Olympic Themed Family Reunion

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Aunt Mo

“OWN THE PODIUM!” An Olympic Inspired Family Reunion or Party

There are few times that the world comes together to celebrate, cheer and honor its people – the Olympics is one of those occasions. This global event has the power to unify the world and inspire peace for a moment in time. To celebrate this extraordinary event and its athletes in your own corner of the world, host an Olympic Family Reunion! Everyone can be a gold medal athlete at your Family Reunion Olympic Games. No training is required; all you need is the desire to have a good time. Enjoy classic Winter and Summer events plus amusing twists in “Silly Olympic”contests. This Olympic reunion includes more than 40 pages of tips, tricks and shortcuts for “Owning the Podium” at your next Olympic games.

Purchase this Olympic theme at
http://familyreunionhelper.com/products/products.php?ProductID=8

http://familyreunionhelper.com/products/products.php?ProductID=8

M & M or Skittle Ice Breaker Game

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Aunt Mo

Getting to Know You Game

Take a bag of M&M’s or Skittles candy and tell everyone to grab a handful…or specify a number (I prefer this if you have a large group so it doesn’t take so long- I suggest each family member take 4 or 5 candies) You might also choose to split up in smaller groups such as children under 12, 12 and over, young adults etc. if you have a larger group such as a family reunion.

Assign a different meaning to each color, blue= family, green=hobbies, yellow=animals, brown= work or school etc. Participants must tell one thing about themselves for how many candies they have in their hands using the colors as their guide. They may also eat them as they share their information. (“Blue…I have two sisters.”, then eats the candy. “Yellow…I have a dog named Kodi.”, and eats the candy etc.) If you have two or more of the same color you have to tell one thing per candy regardless the color.

This is a good ice breaker because you can play it as soon as your party is supposed to start and those that come a little late can participate when they arrive.

A slight variation to the game is have participates tell things that make them, happy, sad, angry, excited or afraid.

The Ultimate Guide to Treasure Hunts and Scavenger Hunts

Posted on April 21, 2016 by Aunt Mo

Scavenger hunts can be a fun addition to any family reunion or party. We’ve included several fun scavenger ideas in this blog that can easily be personalized to your own situation. Scavenger hunts aren’t just for kids though- teenagers and young adults love scavenger hunts too.

Video Scavenger Hunt

Divide everyone into 2 or more teams. Give each team a list of video-taping scenarios such as those in the list below. Be sure each team has a way to take videos and that phones or cameras are completely charged. Most importantly, set a time limit, so that you don’t have dead time waiting for everyone to return.

Once you’ve gathered your teams, your clues and your video equipment, each team takes off in their cars or on foot and attempts to complete all of the tasks on their list. The first team to complete all tasks on the list is the winner.

Provide popcorn or other treats as you watch the videos. Consider giving prizes for the most creative videos and best actors.

Puzzle Treasure Hunt

Take a picture of where the treasure will be hidden. Cut up the picture of the location into several pieces. (The older the participants the more pieces)

Hide the pieces in a designated area. Players search for the pieces then try to assemble the puzzle to get the prize or treasure.

Sandbox Treasure Hunt

Sandbox treasure hunts are tried and true hunts. Hide pennies, nickels and quarters in sand or saw dust. Be sure and keep the sawdust and sand contained in a #10 tub, children’s pool or on a sheet of plastic.

Who’s Got the Key? Treasure Hunt

Gather as many spare keys that you can find. You will need a lot of keys so ask family members to bring their keys also. You can purchase large lots of key blanks on eBay for under $10.00. Hardware stores that make keys usually keep a bucket of reject keys that they are often happy to get rid. Buy a lock and key. Put the lock on a treasure chest or box of some sort with a hidden treasure in it. Hide all of the keys including the key that will open the lock. Everyone searches for a key, when they find a key they try it in the lock- if it doesn’t work they search for another key until someone finds the correct key and opens the treasure.

Nature Scavenger Hunt

This is a great idea for the younger children in your family. Gather 12 random things from your yard, reunion site or party location. Take pictures of the items and print on cardstock. Glue to the top of an egg carton and send them out to find the items. The egg carton provides the perfect place to store the items they find.

