Kids Games for a Family Reunion

You have a lot of good ideas already but I just wanted to add one more... lay a sheet out on the grass (sit rocks on the corners to hold in place, set up several shallow buckets and fill them with different color paint, fill the last bucket with soapy water (for washing)and help all of the kids dip their hands (or feet but that might be messier) into a color and place them on the sheet. You could even ask the older kids to help be in charge of different parts of the activity. The finished sheet could be a table cloth for next year or a prize for one of the grandparents :)

oooh this sounds fun! I have one that can be used (thank goodness it's summer time) take a bunch of one size fits all T-shirts-WET them, WRING them out, FOLD them (while wet!) and place wax paper in between each folded shirt, and once they are all folded, place them in the freezer to freeze. The day of the games when the sun is hot and high, you seperate the group between ages (older group and younger group)**3-4 year olds may be too young for this. And you have a race in each group -who can unfold and put on the frozen T-shirt first. The first one to do this wins!
Otherwise you have other ideas such as the toliet paper model race (where you give each group) packet of toilet paper to create an outfit, whoever comes out with the best idea wins, this will be determined by someone other than family to be objective.
Any other ideas can be found by googling "kid activities to do outdoors".
Best of luck.

We always had HUGE family reunions when I was a kid and I remember the sack race and the water balloon tosses!
I also remember the shoe pile scramble (all shoes in a jumbled pile, gotta run over find & put on both of your shoes & get back to the finish line first with both of your shoes on).
There was also an egg on a spoon race (hold the spoon w/egg in your teeth --maybe older kids only? And a game of passing an orange down the line of teams but you could not use you hands (neck to neck, etc)
Also can do an egg toss--like a water balloon toss.
Spin art machine by Crayola for the younger kids might be fun.

We always had games at our reunion too. The older kids could do a three legged race. You would need something to tie legs together. Also we did this game where you cut the top off a gallon milk carton and then have the kids hold clothespins at the height of their nose and try to drop them into the carton. You just cut off the part where the handle is, not the whole top. Duck, duck, goose is fun for little kids too. Have fun

We have done a candy scramble and the winner is the one with the most candy or you can use peanuts instead.
Also dropping dropping clothes pins in a jar and the one with the most wins you use about 5-10 and the child has to stand full height and drop with their arms about chest high.
There is also the hula hoop game break teh kids into two teams and then they join hands. Take a hula hoop and start at one end and the first one to get the hoop to the end without breaking hands win. We did this for the adults games at our reunion last year.
We also got a balloon launcher and tried to see who got it the greatest distance this is better to do with kids our children's church kids loved doing this.
There is the rag game also. You have the kids in two teams and have them count off 1,2,3,etc... and then you call out the numbers ie.. one and both the ones run the first one to grab the rag and make it back to their team with out being tagged gets like 2 points. If they get tagged the other team gets one point and the tagged team gets none. You can call more than one number call evens or odds and call all. You play for as long as you want we did to 30 points (kids church kids loved this too).
Have fun at your reunion!

What about an obstacle course? they could crawl thru a tunnel, run zig-zag thru some cones, throw a basketball thru a hoop, etc. Also, a pinata is always fun....and they have the kind where you just pull a string...you don't have to whack it with a bat...it's much safer.
Have fun!

Hi J.,

We have done a few different games for the kids at our family reunion.

They are a sawdust money hunt...get some sawdust and hide coins in it for the kids to find...it usually keeps them busy for a while.

This year we did a few new ones and they are...bubble gum in whip cream...take a paper plate, put a piece of bubble gum on it, cover it with whip cream and then the kids have to find the piece of gum with there mouth only and the first one who blows a bubble, wins. We also did donut on a string...they tied a donut to a piece of string, had help from parents to hold them and the kids had to eat the donut off the string using their mouth only and whoever ate it first was the winner. We also did a balloon popping game...tied one end of string to each child's leg and the to a balloon and the kids had to try to pop each others balloon and whoever was the last one with the balloon not popped, won.

That is all I can think of...you do the balloon toss and sack race.

Wish you the best of luck and have fun.

P.

How about freeze dance where you play music and when you shut it off they have to freeze and anyone moving is out.

Bob for apples! My cousins set this up at our reunion and the kids had a BLAST. I did it a few weeks later for my daughter's 5th bday and everybody loved it then too - even got some adults in the action. They get really wet but it's great for a hot day.

