Last week in my post about my son’s extreme birthday party I referred to an interesting buffet I served. For those of you who have decided to create your own little “life lesson” extreme birthday party, I thought I’d make your party planning easier by providing the menu I created for the Fear Factor blindfold buffet:

  • cow eyeballs = canned potatoes
  • crunchy fried worms = chocolate sticks (found in Asian food section)
  • Madagascar roaches = hot pockets (cut in the shape of a roach)
  • sliced snake rings = sliced olives
  • frozen iguana eggs = chocolate-covered ice cream balls
  • goat intestine wall = cottage cheese
  • pig brain = jello
  • chopped oxen tongue = canned meat
  • rat eyeballs = frozen peas
  • frog bladders = mini marshmallows
  • maggot larvae = Craisins
  • horse urine = tea

Remember, because your guests are blindfolded and never actually see what they are eating, you will get some surprising reactions.

The favorite one for me was the Madagascar roach—I pretended like I was having trouble catching it, told a kid to open his mouth, stuck it in there and when he bit down…those yummy pizza parts tasted like roach parts to him and he lost it—literally! After that, one kid wouldn’t even let me put a “roach” in his mouth! Most of the time they never even realized much of what they were eating was good. Which reminds me … I do suggest you serve the buffet outside—things will get messy!

And again, the point of this crazy exercise was to open up a discussion with the boys about peer pressure: With a strong memory wrapped around that discussion, I hope it is one they won’t soon forget!