A more complicated version of a nature scavenger hunt is pictured below. The drawing next to each item make the hunt a little easier. This type of hunt could be used for an entire day can be a way to entertain kids when they aren’t excited about other activities that might be planned.

Digital Camera Treasure Hunt- idea 1

This is such a fun idea for a family reunion. You’ll need one digital camera or phone with camera for each team. Give each team a list of things to take pictures of. If you want to put a family history spin on this hunt, challenge teams to find:

Someone who served in a war
Oldest relative at the reunion
Youngest relative at the reunion
Relative that has won a trophy
Someone that had a rotary dial phone
Relative who came the farthest distance to the reunion
Someone who has lived out of the country
The couple that has been married the longest

You get the idea- it’s fun to really make teams talk to their older relatives to find out the information. Be sure and take a team picture with each relative.

Digital Camera Treasure Hunt- idea 2

Cousin Bobbie planned a digital camera hunt as part of our Thanksgiving fun a few years ago. We had to find as many things on our list as possible, take a picture of them and return back to the meeting area and determine the winner. We had to find things like a scarecrow, pumpkin, cat, turkey and Christmas lights.

“I Spy” Scavenger Hunt for Weddings and Receptions

Provide a list of “I Spy” photo opportunities and a disposable camera on each table. As guest eat their refreshments they can look for the list and snap a picture. These photos will give the bride and groom a different perspective of the wedding festivities. A printable list such as the one below is available on Etsy.

Scavenger Hunt Clues Using Pictures

Take a picture of the location of a hidden clue but only take a portion of the picture. In the example below you can see that just a portion of the word is shown. You could do part of a clock, drinking fountain, corner of tent, a car wheel with interesting rims etc. When the hunters figure out what the clue is a picture of they run to that location to get their next picture clue and so on until they find the treasure. This does take some advance planning but makes for fun hunt for even the very young that may not be good readers.

Secret Codes Hunt

Writing secret codes is another way to generate clues. Using numbers in place of letters is an easy way to create the code (1=a, 2=b, etc.), but using a backwards letter code can make things a little extra challenging. Decipher the clue to find out where to look for their next clue.

Urban Race Scavenger Hunt

As a Youth Council advisor for our town, I had the fun opportunity to participate in a Great Urban Race at Utah State University. The teenagers learned a lot about the university by unscrambling clues and completing challenges to complete the race. The kids loved it and I couldn’t help but think what a fun activity it could be for a family reunion, especially if you held your reunion in a town that your family had ties to.

Urban Race is the team race that’s part photo hunt and part trivia. Teams must solve clues to find checkpoints throughout the city. To move on they must take photos or perform certain tasks to earn points such as collecting:

A restaurant napkin
A get a take-out menu from a Chinese restaurant
A disposable toilet seat cover
A stranger’s autograph
A coupon
A copy of the front page of the local newspaper
A change of address card from the post-office

The fun part of an urban race is that the use of cellphones is okay. Teams may call family members left back at the reunion site to get help with difficult trivia. Everyone gets a chance to participate in the fun.

Riddle Clues

Image result for riddle me scavenger

The most difficult part of a treasure or scavenger hunt for me is making up the clues, it’s also time consuming. I found a website that can help with that- it’s called “Riddle Me”. They have over Over 10,000 Riddles on 1,200 objects and can target different age groups and types of gatherings. Their program also lets you be in control over the time of the activity, because it lets you decide how many clues to print in a scavenger hunt.

Happy Hunting- Aunt MO

A Tongue in Cheek List of Reasons to Play Pipe Chimes

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Aunt Mo

December is a great time to dig up your set of pipe chimes and make some holiday music with your family and friends.

Making music with pipe chimes is an easy and inexpensive way to have fun with your family. My Mom saw pipe chimes more than thirty years ago and our family has been making music with conduit pipes ever since.

Kids and adults are amazed how easy they are to play, and how wonderful they sound. It’s so fun to play a song you recognize and have it sound good. For pipes, they are well tuned and have a good sound.

