Potatoes in a Bag

Posted on August 10, 2017 by Aunt Mo

A Delicious Idea From My Nephew, Brayden, for Your Family Reunion

Sometimes I get in a rut- I forget that some people don’t pack up and head for the mountains when they plan a family reunion or family gathering- instead they head for the BEACH! And it was to the beach we went for a fun family party with my brother and his family.

We packed up the surf boards, sunscreen and mashed potatoes- yes, MASHED POTATOES! “Potatoes in a bag” is a fun and easy tradition Uncle Brett and Aunt Lisa have implemented in their family and would be a yummy idea for your family reunion no matter what location you choose.

Most of the prep for “Potatoes in a bag” was done at home. Everyone measured 1/2 cup potato flakes in a plastic baggie and added their favorite “mix-ins” to give their bag of potatoes their own special flavor.

At the beach, Uncle Brett heated up the water in his portable heater. When the water was hot we added 1 cup to our bag of potatoes and squished it up in the bag until it was well mixed and creamy. The potatoes were delish! The beach was chilly and wet, and the hot potatoes were a welcome treat.

Directions: Mix 1/2 cup of potato flakes with 1 cup boiling water. Stir until blended. Add your favorite mix-ins: salt, dry ranch Salad dressing, dry onion soup mix, Butter Buds, dried parsley flakes, beef jerky pieces, diced cheese stick and a beef stick. For thinner potatoes, add more water; for thicker, add more flakes.

If you’ve done eggs in a bag at your family reunion I think you’ll have fun with this idea. Set out all the ingredients and mix-ins and let your family create their own delicious mashed potatoes. Your bigger eaters may want to use 1 cup of potato flakes with 2 cups of water.

Thanks, Brayden, for a delicious family reunion idea! And if you’re looking for fun beach themed ideas for your family reunion, check out our Beach family reunion for lots of fun in the sun ideas.

Beach Family Reunion

Aunt MO

NOTE: Whenever you add boiling water to your baggie, always use heavy-duty or freezer zip lock bags. Although there have been no claims of injury or illness, Ziploc® states their baggies are not intended to be used at high temperatures, so use at your own risk.

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PSYCH! A Multiplayer Game For Your Phone and… Your Family Reunion

Posted on June 11, 2017 by Aunt Mo

I recently attended my nieces wedding, luncheon and reception. Everything was beautiful and I loved being part of the festivities but like most weddings and such there is a lot of downtime for those of us who are basically spectators. During one of these downtimes my brother introduced us to a fun game you can play on your phone that involves everyone.

Image result for Psych! app

The name of the game is Psych! Choose from a variety of fun categories in which each player makes up fake answers to real trivia questions.

According to the games own description- the idea behind the game is to get together with a bunch of friends and answer ridiculous trivia questions. The catch is, the multiple choices you’re given include the correct answer as well as a bunch of incorrect answers which are provided by the other players. So, say for instance the question popped up of “Who is the Editor in Chief of TouchArcade?” “Eli Hodapp” would be in there somewhere, along with whatever else anyone playing decides to toss into the mix as possible answers.

Image result for Psych! app

Anyone who knows me will understand that, after playing a few rounds of Pysch! with my family, my “reunion” brain kicked into gear and I immediately began to think of ways to use the game at a family reunion.

Can you imagine how excited the teenagers in your family would be if you asked them to get their cellphones for a game they would be playing. Psych! is a clever way to get family members that just can’t seem set their cellphones down to join in a game or activity to participate with the group.

Psych! is also a pretty fun way to get to know family members that you see only once a year at the family reunion. Some of the game options give you a real opportunity to see into your cousin’s psyche.

“PSYCH!” is the perfect app for game night, road trips, or even waiting in line. So grab your phones, gather ‘round, and get ready for a gaming experience unlike anything you’ve ever tried!

NOTE:There’s in-game ads as well, which can be removed for $2.99. If you’re just downloading the game to play with a friend (who might have bought a ton of stuff in-game), it’s totally free.

Mashed Potato Bar

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Aunt Mo

What’s a Mashed Potato Bar?

I had never heard of a “Mashed Potato Bar” until recently when my daughter came home from a family function with her husband’s family and they had hosted a mashed potato bar. My daughter raved about how delicious and fun the mashed potato bar was.

