Amazin' Mamas race around Chicago!

Friday night I had a fabulous time watching many hours of prep, planning, and effort pay off (this is why I have not updated my blog as every free minute this last week was spent cutting clues, emailing, and otherwise going nuts getting ready). Beck (fab friend of famed awesome mama status and partner in crime for ridiculous projects :) and I planned a Mom's Night Out for our 13 M&M's mom's group at First Free. We decided way back that we wanted to do a crazy Amazing Race inspired game through the Lincoln Square neighborhood. The Amazing Race is actually an awesome reality show where teams race around the world. I realize here that saying "awesome reality show"might seem like an oxymoron but really it is interesting mostly because you get to see so many different places in the world and you get to see the couples, friends, and family members get seriously irritated with each other and wonder if you and your spouse would be ready to kill each other as well or if you could keep your cool as your husband gets lost for the thrid time.

We really had no idea what we were actually getting into. Once we started planning we realized that the logistics were pretty much a nightmare (between coordinating the stops, getting places to be willing to let us disrupt their business, writing clues, and schlepping 3 kids around to do all this). We pressed on knowing that it would be a blast if we could pull it together. Beck was a rock star at getting donations and since she lives in the neighborhood was able to work her magic and secure most the locations and we got together to write clues and think up embarrassing but hilarious tasks the teams of Mamas would have to do to acquire their next clue. If you have seen the show there are many kinds of tasks and last night we tried to shake things up for the 20 women that participated. Here is a sampling of their tasks: eating weird sushi at Tank or singing for money outside of Old Town School of Music, punching and kicking at a Martial Arts Academy, learning how to correctly measure for a sports bra and downing a power gel at Fleet Feet Sports, reading a Dr. Seuss book aloud and doing interpretive dance for everyone at Starbucks, riding a tricycle through Lincoln Square, searching for someone at Garcia's Mexican Restaurant by asking every patron if they were a Hot Mama (in Spanish of course), telling me 3 yo' mamma jokes, and finally searching through a diaper bag for a pacifier in order to travel to the final pit stop. They then raced to the finish in Welles Park where we had lit 2 tiki torches (we thought we may get arrested for this but had a plan to ditch them and run if the 5-0 showed up). It was a crazy night! My favorite part was watching all these moms full out sprint from place to place- who knew they were so competetive? Bystanders in the square even started to cheer them on & a bartender at Tank Sushi asked one team what season it was and when it would be on. Did he not notice that there were no TV cameras following them? After the race we all headed back to Beck's house and snacked while sharing stories of the night and getting to know each other. It was a miracle that it actually went as planned and the Mamas seemed to have a great time. It was a success as moms do so many things all day for others and they deserve a night out even if it is one where they run around like imbeciles doing bizarre tasks for no reason! I say Go Amazing Mamas!!

* these are just a few camera phone pics of the night