Twelve 12-year-olds.
Nine challenges.
Four hours.
One Survivor!
plates for eating large or small pig snouts
For the second time, we threw our daughter a Survivor-themed birthday party.
I thought the planning would be easier because I already had a blueprint from two years ago, and that did help, but I couldn't simply rinse and repeat. First of all, the participants were two years older so some challenges had to be a bit harder. Second, seven of the twelve participants had played the first time and I wanted to give them a different experience.
Of the nine challenges, five were new. Of the five new, two were multi-step.
The day ended up being quite a bit more humid this time (so we skipped applying tribal face paint), but luckily the threat of a thunderstorm evaporated.
Also this time, the girls were considerably savvier. They made valuable suggestions on how to improve the game. For example, they advised me to shuffle the votes before reading them to prevent players from figuring out who voted for whom.
Last time I forgot to tell the girls about the hidden immunity idol (but one found it anyway).
This time I forgot to take a photo of the rewards, which included a Survivor board game, Survivor-style middle grade novels by Jeff Probst and Chris Tebbetts (signed by Chris!), and a disposable underwater camera (which will require the winner to get photos developed the old-fashioned way for the first time in her life).
See the recap from last time for the overall structure and fun details.
See here for highlights from this time:
blue (water) tribe, which they named Einhorn
(tribe names could not be an English word;
"einhorn" means "unicorn" in German)
orange (fire) tribe, which they named Bae
("poop" in Danish)
tribal council
(tiki torches were on site—see previous photo—but
not snuffed out for each person voted out;
they looked too cool lit)
voting table; can you spot the hidden immunity idol?
there it is
tribe and individual immunity, same as last time
table for water and two individual challenges
dinner and Survivor clips so they know
what they're getting into
challenge 1: communication;
tribes had to complete five tasks without talking;
winner was the tribe that was faster three out of five times;
here they're building a human pyramid;
other tasks: put yourselves in order of birth date
(month/day only), then house number
using their bodies to spell out answer to question
"What day in June marks the end of school?"
tribal council
voting
challenge 2: coordination;
one Survivor had to assemble a cardboard box,
then rest of the tribe had to pass five tribe-colored popsicle sticks
down the line one at a time and drop them in the box—
without using their hands;
if box assembler couldn't finish it, she could tag in someone else—
but they'd have to add a sixth stick
challenge 3: aim;
tribes had to complete three challenges that required aim;
winner was the tribe that was faster two out of three times;
here they are on second-floor deck trying to throw a cardboard roll
into the relatively small opening of a patio umbrella cover
held by their tribemates below
(each tribe member had to get it in once)
challenge 4: puzzle;
a repeat from the first time, and a personal favorite;
tribes had to complete identical, 100-piece, jungle-themed puzzles;
only when they got to the end could they tell that one piece was missing;
to win, they had to find the piece, hidden somewhere in the yard
(some players remembered from last time that there was a hidden piece
but still had to complete 99 pieces before searching)
I did not hide the same piece from each puzzle so a tribe
might find and try to use the wrong piece (which did indeed happen);
however, one piece I hid was mostly green and the other had some blue,
so the girls rightfully pointed out that this was not fair because
the blue one was easier to spot
challenge 5 (first individual challenge): unusual food;
round 1: rhubarb/fish sauce/curry powder mixture;
round 2: anchovies;
round 3 (same as last time): crickets; yes, bugs
(but bugs that are flavored and sold in candy stores)
tribal council tiebreaker: walk while balancing a cup of water
(thought up on the spot; we had no ties last time
and I didn't expect any this time)
the only snag (literally): the individual immunity idol necklace
got stuck in the hair of one Survivor;
another Survivor rescued her
challenge 6 (no photo): knowledge/deduction;
I asked series of Survivor-related true or false questions;
Survivors who thought the answer was true moved to my left,
false to my right;
the process of elimination was fairly quick (on the second question!)
challenge 7: strength/stamina;
Survivors had to hold themselves up by one arm
challenge 8: balance;
Survivors had to stack candy hearts;
winner was Survivor who stacked the most (but it was not a race);
prior to this, the highest I'd seen was 11;
here, one Survivor (who had already been voted out, unfortunately)
stacked 23!
challenge 9: memory;
I showed Survivors a sequence of island-related images
(palm tree, turtle, campfire, footprint, shell, spear, skull);
they had to recreate the order with their matching set;
I started with sequences of four and worked up to seven
final three (the winner is on the right)
Fierce competitors!
Girl power!
Survivors all!