Of course, I’ve eaten at lots of baked potato bars and for any years a potato bar was our go to meal at family gatherings but a mashed potato bar is a fun new twist to that traditional and rather over done family reunion meal.

Here’s how you put a Mashed Potato Bar together for your next family reunion or party.

Of course, the main ingredient is mashed potatoes. You can make your own (see recipe below) or you can use already prepared potatoes such as the ones Costco carries.

Image result for costco mashed potatoes

Mashed Potato Bar Toppings Ideas

Serve your potatoes in large crock pots to keep the potatoes warm and set out various toppings. I’ve listed a few of our favorites but use your imagination to customize to your needs:

Sour cream
Chopped green onions
Mushrooms
Olives
Crumbled bacon
Finely shredded cheese
Steamed broccoli
Chopped Ham
Shredded chicken
Whipped butter
Sour cream
Frozen Peas
Ranch salad dressing
Grilled zucchini and summer squash
Caramelized onions and peppers
Freshly grated Parmesan
Tomato salsa
Tomatoes
Jalapenos
Grilled tri-tip sliced thin
Onion crisps
Country Gravy (I like to stay away from gravy, it’s the obvious choice and people aren’t’ as creative if they have gravy as a choice)
Salt and pepper

The Idaho Potato Board has their own list of ingredients for a Mashed Potato Bar which you can find by clicking on the link below.

https://idahopotato.com/recipes/mashed-potato-bar

Serve on plain plates or bowls or fancy things up a bit by using goblets as your dishes. You can always find a miss-matched assortment of goblets and wine glasses at your local DI or Goodwill.

Image result for potato bar toppings

A good basic mashed potato recipe includes just a few ingredients. Note: Baking and Russet potatoes tend to be heavier and starchier than Yukon Gold potatoes.

Basic Mashed Potatoes Recipe

8 Potatoes
1/2 Cup melted butter
1 can Evaporated Milk ( I melt my butter in a bowl with the milk for creamier potatoes.
Salt
Fresh Pepper

Peel and dice potatoes and put in pot of boiling salted water. Cover and simmer until potatoes are fork tender (20-30 minutes, depending on quantity of potatoes). Remove from heat and drain.
Mash potatoes with a potato masher or a hand mixer.
Add butter and milk

While doing research for this article I found this cute Mashed Potato Bar sign on Etsy. The name of the shop that offers it for sale is the TheDoodleCoop.

Potato Bar Sign, Mashed Potatoes Sign, Make Your Own Loaded Potato Printable, Wedding Reception, Sweet Sixteen, Birthday Party, Potato Bar

TheDoodleCoop

Be sure and sign up to receive a copy of familyreunionhelper.com’s FREE reunion cookbook HERE

Mafia Themed Activities for Your Family Reunion or Party

Posted on May 26, 2017 by Aunt Mo

Let us make you an offer you can’t refuse-

When it was first suggested that we use “Mafia” as our theme for the Stewart family reunion I was a little apprehensive but after three days of Mafia activities over Labor Day I’ve decided that “Mafia” is just another word for “Family”. Family can also be friends, and so a Mafia theme for a reunion or party is a great idea. Included in this party pack are invitations and activities for a party or reunion for either your friends or your family.

You will have fun creating Mafia names for your guests using the list of names and name tags included in this party theme package.

Guests can also fill out an application to join the Mafia using the “Complete Mafia Dictionary” to decipher Mafia lingo.

Test your Mafia IQ to see if you should be “The Boss” or “Knuckles”.

If you are having an indoor party consider playing the party game, “Mafia”. The game of Mafia is all about the power of bluffing and knowing when other people are bluffing themselves. You can be a member of the Mafia, a towns person, the FBI or the Moderator in this elimination and guessing game. You will vote out other players and try to avoid being murdered in the middle of the night by the Mafia!

If you planning an outside party play “Steal the Flag” using marshmallow shooters. Instructions for making custom shooters are included.

Mafia Party

Printables include invitations, The “Complete Mafia Dictionary”, Mafia Application, Mafia funny money, Mafia IQ test, water bottle labels, Mafia name tags and playing cards for the game, Mafia.

Cosa Nostran (This thing is ours!)

