Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Reality TV and the Learning Channel

One day in the summer of 2010, I got a phone call from the Learning Channel.  They were doing an Extreme Party Reality TV show and they were wondering if Ready Race Party could come be part of the entertainment.  It sounded like a great opportunity we accepted. 

After experiencing reality TV we feel like we sold our souls.  We experienced the depth of how staged everything was and left with a bad taste in our mouth.

The one good thing that happened was that the star of the show loved Ready Race Party!  Every time the producers went to look for him, he was with us.  They would want him to dance.  They would pick him up and carry him to the dance floor, and when no one was watching, he ran back to us.  Over and over!  It was great! (My filming skills are in the beginning stages - sorry the videos aren't too great).

First Birthday Party!

Our first paying party was a birthday party.  The first time my phone rang,  I was walking into the library and answered.  I was not prepared to schedule a party!!! I didn’t even know the right questions to ask yet.  I stumbled through it and asked if I could call her back.  Then I went home and we started to think through all the things we needed to know and talk about to have a party – there’s a lot when you start to think about it!  We were excited though.  We scheduled the birthday party and tried to think through everything we might possibly need to take or do to have a successful party.
Things weren’t smooth though.  The day before the party, the birthday boy got sick, and we had to reschedule the party!  For all the anticipation we had, that was a long wait.  Still, it was rescheduled and finally came.  The party went great!  The kids had a fun time, the mom was happy, and we had our first party under our belt.

We’ve done many parties since then.  They all have their own flavor and they are all a lot of fun.  It’s fun to see so many kids having such a good time.  Over and over we hear comments like “This is the best party ever” and “What a great idea” and “This was such an easy party for me” and on and on.  Those are all things we like to hear!

Entertaining the Kids (while the parents talk!)

We did a whole new kind of birthday party today.  It was for a one-year-old, but Ready Race Party wasn't there for the one-year-old.  We were there to entertain the kids while the parents visited.  It worked out really well.  The parents all got to visit and the kids were all very entertained.  Comments to the host parents were things like, “What a great idea!”  and “This is so nice.” We were there for an hour, then an hour and a half, and then two hours, and still the kids played and had fun!  I think there are lots of places this type of activity would be useful – anytime parents want their kids engaged so they can visit or do whatever they need to do.  Since our parties come with a party assistant, the other adults are free.  I even think this would be great at a wedding reception – tucked in a corner, so the kids could play and have fun and the parents don’t have to keep track of them as much!

Scout-A-Rama

After our successful Cub Scout Derby, we took Ready Race Party to Scout-A-Rama and let all the scouts build and race Lego cars there.  It was a hit!  As I walked around the room, I kept hearing people say “Have you been to the Lego Car one?” or someone would ask where their kid was and the other parent would say, “He’s over at the Lego racing one.”  One boy was at our booth for over 4 hours!  It was busy the whole time.  It was fun to see how much the boys liked it.
We had such a good time, that we went back in 2010.  It was packed!  And still lots of fun.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

How It All Started


A few years ago, our family had the invitation to travel half way around the world to visit our grandparents. It was a big, expensive vacation and we decided to work together to earn the money we would need. Ready Race Party was one result of our brainstorms and has been an adventure and a great experience ever since. We all worked together to design, build, and decorate racetracks, make mats and clean Legos. We built systems, took a class to learn to build websites and spent hours and hours and hours on all of it. Our first party was a Lego Derby in our own CubScout Troop. It was a hit! Everyone loved it. We held a few more “practice” parties and then we were off and running. Our first “real” party was in May 2009 and we’ve been going ever since. A lot has happened since that first party, so Ill spend the next few posts covering some of the highlights between now and then.