Summer Party Ideas

When all of my cousins would get together we would have puzzle races! Grandma had a nice collection of wooden puzzles and you dump them all in a pile and then sit in a circle around the pile of puzzle pieces and then race to see who can finish the most puzzles--Oh, that was so fun! I should do this w/my kids:)

Tug-A-War? What about a pie eating contest? Limbo? Some form of "Fear Factor"... we did this when the show was popular for our oldest kids, it was hilarious!

Sounds like a great idea. I am sure you will get lots of better ideas on here...some of us mommies are so darn creative:)

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One game that is a lot of fun for everyone from babies all the way up to Grandparents and ages in between. Have the guests form 2 lines. Have one bucket in the front of each line and one at the end. Give everyone a paper cup. The first person scoops up some water from the bucket and pours it in the next person's cup and the next one pours it in the next one's cup until it gets to the bucket at the end. This is especially fun if its a hot day. It is cheap and provides a lot of laughter and fun. So you'll need 4 pails filled with water and as many cups as guests that want to participate.
It was always a hit at our family picnics.

Red Rover Red Rover - for the older ones at night

Hula Hoop Contest set to music (this could be a party favor too... dollar store will have them soon)

Musical Chairs, I rocked at mc, I must have cheated somehow!

Balloon Burst - Trying to sit on the balloon to pop it first, I think there used to be some sort of relay first to make it longer? I just remember the anticipation of popping it under my hiney with shorts on... always thinking it was going to snap my legs. Funny how things stick with you.
--- JUST remembered, the person bringing the "popper" of the balloon had to walk with the balloon between their knees to bring it to them. If they dropped it, they had to go back to the start line.

Good old fashioned game of "Telephone" - easy for the little ones.

Red light Green Light / Simon Says

Balloon Soccer - HARD

Your party sounds AWESOME! I'm a midwest girl myself and our parties were always like this. Now I've fallen into the trap of being over produced and over budget! I want to come to YOURS!

- C. J

Candy races - get 2 bowls of skittles, marshmellows, etc. 2 large bowls, everyone gets a spoon. 2 teams. Each person on the team scoops up some candy and races/weaves through cones to the other end where they dump the candy into a waiting bowl. Each person goes 2x.

TP Wrap - 2 teams. 2 seated people. 2 rolls of toilet paper. Each team races to wrap their seated person. Whichever team runs out of tp first wins.

Instead of bobbing for apples, we do a Donut grab.. You hang donuts from strings just high enough that the kids have to stand on tippy toes to grab the donut with their mouths.. Pretty funny..

You can place prizes at the bottom of a kiddie pool, filed with Styrofoam peanuts.. Allow them to "find" one prize.. Or at our school carnival we place cards with a different number on each card at the bottom of the pool and the kids get the prize that matches the number..

Pringles toss. Place cans of Pringles in a line. If the hoop lands around the can, the child wins a prize..

Do an egg toss. Pair up and have each pair throw an egg to each other. Make them step one foot back for each throw.. If the egg drops, that team is out.

Do a giant shoe pile.. Have everybody take off both shoes and place them in a pile, mix them all up. Blow a whistle and the fist person to find and put on their shoes wins.

Hula hoops, see who can hoola hoop the longest..

Tug of War (Be careful though! TOG can be pretty rough. I'd have two separate games; one for big kids and lanother for ittle kids to prevent rope burns, sprains and related serious injuries), potato sack race, egg in a spoon relay race, pushing peanuts or eggs with your nose relay race, horse shoes, croquet, volleyball, badmitton, obstacle course, scavenger hunt (items to look for could be common things found outdoor like a certain kind of rock, a variety of leaf, a feather, a bird nest, ant hill). Red Rover, blind man's bluff, charades, make art using cut up potatoes or other hard fruits and veggies as stampers and tempera paint. For the very young you could have a "diaper derby" where they can crawl or toddle to the finish line.

You could buy a few rain gutters and pcp pipe from an hardware store and create a "water-run" by placing a hose at the beginning of the run. The kids can make paper boats (like origami) and see whose boat gets to the end of the run first.

Sounds like you want it to be a "camp" type event. Find a copy of the American Boy Handy Guide for good activities along this vein of thought. Here's a link; http://www.amazon.com/American-Boys-Handy-Book/dp/0804839...

Suitcase races........suitcases w/ articles of clothing. Each suitcase must contain the same THINGS...i.e. hat, shirt, jacket, pants, etc. One child runs to the suitcase. Once the child is there, the next child runs down and puts ONE article of clothing on the child at the suitcase, runs back, the next child goes, puts another article of clothing on the child, etc. until all articles of clothing are on the child. Putting clothing on the HEAD does not count. It must bon around the torso if it's a shirt, etc. If you have 16 kids, have 4 teams and three articles of clothing in each suitcase. OR.....have four articles and the LAST article of clothing is put on by the child being dressed and runs back to the start line. Fun w/ adults too!!

Balloon pop..........each child has a blown up balloon on a piece of string. EVERY string needs to be the same length and must be tied the same length (or at least close to it). When someone says, "GO" everyone hops around trying to break each other's balloon. The last one standing w/ an unpopped balloon wins. (Might get a few criers if they get their balloon popped if you include the 2 & 3 year olds) I don't necessarily think you need to do the same games for all ages.

Hula hoop races........one child runs inside a hula hoop to a designated spot and back. Picks up another child IN the hula hoop and they both run to the spot and back, pick up a third, etc. until all on the team are in the hoop and come back to the start line. Might NOT want the 2 year olds in this one. honestly, 2 year olds aren't into playing games like you are when you get older. I'd have LOTS & LOTS & LOTS of bubbles!!! Cheap, too.

Have a contest to see which team can blow the most bubbles. Obviously, you can't count them but who cares. They'll have fun doing it.

I just want to congratulate you for providing good, clean fun for kids. What a great example to other parents!! =)

Fashion shows are always fun and fuuny :) at church we had a backwards day and we had to do everything backwards it keep all the kids into it.
But.. some games are... you take a picture of the back of heads and they have to guess whos head it is.
cake or cookie walk and when you win you give your cookie to someone else
limbo hide and go seek twister if you need anymore help im hear
good luck

For my sons birthday party last year we did sand bottle art. He had about 20 kids at the party. For the sand I bought salt at BJ's and colored it with food coloring. Just mix it in a ziplock bag then put the colored salt in a tupperware container. The disposable ziplock or store brand disposable food storage containers work. For the bottles we used small water bottles. Different brands like Poland Springs or Wal-Mart will give you different shaped bottles. We bought small funnels at Wal-Mart from the craft department to get the salt into the bottles with a plastic spoon in the container. To close them we packed them down then put a cotton ball under the cover to make it tight and not shift the salt around. Then we used a bit of super glue under the cap to make it stick.
Everyone loved the craft and it cost less than $20 to do.