Survivor: Cousins Edition :: Day Two

The next day we did two challenges and had two tribal councils so that two more cousins joined the jury.

First challenge included various stations they had to complete all while connected to a maze of ropes. They earned coordinates at each station and used those to find a lock that they then had to find the key for and open.

After tribal council and a break, we headed out for challenge number two for the day which included large tangram pieces and puzzles they had to complete. There were tears in every challenge but also the accomplished feeling of sticking with it, winning, finishing even when you wanted to quit and more.

At this point, it was narrowed down to three cousins - we have one more challenge coming up and then a vote for the title of sole Survivor!

Survivor: Cousins Edition :: Day One

A few of the cousins cooked up a plan to have a version of Survivor while we were together this summer! I had a friend make t-shirts and my brother-in-law rocked the job of being the host and planner of challenges!

We started the weekend with a rice lunch - we only did this for one meal to give the "feel" of Survivor but also keep the peace with hungry kids!

Friday afternoon held their first challenge which was done in teams. Later that evening, we had our first immunity challenge complete with an immunity necklace and two hidden immunity idols! We held our first Tribal Council and I interviewed them on video like they do on the show! I'm hoping to have David help me put all the video and photos together and make a DVD episode of sorts of this experience! My mom and a couple of the girls made "buffs" out of old t-shirts for them to use during the game as well.

Now for the immunity challenge! We also offered "rewards" like they do on the show - slushies and ice cream were worth playing for!

And now for Tribal Council and some dessert!

Our host, "Jeff" {aka Uncle Eric} had come up with some great and thoughtful questions to help them process their experience. There is no doubt this was stretching, challenge and difficult. And it was hard to vote out one of the cousins and to be the first one voted out! But overall I think it was so valuable to be able to process this kind of thing verbally together and talk about what was hard about the challenges, what surprised them about themselves, and even to see who was willing to give up and who pressed on to finish even with no hope of a prize.

Those who were voted out became part of the "jury" and also helped with future challenges! Our kids have been watching the show for a year or so now and the cousins have grown up watching it, so they understood a lot of nuances of the game that they incorporated into this version. It was so fascinating to watch them work through things, decide who to tell what and more.

It ended up being so much more than I thought it would but I'm so glad my kids had this amazing experience!