Amazing Race: Halloween Edition

Firstly, I am not all about Halloween.

I do not like things that go bump in the night, glow in the dark, or jump out of closets. The love my peers have of horrifying adrenaline rushes from haunted houses goes waaay over my head. The scariest movie I have ever seen is the Sixth Sense, which I watched probably over a decade ago, and it still gives me the willies when I wake up night to grab a drink of water in the dark.

That being said: my husband seems to appreciate me holding off on Christmas until after fall holidays are over. I am trying my very best to enthusiastically jump on the spooky bandwagon. This weekend, those attempts merged with both my planning of our monthly family activity and my love for reality TV game shows. Duh-duh-duh-dum (read: drumroll): a kid-friendly, Halloween edition of the Amazing Race.

We split the family into three teams of three and sent them on a hunt around the house and property for clues (all of which rhymed, because I couldn't resist). The littles and the adults were both able to participate AND I was able to use up a ton of the yellow and black construction paper I'd been hoarding for a few years. Win-win.

My parents have a beautifully dense grove of scrub oaks growing in their back yard. With a little yarn and patience, we created a tangled spider web for contestants to travel through. Chad also cleverly helped me slip clues INSIDE of pumpkins: my second favorite part of the whole caboodle.

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Obviously, my first favorite part was the witch run. A player from each team had to mount a broomstick and run through the neighborhood, all while cackling and/or shouting the line "I'll get you and your little dog, too". Watching my daddy do this with super-enthusiam made my whole evening. My whole Halloween, even. A run-down of all our events is below.

All activities call for treats. My big sister whipped up some sweet potato cupcakes with maple buttercream and marshmallow ghost topping. You could not even tell they were gluten free (we are up to two gluten freers in these parts now).

A list of challenges were as follows: 

1. Sort through handfuls of candy corn pumpkins until finding one with a clue written on the bottom. You must eat any you pick up that don't have a clue.

2. Pick a broom and ride it to your next location while doing your best witch impersonation.

3. Roll you pumpkin down the hill (we had a few grassy knolls to choose from) using only the broom acquired from #2.

4. Break open your pumpkin and sort through the goo to find your next clue.

5. Run to the cornfield and pick up your next clue (along with a roll of toilet paper).

6. Traverse the spider's web through the forest.

7. At the next location, dress one of your teammates as a mummy with the toilet paper. The next clue was snuck into the end of the roll. 

8. Using no hands or help, have a player bob for apples. Sit down at the starting location, and you're the winner!

I think this could be some sort of awesome tradition. Taking ideas for next year--any other fall activities I could throw in there?