The most frustrating thing about pipe chimes is getting music for them so I decided to put together my own “Pipe Chimes Music Book”. Most of the music in book one is Christmas music but I’ve also included songs for every day singing as well and if you have a specific song you want to play you can use the note chart I’ve included to write your own music.

With the success of book one, I decided to compile a second book of chimes music. Included in book 2 are eleven songs arranged specifically for pipe chimes choirs. “Red River Valley” features beautiful harmonies and is for more advanced chimes players. You will find “America the Beautiful” a challenge but will love the finished product after a few practices. For small groups we’ve included “When the Saints Go Marching In” and “Au Clair De La Lune”.

As long as you can read numbers, you can play pipe chimes. They are numbered 0 to 20; they also each have their note name on them, so you can play a song that you know the melody to.

Now, here’s my list of-

Top Ten Reasons to Learn to Play the Pipe Chimes

10. A pipe chime doubles as a game piece in an over- sized Clue game.

9. American Idol now lets you use an instrument.

8. Studies show that the resonating tones of pipe chimes stimulates hair follicles which encourages hair growth.

7. Chuck Norris plays pipe chimes.

6. Pipe chime playing is good for your hands. I probably have stronger hands/fingers than most people I know. And have you ever noticed the hands of a pianist? Beautiful, long, tapered fingers. Chances are that if you’ve ever admired someone’s hands, they play the piano… or pipe chimes.

5. Playing pipe chimes helps you burn calories. A 155 pound person burns 281 calories in an hour of pipe chime playing.

4. You can join AFPOPCP – The association for the preservation of pipe chime playing You get positive vibes from playing pipe chimes.

3. People will automatically assume you’re a genius. Really, I’ve heard this lot. People uttering “He/she plays the pipe chimes” in the same tone reserved for “He/she has an IQ of 180.” You just can’t help but admire someone that plays an instrument.

2. Colleges like musical instruments on applications–it’s never too early to boost your kid’s qualifications! 100s of college scholarships for Pipe Chime playing go unclaimed each year.

And the number one reason to play pipe chimes…

1. Self-defense! No one messes with someone carrying a pipe in their hands!

Family Reunion Tug Of War

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Aunt Mo

New and improved is not better than tried and true!

It seems like I spend a lot of time trying to dream up and create new family reunion games and activities to excite and entertain family members. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen back on the old “tried and true” activities and in the end they become the new favorites of our family.

For instance, this year we’ve done tug of war at several reunions and parties and our families have LOVED it! We did several categories- family vs. family, girl cousins vs. boy cousins, the original “big 6” (my husband’s brothers and sisters), great grand girls vs. boys and so on.

The most difficult part of a tug a war is finding a rope. We borrowed a rope from our neighbors who are ranchers. When looking for a tug of war rope I look for a rope that is 75- 100 long, a thick sturdy rope (1” in. 1.5 in diameter) and 100 percent cotton. This rope is available from the family reunion helper store.

The rope pictured above is soft on your hands to manila ropes. These 100% cotton ropes reduce rope burn and splinters. Professional tug of war competitions like to use manila ropes but for a family reunion I suggest cotton ropes. Ropes like this one can cost between $150.00- $200.00 but I think you’ll find it’s an activity that can be used every year and adapted to every theme.

Preparing the tug of war rope

Find the center of your rope and mark with a piece of colorful tape or a bandana. Make a center mark on the ground for your starting point. You can make your marks with logs, ropes or create obstacles such as water or a mud puddle.

Make two more marks on the ground (I suggest 13 feet) equal distance from the center line.

The teams start with the rope’s center line directly above the line marked on the ground. We like to start with the rope on the ground and have the official/judge tell the participants to “pick up the rope” before the contest begins. When the official gives the order to “pull” teams begin pulling in an attempt to pull the other team across the center line or obstacle.

Tug of War Hints

Never make a loop by wrapping the rope around the hand to get a better grip.

Don’t tie the rope around the last persons waist.

On your family reunion invitation add “gloves” on their list of things to bring.

Did you know that tug of war was part of the Olympic Games from 1900 until 1920.

