: and additional task assigned as a penalty. These are pretty rare in the show so we only included one in our Amazing Race.

On Friday we organized 3 different challenges:

We gave Q the first clue and then he had to go find the second one hidden in his office!

Clue number 2 was a Detour choosing between Sonic and Chuck E Cheese for dinner with unique challenges for each one! Q picked Sonic and we headed over for some all-American fast food, drive in fun! 

We had a ball! We've been talking about going to sonic for years and it toootally lived up to our expectations! Delicious shakes, great onion rings, yummy chicken - and Q completed his challenge, eating his foot-long chili dog in only 7 bites!! 

The last clue, for the Pitstop, told Q to find the "Girl on Fire" AKA Katniss from The Hunger Games! We headed to the movie theatres in Dos Lagos to watch Mockingjay which we've all been SO excited to see, and it was awesome! 

Really dark and gritty, but stayed so true to the book and was really well done, we were all thoroughly impressed! We headed home for a good night's sleep in prep for the huge Saturday we'd planned!

Q got his first clue of the day at 8:30, and it was a Road Block! 

He had to successfully ID 4 out of 6 donut flavours in the box of Dunkin Donuts we picked up the day before. He did SO WELL! We were really impressed! 

5 outta 6 and he earned his next clue... Leading us to Disneyland!!! Yeeee! We went to the statue of Walt and gave him the next clue.

For this detour we split up - Mum and Q went and got a treat from the candy shop and the two of us raced over to Space Mountain (via Indiana Jones which was shut, lame) to get Fastpasses for later. We met back at the castle drawbridge for another clue..!

The next Road Block task was to find 10 hidden mickeys scattered around the park. We went straight into Fantasyland and started looking! 2 on a mailbox, 2 on the carousel, 1 on the Mad Hatter sign, 1 on the whale from Pinocchio, 1 somewhere else, and 3 on the Matterhorn! Success! 

Next up was another Detour: Small World or Star Tours. Q picked - no surprise - Star Tours! AND in a legendary move, he picked the planet we went to on the ride first guess! Amazing!! On to the next clue..!

Lunch time, yum! We went to New Orleans Square for French Dip, Fried Shrimp, and a Cajun Chicken Caesar salad, delish! Challenge completed.

The next clue took us to the shooting arcade where Q proved that he most definitely could've made it as a cowboy in the Wild West! 

He hit 20 targets no problem and then we were on to the biggest undertaking of them all: one attraction in each area of the park! It was a super busy day so it took us all afternoon to complete but, after Indiana Jones in Adventureland, Winnie the Pooh in Critter Country, Space Mountain in Tomorrowland, the Mickey and the Magical Map show in Fantasyland, then we caught the train around to New Orleans Square for the Haunted Mansion, and last to Frontierland for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! 

In there we also had a second go on Indiana Jones cos it's our fave, checked out the adorable decorations in Toon Town, grabbed jumpers/jackets/scarves to keep warm, saw all the lights turn on in the most spectacular fashion at It's a Small World, and ate the most glorious pumpkin flavoured beignets you can possibly imagine! 

The last clue took us to the Pitstop on Main Street to watch the spectacular holiday fireworks display. 

So magical! We couldn't have imagine a more perfect end to such a wonderful day!

Sunday was Qee's actual birthday and we really brought our A-game! Mum cooked up an absolute storm in the morning making the chocolate tart for dessert later on and a scrumptious batch of scones for the first challenge!

Q was onto challenge #2 in no time.. Locating his presents! 4 riddles leading to 4 presents, the stakes were high! With a couple minor hints, he made it to his gifts: a travel organizer set from Brendan and Sharon, Tommy Bahama Hawaiian shirts, the box set of Arrow (it's SO GOOD), and an awesome set of noise canceling headphones from us and mum! 

The next task was a Speed Bump for the two of us to walk and brush the doggies, lucky puppies! We did that, had a lovely sit in the spa, then the race was back on! 

Next challenge: a 32 second lap on the Go Karting track! We headed down to K1 Speed and hit the track!

Q killed it and Han raced as well aaand didn't come last! Haha mum and Luce had a great time cheering from the sidelines and it was good fun to get some adrenaline pumping in the Go Karts! Woo! 

We headed home for a couple slower paced challenges: a super fun game of Monopoly and a cocktail!

We spent the evening with the neighbors, Aaron and Elizabeth and their daughters Mary and Lauren. Q was surprisingly surprised when he got his clue that we'd be eating out!

Because mum had made the chocolate tart that morning, he was convinced we'd be having dinner in - and to further throw him off the scent mum had put some bacon out on the counter, nice. We went down to Wood Ranch for some seeeriously yummy steaks, ribs, and salmon for dinner. It was a really cute place and such great company to finish the weekend in!

