Pick Your Present!

My New Favorite Way to Give Gifts

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I have 2 sons and a son in law and this year I tried something new for their Fathers Day gifts- I let them pick their own gifts.  Well, not totally, I put together 3 boxes and after the boxes were  filled with surprises and wrapped, then they got to pick their gift.

Each box was different- I had a technology box, builder box and a snack box. Each box contained a gift card and then a couple of things to go along with it.  Value of each box was about $30.00.

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I wrapped all three gifts in plain old newspaper- nothing fancy about it and with no clue to what was inside.

Crafty Holiday Gift Wrap - Craft Critique

We had a little competition to see who got to choose their  present first but you could do it oldest to youngest or by roll of the dice etc.

The $20.00 Bill

Just as the guys were about to pick their  present, my husband put a $20.00 bill on the table and gave them the option to chose the cash instead of a box.  There were no takers- everyone went for the boxes.

This is also a fun way to give out  prizes at family reunions. Just wrap a variety of prizes and let the winner  pick the prize they want from the pile- they get a prize but it’s a little more exciting and  extends the fun a little longer. 

Bottle Rockets- an “Out of This World” Reunion Activity

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When I decided on a space theme for our 2020 family reunion, there were two activities I was sure I wanted to do.  The first was moon stilts (I’ll write that bog when  I get some good photos) and the second, was water  bottle rockets.

Our family has a big party every Independence Day and one our traditions is making and launching water bottle rockets.  We invite all of our guests to make a water bottle rocket and bring it to the party but,  for our  reunion, I’ll  bring the supplies, poster  board, duct tape, markers and bottles and let reunion  goers make their rockets on site.

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Basically, to build a bottle rocket, you start by rolling a piece of paper into a cone shape and attach it to the bottom of an empty 1 or 2 liter plastic bottle.  To help your rocket fly, you need to cut out 4 cardboard triangles to make your rocket fins. (There are lots of videos  on YouTube to walk you through  this process.)

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At our Independence Day party, our seasoned rocket builders come up with some pretty creative designs for their rockets .  Most add parachutes  to soften the landing and some even include small,  plastic toys that they send into  space.  No  matter what the design, spectators love to watch the rockets blast off and their landings can be quite exciting.

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For safety reasons, we  only let adults operate the launcher.  We have a homemade launcher and  one  we  purchased from Amazon.  Both work great but, keep in mind when planning your reunion, that you need to have a water source and hose available to fill the rockets with  water.

AquaPod Bottle Launcher

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At our reunion this year, we will give  prizes for best design, most unusual design and most creative design.  We will also give an award to the  rocket that stays in  the air the longest which we will determine by timing with  a stopwatch on our phones.  At our Independence Day parties, that award  has been won by my son in law for the last 4 years.  He’s a very talented engineer and his rocket designs are quite impressive and fun to watch.

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Rocket creative award

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How to Light Up Your Family Reunion

Or… how to say reunion thank yous with candy light bulbs

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My son is an electrician and for his birthday my daughter came up with these cute light bulb favors for everyone that came to his party.  It was  the perfect idea for an electrician’s birthday but I couldn’t help but think about how to use these bulbs for a family reunion.

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We purchased our  “light bulbs” from Amazon.  Follow this link- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X66WJBI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1They are about a dollar a piece.  We filled them with Skittles candies.  It was kind of a pain separating the candy into different colors but it looked cute when we were done.  I liked how the yellow ones looked best so if I ever did this again I would probably fill them  with Lemonhead candies.

Although I haven’t used this idea for a family reunion, though I will, here are some ideas I came up with:

If you have a contest and want to give a prize to the person that gets the most answers correct, you could say, “You’re the BRIGHTEST bulb in the box”.

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To say thank you-

Thanks for sharing your BRIGHT ideas. 

Thanks for being a LIGHT to our family.

You LIGHT up my life! Thanks for all your help with our family reunion.

Thanks for making our family reunion BRIGHTER

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Encouragement-

Be BRIGHT share your LIGHT

You’re future is looking BRIGHT

Let your LIGHT so SHINE

I’m sure there’s a lot of ideas out there- if you have one you’d like to share, please comment and let us know.  SHINE on!

Family Reunion Helper Is Having a Sale!

We’re celebrating the surviving the family reunion season off by offering 20% off our reunion theme packages.vista

Yay, we did it! The “official” family reunion season has come to an end and we survived!  To celebrate, FAMILY REUNION HELPER IS HAVING A SALE IN THEIR ETSY SHOP! Follow the link below to receive 20% off any reunion theme package.This even includes the wildly popular Family Reunion Brag Badges! But hurry, sale ends September 15th, 2020 .

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FamilyReunionHelper…

Five Things Reunion Planners Should Stop Doing Now

Aunt Mo shares her reunion  planning advise with  Reunion Workbook magazine readers.

Family Reunion Helper is proud to partner with Reunions Workbook magazine to bring you, “Five Thing Reunion Planners Should Stop Doing Now”. http://reunionsworkbook.com/five-things-reunion-planners-should-stop-doing-now/

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What is a Reunion Theme Package?

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At Familyreunionhelper.com we sell reunion  theme  packages.  What’s a theme package you ask?  Most of our digital downloads include 45 or more pages of invitations, name tags, water bottle labels, games,activities, templates and printables that compliment the theme you have chosen.

The following is an  example of a name tag from our Heritage Reunion.

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This cute invitation is from our Circus reunion.  Just print it off and then fill  in the blanks with  your personalized reunion information.