What about a simple scavenger hunt-make a list of things for the kids to find...you could pair the older kids up with some of the younger ones and they could work together.

A treasure hunt is another idea that kids of all ages like and heck, for that matter have an Easter Egg hunt but call them dinosaur eggs or something like that.

We also did a gold hunt where we hid several hundred gold painted rocks for the kids to find.

I guess you got the idea-hunts in general are popular with kids-big and little...and they are relatively easy to do.

Have fun at the reunion!

We did a dizzy bat race for our field day for elementary kids and they loved it. We also did a "fill the bucket" race. You will need two lines of children with a bucket filled with water in the front and an empty bucket in the back. Each line gets a sponge or two and they have to fill the sponge with water, pass it over their heads (the fun part) and fill the back bucket with water. The child in the back of the line would then take the sponge to the front and fill it back up with water and pass it overhead again. Our kids loved it.

There's also a hot potato game we played with a water bottle. The child that ends up with the bottle gets to squirt one or all the other kids. They also really liked that one. We had a no squirting in the face rule. Try searching the internet for field day games for more ideas.

I've also been in charge of games for kids and adults at my reunions. We've done egg toss, water balloon toss, Red Light Green Light, relay race running with egg on spoon, we've had one where we've lathered up all the men with shaving cream and paired them with a child and have the child "shave" them with a plastic spoon.......the first one who is done wins. Its always been a hit and has been family tradition for the last 40 or more years since I was a little kid "shaving" my dad. Others are Duck Duck Goose, hide and seek, Red Rover Red Rover. How about making playdough? Its easy to make and recipe can be found online, I think.

Hello, here are a few ideas that I thought of for your family reunion:

You can make homemade playdough (that will keep them busy for a while), have an egg and spoon race, a bean bag toss game (fill a ziplock baggie with rice or any small noodles and have the kids toss them into a lage coffee cans), a dunk for apples game, musical chairs, the magic ball game, if you are around pavement you can bring chalk and have them be an artist and make wonderful designs, Use the chalk and made a hop scotch, pin the tail on the donkey, or if your out shopping you can look for a parachute (I have one and I bring it out for playdate parties and holiday parties, the kids love playing with it. I think I bought mine at Target or maybe a teachers supply store. It's a smaller version that Gymboree uses).
As for a an icing recipe, I have a homemade one. Use a 2 pound bag of powder sugar, 2 cups of Criso (the white solid), and 1/4 cup of water. Mix together it will be hard at first, but I keep adding a little more water while it is in the mixer, until it's a smooth consistency-not too runny. After mixing, use as white icing or seperate and add different food coloring. When done mixing, spread on cookies or cakes. OR you can go the easy way and buy white frosting in a can and add food coloring to it. The homemade is delicious, but the Pillsbury can frosting is the easiest.
I hope you have a wonderful and funny time at your family reunion!

Jacqueline

For games, how about a tea cup race (water filled tea cups on saucers that the kids try not to spill as they race) or a homemade obstacle course. As far as icing goes, I'm sure that there are dozens of recipes out on the internet for that. I'm not much of a baker, so I don't have a good recipe for that.

I was looking for ideas myself last month and came across this website... http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/games/

Some of these games sound really fun.

It's great reading this since I'm looking for ideas for an upcoming event too.

One that is popular with our kids: you get a few balls of yarn (same size balls) - and go outside and start winding the yarn all around... around trees, under things, etc. until it runs out. Then the kids all get to go and grab and end (you will have to know where the ends are) and see who can find their partner the quickest. We have done it in some pretty funny places and sometimes wrap around a post or tree several times.

Another popular, but silly: get a bag of strange or silly clothing items. They have to pass it around to music and when the music stops, they reach in (without looking) grab something - and they have to put it on. If you have enough silly clothes, gloves, hats, boas, etc it looks pretty funny by the end.

Have fun!

At a church picnic we had a whistling contest. Every participant had to eat a cracker then whistle. The first one to whistle was the winner. Relay races with stretches where you have to crawl, walk backwards, skip, hop on one foot, etc are fun. How about hot potato or musical chairs (use carpet squares or towels as "mats" instead of chairs). Have fun!

Next year you can rent a bounce house :) http:/myspace.com/321bounce