Mafia reunion or family party

Storing Your Reunion Photos

Posted on May 16, 2017 by Aunt Mo

Where to Store Your Family Reunion Photos?

There’s no doubt about it, organizing a family reunion is the hard part. We drift apart over time because of studies, work, marriage, or just drift. Some families are closer than others. It’s even more so for cousins or between generations. When you have the family reunion worked out and you are going to meet, it’s natural to think of photos and videos of the event, but what do you do with them? How do you share them?

Technology now makes it easier to not only find lost or distant family members and to trace our family histories, but to also store and share photos and videos. By creating a single cloud account, families can let everyone have access to them – they can download other people’s photographs or upload their own. These can be from the reunion or from their lives and those from the past.

The question is then which cloud service is best. A good cloud storage service for families is low cost, preferably free, but is also secure. It should be encrypted so to protect users but be accessible from any device where the user knows the login details. To find out more about these services and what to look out for, check out this piece on the top 3 family friendly cloud services.

Family Reunion Bingo

Posted on April 16, 2017 by Aunt Mo

Family reunion bingo is a great ice breaker activity for family reunions or parties of any kind. I created a family reunion bingo card several years ago that we have used over and over again. I recently received a request to create some variations to the original game and mix things ups a bit. The competed Bingo game cards are below and ready for you to play.

Family Reunion BINGO- the Basic Game

Give family members a BINGO card and a pencil and allow a few minutes for your family members to mingle as they get signatures in the bingo squares that apply to them. You can only use a person’s signature once on your bingo sheet. The game can end at this point with prizes for everyone that completely fills up their BINGO card or you can take the game a step further.

Family Reunion BINGO Variation

Write everyone’s name on a piece of paper and put it in a hat. Pull a name out of the hat one at a time and read it out loud. If a person has that name on their sheet they can put an X on that square. If they don’t have that name they do nothing. Keep drawing names from the hat until someone get a BINGO by competing a row, column, or diagonal with X’s.

I have created 5 variations of my original BINGO card that you can download and print by clicking on the file below.

Find Someone BINGO.pdf

Whether the Weather

Posted on March 19, 2017 by Aunt Mo

Predicting the weather for your next family reunion- yes, there is a tool to help!

A couple of months ago I was directed to a website that promised to provide free long range weather forecasts to help with planning outdoor activities. I was excited to think there was a website like this, because, if you’ve ever been in charge of an outdoor family reunion or gathering of some sort, you know the most difficult thing to predict is the WEATHER!

Since my first visit to their website I have used their information at weathertab.com when planning several family functions and each time their predictions turned out to be accurate. About a year ago, I used the weathertab website to get an idea but how weather would be for our family reunion/vacation (12 months in the future) would be in sunny southern California. They predicted that the weather on the dates we would be in California, it would rain for 3 days and they were right- it rained 3 of the days we were at Disneyland. (Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing- no crowds and no waiting in line.)

The http://www.weathertab.com/ website doesn’t guarantee that their information is 100 percent accurate but their research and science does give you a bit of an advantage when trying to choose a date for your family reunion and they do say that their forecasts “start where others stop”.

The weathertab.com site can show you the predicted weather for 1 day to 18 months in advance, it is always free and requires no subscription or registration.

I put the weathertab.com site to the test when planning my husband’s 60th birthday party. I choose to have his celebration a day earlier because there was only a 13% chance of rain on that day instead of his actual birthday when there was a 39% chance of rain.

I felt lucky when we had a wonderfully sunny, no rain, party on his special day. I’m excited to use the site when planning next years family reunion. Check out http://www.weathertab.com/ when planning your reunion too and see if WeatherTAB’s long range weather forecast can help you find a reunion day with a lower chance of rain too.

The cute graphics in this blog have been purchased from Kimberly Stewart, Scrapbook-elements.com

Bead Geckos- A Family Reunion Ice Breaker

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Aunt Mo

An effective way to jumpstart your family reunion is with an activity that family members can participate in independently when they arrive at the reunion and are settling in. There is that awkward time when family arrives at the reunion and everyone is getting reacquainted. Experience has proven that if there is a low key activity planned it will encourage family members to mingle and get comfortable with each other again. A pre reunion activity also keeps younger family members busy and engaged while their parents are visiting and settled in.

