Melita's Round the World Tour of San Jose Birthday Scavenger Hunt

*note* this is a long post, so you might want to grab a cup of coffee (or a glass of wine) before you sit down for this one...

Inspired by Paige, from Bash Events and her great idea on Design Sponge to do a bike ride scavenger hunt, Bryce and I organised a fun birthday party for Melita this weekend.A few weeks ago we started sending out the clues, and although it started out as a Bike riding scavenger hunt, we decided to change it to just a regular 'on foot' scavenger hunt as there was a 70% chance of rain... (it didn't rain...)

Everyone met at our place to kick it off, so we had fun decorating the house.

we divided the group into two teams and sent them off to Santana Row (a local outdoor shopping mall)

Bryce and I supervised each group, and gave them their first clue, and they were off!

A little slow to get started, once the teams started opening their clues the race was on!

Drake was a little unsure at first (pictured here with Mum, Michelle & Dad, Derek)

but we finally got a smile out of him

Melita quickly embraced the 'lie, cheat and steal' theme of the game using her phone to google the answers

Taylor, Bonnie and Cody from Team Red waiting for their beer to get their clue

Cody gets the beer and the clue

Melita realised she could steal the clues, which would give her team an advantage... but they'd already been to this spot - that face says it all!

Bonnie & Taylor find the 'Boot from Down Under' to get their next clue

Kelly apparently has a competitive streak and took the game very seriously (running at top speed in her heels) and being a Santana Row expert (translate to shopaholic perhaps?) didn't hurt either... :P

Kathy got one of the more obscure clues, while the rest of her team kept trying to figure it out

Taylor & his Guinness mustache

the clue here was 'Make a run for the Border and Czech it out' (Borders being a book store, and the clue was hidden in a book on Czechoslovakia)

Kelly and Taylor of team red kicking butt!

when team blue got this clue Melita started upending books trying to find the clue (total Amazing Race style)

but, there was no keeping up with Team Red

Michelle found the Boot from Down Under too

then Team Blue had to shoot some tequila for their final clue

then it was time to sing to the birthday girl - the last clue directed everyone to the cupcake store

Happy Birthday to you!

mmmm cake!

then party bags all round (Hannah modeling the swag)

these glasses were a hit

Kathy (Melita's Mum) and Melita (see the resemblance?) :P

like father like son...

Cody (so hot right now...)

and me (looking freaky...)

but we all agreed that Melita looked best in them... normal almost...

Dinner at Thea, a local Greek restaurant

which was delicious

and fun!

smile

cheese

more cheese (pink vampire teeth - why of course)
Andre trying to master the art of blowing bubbles
more happy birthdays

and some baklava, with greek yogurt - YUM

and that is how we spent our saturday night!

the secret's in the sauce

after our last fondue party, Bryce and I were kinda bummed that the meat didn't have a lot of flavour and finally figured out that the little white jars were not to load food in, but to put sauces to dip the meat once cooked in the broth... so this weekend we had a little impromptu fondue dinner with Cody and Melita.

lots of yummy vegies and fruit

lots of sauces (although next time I think we are going to try some home made sauces - I did say impromptu...)

mixed altogether

made for quite the delicious meal! oh, and the cheese fondue part was made from gorgonzola, swiss and monterey jack cheese which (if I must say myself) was quite delicious... :)

happy friday!

I "Sofa King" love this man! :* and his funny hair :P

this photo is from last week's night out on the town, I hope you get out on the town this weekend and have a great partying time!

1 tamale, 2 tamales, that's a lot of tamales...

On Christmas eve Melita and Cody hosted a wonderful Tamale party, which was lots of fun! and as I had never even eaten a tamale before this a great learning experience too :)

Basically you get a corn husk that has been soaked in water and spread a layer of masa, which is a dough made from cornmeal, then load it full of goodies like pulled pork, beef, chicken, chillies, and cheese etc. fold it into a wrap style and fold the end up

then into the steamer for a while

we sipped on delicious red and white sangria while we waited

had a quick cuddle with Charlotte

tried on Houston's specs

which I think suit Houston most...

what do you think?

Cody modelled Melita's new sunnies

Taylor was a master at the Tamale making process and I think took the record for making the most tamales

are they ready yet?

YUM!