The very last clue of the weekend led Qee home for his chocolate tart! Mum made Eton Mess as well and we squeezed those last delicious bites into our already full tummys.

We finished our game of monopoly, a battle to the death between Q and Han. After an intense 45 minutes, Qee won!! Which was probably fitting given it was his birthday buuuut Han never likes to lose haha. It was such a lovely weekend, it really couldn't have gone better! We were so glad Q had a great time and we really couldn't have managed any of it without all mum's help and organization. Such a team effort to make heaps of wonderful memories! HAPPY BIRTHDAY QEE!!!

Birthday Girls!!!

Monday was Chanelle's birthday!! The day before ours! We all slept in, Lucy made us a nice brunch, then we went to Santa Monica for an afternoon at the beach! It was so beautiful and we got to meet some lovely people in the Academy at LACC that Lucy'll be going to school with.

For dinner we went to Bubba Gumps - it was SO yummy and our awesome waiter Nate made sure we had a really fun time!

Lucy and I decided to head home early to get a good night's sleep, so we headed back to the car park aaaaand, true to form, the car was broken! The battery had completely died - the engine wasn't turning over at all - so we called AAA and waited for them to come help us out. It didn't take long for the guy (Mark) to arrive and he told us the battery was still the original 2007 one from the dealership! It was completely out of juice, so he replaced it and we were good to go! 

We were actually pretty proud of ourselves for handling it on our own and also, we realized it was a huge blessing in disguise! Mark told us that even if he gave us a jump, the car wouldn't start the next time we needed it which would've been on the morning of our birthday heading out to Disneyland!! We were stoked to finally have the car in full working order, and we got home soon after - where MeMe and Emily had birthday cupcakes from Sprinkles waiting for us, yum!

On Tuesday it was OUR BIRTHDAY!!! YAAAAYYY! We got up early, got ready, and opened prezzies with Mum and Q on the phone. They got us such lovely things! Even though they couldn't be with us in Disney, they managed to make it perfect with gift cards for us to get food during the day and a special dinner at the Rainforest Cafe! We said goodbye and headed out to the Happiest Place on Earth for a magical 19th birthday.

Walking down Mainstreet on our birthday was so wonderful and surreal! We could just tell from the first moment that it was going to be a perfect day.

The first thing we did was get birthday buttons with our names on them which meant that everyone was wishing us a happy birthday all day! We were definitely feeling the love - not only from complete strangers in the park, but also from Dad, Claire, Eddie, and Will who called and Facetimed us! We also got the chance to talk to Tim, one of our best friends, and were showered with loving texts and facebook messages - so special!

We headed over to Adventureland to get FastPasses for our fave, Indiana Jones, then on to Frontier Land to go on Splash Mountain as our first ride. On the way, we bumped into a band of singing pirates who were so friendly and hilarious - they surrounded us and sang us the most ridiculous and funny birthday song, then graciously agreed to take a selfie!

After that we started on the rides! We went on Splash Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, and Pirates of the Caribbean, then grabbed a churro and an iced coffee each for morning tea.

Next up we went on the Peter Pan ride - one of Han's faves - and looked wistfully at the streets of London, trying to think of a time and excuse to go on another trip to the UK! We had lunch at the Bengal Barbecue then headed over to Toontown next and went on It's a Small World and met Minnie!

The next couple things we did were completely new which was exciting! We saw a really well done stage show with little sections from all the best movies; it was a super fun concept and the singing was AMAZING. Then we went over to check out the Michael Jackson Captain EO Tribute which was too funny, ohmygod. The original music, costumes, and 3D technology from the 80's were hysterical and MJ totally rocked the space suit.

It was finally time to use our FastPasses, best ever!! We went on Space Mountain, Star Tours, and Indiana Jones - three of the best rides in the park! - then headed over to Downtown Disney for dinner. On our way out of the park we stopped to watch/listen to the Dapper Dan's and they were SO CUTE! They asked Lucy up to play this weird instrument and totally stole our hearts! A definite highlight of the day.

We had a pre-dinner dessert of warm, sugar coated beignets while we waited for a table, then went in to the awesome Rainforest Cafe! Dinner was great and we had delicious smoothies and birthday cupcakes along with to complete the experience! Thanks Mum and Q! 

After dinner we went into California Adventure to finish the night. We stopped by Ariel's Grotto then went to get the best spots we could to see World of Color. The show was spectacular - made ya laugh, made ya cry. It was the best end to the day we could've hoped for, and we left the park just as the fireworks started going off over Sleeping Beauty's castle, so magical!

We made it home with no trouble and in really good time, so we decided to finish off the night by watching The Bachelorette finale, and even that ended up perfect! It was an amazing day, one we'll remember for many years to come, and it feels SO GOOD to be 19!!!