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Our Caveman reunion invitation is sure to get the kids excited about attending all the prehistoric fun.

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Water bottle labels are a wonderful  way to address your reunion theme and if everyone writes their name on the label, bottles don’t get mixed up or lost as easily.

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Our theme packages also include pages and pages or games and activities that go along with the theme you’ve chosen.  You can spend hours searching the web for your ideas but these have been tried and tested and we know they work.  Here’s a page from our Superhero reunion.

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Our reunion  theme packages include tons of extras like these certificates from  our Medieval Reunion and printable signs from our “No Place Like Home”, Oz inspired reunion.

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Each of our reunion theme packages includes printable games and puzzles that go along with your theme. Like this  Valentine’s game that is part of our “Home for the Holidays” reunion.

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Our reunion  themes also include food ideas that compliment your theme.  Check out this recipe for “Parrot” (tastes a lot like chicken”)- it serves 100.

Barbeque Captain’s “Parrot”

Serves 100.

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2 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 ounces dehydrated onions
7 pounds 3 ounces catsup
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 pound 8 ounces brown sugar, packed
48 pounds chicken, cut-up

For barbecue sauce: Simmer chicken stock and onions over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add catsup, garlic powder, and brown sugar. Simmer 15-20 minutes, stirring frequently. Set aside.

Rinse chicken in cold water. Drain well. Arrange 25 pieces of chicken on each sheet pan (18 x 26 x 1 inch). Brush 3/4 to 1 quart of barbecue sauce over chicken in each pan. Bake uncovered until tender, checking frequently. Cook in conventional oven at 425 degrees F for 45 minutes.

Many of our themes have printable food tents like our Western  Reunion food tent featured here.

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We’ve tried to think  of everything we could to make your reunion planning  easier and  less stressful.  Check out Family Reunion  Helper.com today and choose the reunion  theme package that best suites your family.  You can be sure that each package is jammed packed of ideas, game, activities and printables to get your creative juices flowing. Click on our logo below and follow the link.

FamilyReunionHelper

Candy Bar Game

How well do you know your chocolate bars?

How well do you know your chocolate candy bar game

Whether you are in  charge of planning a  party for family, friends,  co-workers or you church, here’s a fun printable with a twist.   Instead of identifying candy bars by their name or wrapper you try and recognize your favorite bars by how they look on the inside. You can download a printable copy of the game below.

Answer Key

  1. Snickers
  2. Butterfinger
  3. Baby Ruth
  4. Milky Way
  5. PayDay
  6. Whatchamacallit
  7. 3 Musketeers
  8. 5th Avenue
  9. Almond Joy
  10. 100 Grand

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Although the candy bar game printable is lots of fun you can take your party to a whole new level by letting you guest actually EAT the candy bars. 
 
Divide the group into teams. In advance,  cut several well known  candy  bars into bite sized pieces. The object of this candy bar game is for the blindfolded person to guess the name of the candy bar by taste alone. No peeking and no hints allowed!  Each player only gets one guess so give them a little time to come up with the correct answer.  If the blindfolded player guesses the candy bar correctly, their team gets a point. The team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner. And what do you give as  prizes- why candy bars!

Black Friday-ish Family Reunion Sale

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Never happened before and may never happen again- it’s a family reunion “Black Friday” sale! This year Family Reunion Helper is giving you a jump start on your 2018 family reunion. Buy one family reunion and get one family reunion theme package for free.

Purchase any of our family reunion theme packages through our website store- www.familyreunionhelper.com. When your purchase is complete send an email to auntmo@familyreunionhelper.com with the name of the reunion theme you’d like for FREE and Aunt Mo will email your free reunion theme package to you within 24 hours.

This offer is good today through midnight (mst) November 25, 2017.

Family Thanksgiving Turkey Trot

Start a new Thanksgiving tradition this year with a family 5K.

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I ran  into an  awesome young man at our local 5K fun run in July.  It was his Turkey Trot  shirt that caught my eye and I had a fun time talking to him about this fun family tradition.

Every Thanksgiving, this family hosts a 5K race for all visiting family members and friends. All that want to  participate, bring their running or walking shoes and burn off all those weighty Thanksgiving dinner calories before the turkey even comes  out of the oven.

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What a fun idea to have t-shirts made for the big race- a fun memento of a fun day.  I love any activity that gets family members up off their seats and moving and a family turkey trot certainly does that whether you trot or waddle across the finish line.

A Question of 3’s

A printable version of the Tribond game

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One of our local radio stations is having a contest.  They give you three words and you have to to figure out what the three words have in common.  The example I heard on the radio was- Penny, Ford Motor Company, Nebraska.  I was pretty excited when I  figured it out. (Too bad I was driving and couldn’t call the station to win my prize.) 

It did give me an idea of a printable game I could share on familyreunionhelper.com and after doing some research, came up with the  printable game that I call “A Question of 3’s”  All you need is a copy of the  game  for each player which you can find below and a pencil. Oh, and the answer to the puzzle I heard on the radio- they are all Lincolns.

Answers

1. All are tables
2. All are worms
3. All have rings
4. All are cracked
5. All have whites
6. Types of berries
7. All have holes
8. All have Lincolns
9. All are pitched
10. Types of boards
11. Types of poles
12. Types of tellers
13. All have shells
14. All can be carved
15. Types of winds
16. All have capes
17. Types of mail
18. Can be tuned
19. Make deliveries
20. All have pockets