Bead lizards or Geckos are the perfect solution. Collect a supply of different colored pony beads and some satin cording and let your family create their own Geckos.

What you’ll need for each lizard-

2 yards satin cording of your choice
1 metal keychain or lanyard hook
27 colored (shown as green in the above diagram) pony beads
21 colored (shown as orange in the above diagram) pony beads
2 black pony beads for eyes

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I really recommend watching the following video to get some great instructions for making your bead Gecko. The great thing is, if you download the video to your tablet, the video will be available to your guests and you won’t spend so much time trying to give instructions as you’re registering your family members and getting them situated- they’ll be able to watch the video! The video lasts less than 2 minutes and it’s actually quite entertaining.

https://youtu.be/PI5Gxihkyes

You can find more ice breaker ideas by following the link below

http://familyreunionhelper.com/blog/2010/03/really-cool-ice-breaker-games/

Superhero Reunion Theme

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Aunt Mo

Family Reunion Helper proudly announces the completion of their latest family reunion theme- Superhero!

Now you can bring all the action-packed adventure and excitement of your favorite superheroes to your family reunion!

A superhero reunion will appeal to family members of all ages. Superheroes have unique skills, wear awesome costumes and save the world on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis.

A superhero family reunion lends itself to action-packed games, superhero training and fun activities.

This reunion theme package includes a fun printable reunion invitation, secret super power cards, water bottle labels, superhero training cards, “what’s my super power?” activity, Kapow!, Boom! and Zap! signs and fun printables for napkin rings and table decorations.

Our superhero reunion is jam packed with more than 35 pages of ideas for many of your favorite superheroes: Batman, Spider-man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Iron-man, Flash, Hawk-eye and even Aqua-man.

With the Superhero reunion theme your family will want to save helpless citizens, fight the forces of darkness and defeat the evil villains. Plan a superhero reunion and let your families’ powers shine. Whether they’re saving the planet or saving your family, a superhero family reunion or party will be a memorable reunion for anyone who has ever yearned to make right what’s wrong in the world.

You can find the superhero reunion theme at Family Reunion Helper.com and by clicking on the link below.

Piñatas- a Smashing Good Time!

Posted on March 5, 2017 by Aunt Mo

Piñatas are a fun activity for birthdays, celebrations and family reunions and because they’re made with paper Mache paste and newspaper strips they’re inexpensive to make though can be expensive to fill. You can make your own piñata or buy one in any shape or design that will add to your party’s theme.

Traditionally, to play the piñata game,you blindfold the first child in line and turn them around three times, and give them a wooden stick so they can swing at and if lucky, hit the piñata.

Piñata Fun with Dice

At a recent family reunion we did a fun variation of smashing the piñata by using a large dice made from a square box. Each child rolled the “dice” to determine how many swings with a stick they would have at the piñata. If they roll a four they try to hit the piñata 4 times.

HINT: When planning to use a piñata as one of your activities be sure to have a plan for how you will hang it up- tree, a beam if inside or 2 adults could hold a rope or a pole with the piñata hanging in the middle. For safety’s sake keep everyone away from the person swinging at the piñata.

Pull Piñatas

”Pull” piñatas are perfect for small children or for times when sticks may not be appropriate. Fill them with treats as you would a classic piñata and instead of hitting it with a stick just choose a ribbon and pull to release the trapdoor and the treats.

Image result for pull pinatas

Piñata Cakes

One of the most clever ideas I’ve seen on Pinterest recently is a piñata cake. No smashing involved with this piñata but you will find plenty of treats inside. Below are some quick instructions but for more detailed information click on the photo below- they’re the real experts.

A piñata cake is simple to make- just make a 3 layer, round cake. Leave two of the layers intact for the top and the bottom. Frost the bottom layer.

For the third layer, the middle layer, cut the center out and place the remaining ring on top of the bottom layer. Fill the center of the cake with small, unwrapped candies such as M and M’s or Skittles. Make sure you fill the cavity to the top with candy. Frost this layer then top with the remaining cake layer.

Frost and decorate the cake as desired.

Human Piñata

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to read about “HUMAN” piñatas. Just follow the link below to read about all the crazy fun!

Family Reunion Helper

Your number one source for family reunion organization

Category Archives: Party Ideas