Ideas for outdoor games for b-day party!

[Celia]

I was just thinking about games to plan for my son's b-day party this Saturday, and thought I'd ask here if anyone had some that were sure-fire winners!

 

My son is 6, and I need games to amuse 10 kids from ages 3-7 for about an hour. (due to how many friends he wanted to invite, I'm keeping the party SHORT! An hour for games, and an hour for cake and presents.)

 

So far we're having a treasure hunt, a fishing game, and water balloon catch.

 

Any suggestions?

[NanceXToo]

Musical chairs, scavenger hunt, one of those carry an egg without breaking it games, simon says, keeping a ball in the air without letting it hit the ground, a pinata, wheelbarrow races, tug of war, 3 legged or potato sack races, etc. Hope your son has a great birthday :)

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

My ds had a Power Ranger outdoor party last year, and one of the things they liked best was having fake sword fights with pool noodles.

[Laura Corin]

Egg and spoon race. Three-legged race. Sack race.

 

Laura

[Heather in AL]

One game that my kids like (even as teens) is one that has the potential to get pretty wet.

 

It's a 'fill the bucket' kind of game:

 

*Divide the kids into teams and try to have them stand in lines :D (you decide based on ages/numbers--- balance the teams with age varieties).

 

*For each team, fill a large bucket with water~~this will be the 'starting point' for each team. At a fair distance (allow for a bit of running, if you can), place an empty bucket for each team---these buckets need to be the same size for each team--this is important.

 

*Give each team a small bucket (has to fit on the head--- a beach bucket works---they do hold it there while walking/running, but you don't want it too big or the game will be over too quickly, and if it's too big, it will be too heavy for the littles). The kids can just hold the bucket in front of them, too, if you have a lot of littles, or make anyone over the age of XX put the bucket on their heads to compensate for the littles, etc.

 

*Say "go" or blow a whistle.... each team has to dunk their beach bucket and fill it with water from their starting bucket, place the full bucket on their head and hold it there while racing to their 'end bucket'. They dump the water in that end bucket and run back, handing the beach bucket to the person next in line, where it it now the next person's turn to 'fill and go'.

 

**The goal is to be the first team to fill their end bucket. As the excitement builds, the kids tend to run to their end bucket spilling water everywhere, so the potential for very wet kids is high.

 

An alternative to this game that the kids also enjoy when it's *really* hot is to nix the beach bucket and use giant car washing sponges.... the sponges rest on the heads instead of the bucket, and water spills all over the place, and the kids have to wring out whatever is left into their end buckets. This one is guaranteed to get them soaked!

 

If you find that you are pressed for time, or just want a 'guaranteed end' to the game, announce the winner will be the one who fills their bucket first OR who has the most water in the bucket after XX time.

 

For the group we play this with, we find that the hotter the day, the wetter they 'choose' to get, and the more fun they have.

 

Have fun! :001_smile:

[Laura Corin]

One game that my kids like (even as teens) is one that has the potential to get pretty wet.

 

It's a 'fill the bucket' kind of game:

 

*Divide the kids into teams and try to have them stand in lines :D (you decide based on ages/numbers--- balance the teams with age varieties).

 

*For each team, fill a large bucket with water~~this will be the 'starting point' for each team. At a fair distance (allow for a bit of running, if you can), place an empty bucket for each team---these buckets need to be the same size for each team--this is important.

 

*Give each team a small bucket (has to fit on the head--- a beach bucket works---they do hold it there while walking/running, but you don't want it too big or the game will be over too quickly, and if it's too big, it will be too heavy for the littles). The kids can just hold the bucket in front of them, too, if you have a lot of littles, or make anyone over the age of XX put the bucket on their heads to compensate for the littles, etc.

 

*Say "go" or blow a whistle.... each team has to dunk their beach bucket and fill it with water from their starting bucket, place the full bucket on their head and hold it there while racing to their 'end bucket'. They dump the water in that end bucket and run back, handing the beach bucket to the person next in line, where it it now the next person's turn to 'fill and go'.

 

**The goal is to be the first team to fill their end bucket. As the excitement builds, the kids tend to run to their end bucket spilling water everywhere, so the potential for very wet kids is high.

 

An alternative to this game that the kids also enjoy when it's *really* hot is to nix the beach bucket and use giant car washing sponges.... the sponges rest on the heads instead of the bucket, and water spills all over the place, and the kids have to wring out whatever is left into their end buckets. This one is guaranteed to get them soaked!

 

If you find that you are pressed for time, or just want a 'guaranteed end' to the game, announce the winner will be the one who fills their bucket first OR who has the most water in the bucket after XX time.

 

For the group we play this with, we find that the hotter the day, the wetter they 'choose' to get, and the more fun they have.

 

Have fun! :001_smile:

 

Hobbes' birthday party is on Saturday - we'll play this if the weather is hot.

 

Laura

[Heather in AL]

I just remembered one that we did for my ds' 6th birthday (I made sure everyone knew to wear swimsuits)....

 

We set up an 'obstacle course' that included a variety of simple tasks (so the littles couldn't get hurt) like 'run around the soccer cones', stand in the hula hoop (it was laying on the ground) and spin around three times'... just goofy things like that, and we had a few sprinkler toys (a flower that sprayed water, etc) set up that they had to run through and a kiddie pool for them to get wet in. They all loved it and I didn't even have to do any other games. They all had fun just running around and getting wet.

 

The age range was 3-9.

[Hockey Mom]

In addition to the games, maybe rent a bouncehouse?

 

We did a carnival theme for my DS when he turned 5. I bought a few cheap games from Oriental Trading, and had prizes. Some things we did were:

 

- buy a small pool and some plastic ducks. Put numbers on the bottom of the ducks. Assign prizes based on the numbers

 

- Gumball guess. Fill a jar full of gumballs. Whoever guesses the closest amount gets to keep the jar of gumballs.

 

- Fill a 10-gallon tank with water. Place 3 glasses inside the tank. Let the kids drop pennies into the glasses. Whoever gets a penny in the glass gets a prize.

 

- Beanbag toss.

 

- Pie-eating contest. I bought those little pie crusts at the store, sprayed whipped cream into them, and sprinkled them with sprinkles and a cherry. The children had to put their arms behind them and use only their mouths. Whoever won the contest got a prize.

 

- Face painting. We "hired" our teen daughter to paint faces. The kids LOVED that one.

 

That's all I can remember for now. I can tell you that people still talk about that party. It was one of our best parties yet, and we had a HUGE age range.

[kewb]

We do an assortment of water games for my dd's birthday:

 

Sponge tag - Cut up a bunch of those giant car sponges and the kids have a blast tagging each other with them until they are soaked through.

 

Water Balloon Toss - I create groups of 3 or 4 kids and they stand in a circle. They toss the water balloon to each other and when a round is completed everyone takes one step back. The circle keeps widening until someone misses the balloon and *splat*. The group who does not break their balloon wins.

 

Water Balloon Fight - Spend hours filling water balloons for 3 minutes of fun. My kids really like filling water balloons. I find the fun does not last that long and they really don't like having to clean up all those bits of water balloons. We replaced this with the sponge tag.

 

We also do the fill the bucket one that a pp poster mentioned.

 

Water fight - I go to the dollar store and buy a bunch of those foam soaker pump things and let the kids soak each other down.