Family Reunion: The Fear Factor

We added a new event to our family reunion this year. Eli’s wife Julie’s family (The Haslams) did it at their reunion and had so much fun with it that we decided to give it a try. It was riotous fun! The kids entered the world of fear….especially the picky eaters…which is more than a few. It involved eating, shall we say, not only adventuresome, but right down weird food! Because Eli lived in Japan for two years as a missionary, he knew exactly where to go for “unfamiliar food”! The result was hysterical!

It involved several rounds. Each child who wanted to participate was presented with unusual food which they had to eat one round at a time. Several were absolutely determined to win. Others thought they would just try until it got too hard. If they decided to quit they still got a prize for each round that they finished. It’s amazing what a five year old will do for a PEZ! The other prizes which were grandly displayed before we started included fun stuff from the dollar store, a kite, games and assorted candy that they could choose from. The grand prize was a $15 gift card for You Tube. Go figure! 

The food ranged from eating a lemon slice to dried anchovies with head and eyes still intact to a strip of seaweed to chewing up a roasted squid with legs intact. For some reason the hardest for several was a half cup of vegetable juice. It looked yummy to the adults and Lucy asked for more but a barf bucket was available.

All the participants were so excited at the first. They were cheering and slapping themselves to get ready. At least four were sure they would win!

  

But as the instructions ensued, the crowd got a little more pensive and even….fearful! 

Let the game begin!

This little guy had already mentioned the day before how much he hated hard boiled eggs. He was positively determined to win…until presented with hard boiled quail eggs. Love this expression of true grit!

Poor Oliver and Silas and daring Eliza:

Apparently those little guys were pretty chewy. Hard to swallow! Here’s the barf bucket:

Quite a few kids did make it to the last three rounds, when there was a time limit. He who finished first won.

And the winner was……Isaac!  With Max (still madly chewing in the background) a close second.

 

Actually I think the onlookers had more fun than the contestants. It was pretty funny to watch!

I think we’re due for a repeat next year. But we might try things like brussel sprouts, borscht and tripe, which would be as challenging as sea weed for those little picky eaters!

Of course there are always fear factors in a reunion that you can’t predict! As mentioned earlier Dave broke his foot playing tennis on the first day. Claire showed up at the reunion after a 10 hour drive from California with a huge swollen gland which the doctor pronounced as mumps! Also, as Jonah and Aja were preparing to leave, “the three little princesses” were playing so nicely together for a long time when one of the older kids came running upstairs and announced that three year old Emmeline was cutting Lucy and Elsie’s hair! Yes indeed she was, there was hair everywhere.

She also cut Belle’s long red curls. Lucy was a lot more worried about Belle, whom her big sister Claire had given her for Christmas than she was her own hair. She claimed that Belle was going to look like a boy for the rest of her life! Which was true, well except for the costume.

We were glad that Lyla, who has gorgeous blonde hair that has never been cut, had already left. Saydi, Emmeline’s mom was so sorry but did admit that Emmeline is “really good with scissors”.

For a mom whose beautiful long-haired child is starting school soon, maybe that’s the real “fear factor”!