Genealogy Icebreaker Activities for Your Family Reunion

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Aunt Mo

Family Tree Photo

Make a live family tree and take a photo. Arrange family members as they would be on a genealogical chart of the family. Begin with Grandma and Grandpa. Add a branch consisting of their children and spouses. Add additional branches for each of their children and so on. Be sure and take a picture- preferably from an elevated position.

Birthday Game

Mix family members up and divide into groups or ten or so. Challenge family members to put themselves in order of their birth date (day, month and year). If you have mostly young children the challenge should be to get in a line, oldest to youngest. To make the challenge more difficult try doing it blindfolded and tell them “No Talking!” It’s amazing how resourceful they will be communicating in other ways.

To involve your entire family ask those that were born in January to get together in one group; do the same for each of the other months. Then have the members of the January group give their birthdates, such as January 21, January 9, etc. and line up accordingly. This is fun activity that forges an immediate bond between those that share the same birthday or even birthday month. This activity is especially effective with reunions of 100 or more participants.

Family Reunion Concentration Game

This activity takes some advance planning. Create a "memory" or "concentration" game. You will need 54 cards with 26 pairs of pictures on them. With so many digital options this is a fairly easy but still a time consuming idea. Make two copies of each photo- be sure and include name, birthdate and birthplace of each person. You can make a game using ancestors or using photos of family members that are attending the current reunion. With this game you will reconnect with the past or make connections with the present.

Family Tree Chart

Make a huge family tree on and display it during the reunion. You can have large 36” x 48” “engineering prints” made at Staples for under $10.00 that work perfectly for this kind of presentation. Be sure and make 8 1/2 x 11 copies of the tree for each family to take home. The chart pictured above is another option. It is available from My History and is a fill in the blank type chart.

Name Tags for Your Family Reunion

Be creative with your reunion name tags. When family members check in at your reunion site give them each a name tag. But instead of the same old “my name is” name tags be a little creative. Put different design on name tags so that everyone with design sits at the same table for meals and are on the same team when dividing for activities. This helps family members get acquainted or Reacquainted with family members they don’t see often. The tags above are from the family reunion helper Heritage Reunion.

Party Games 411

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Aunt Mo

What Game Should We Play?

If you’re looking for a game to play you should check out this new game site- Party Games 411. It’s a very simple site to use and a marvelous resource for party planners.

I plan a lot of parties and family reunions and I am always looking for a new game or activity. I search the web trying to find ideas but this site is the easiest way I’ve found.

Search for a Game

There are several ways to search for a game at Party Games 411. You can:

1. Enter the number of players and the location (inside or outside) that the game will be played. For instance, I searched for an indoor or outdoor game for 80 people and it gave me 40 possible games we could play.

2. You can also search for games alphabetically.

3. You can search for particular game by entering the name of it.

Each game gives you recommended ages and game requirements and easy to understand rules and instructions.

Games, Games, Games

You will find ideas for card games, team building games, tag games, mind games, party games, large group games and so much more. So next time you ask, “What game should we play?” check out Party Games 411.

M & M or Skittle Ice Breaker Game

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Aunt Mo

Getting to Know You Game

This is a good ice breaker because you can play it as soon as your party is supposed to start and those that come a little late can participate when they arrive.

Family Reunion Payback Pockets

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Aunt Mo

Payback pockets are a fun way to pay back family members for the difference they have made in your life. Payback pockets are a fun way to “pay back” your family for the difference they have made in your life- way of showing appreciation and a way of saying thanks.

Our Payback pockets were labeled in fun way using money terms such as Steve’s Sawbucks, Ann’s Ante and Lynn’s Loot.

Writing Station

Set up a writing “station” and stock it with stationary, stickers, markers and colored paper. Having fun stickers and stationary encourages family members to write notes.

You don’t need to set aside any time for note writing during your reunion. Family members will find their own time to write whether it’s during some reunion downtime or during an activity they may not wish to participate in.

The little ones in our family had fun writing notes, well, actually drawing pictures, and they loved using the markers and stickers.

The reunion planners used the pockets as a way of delivering special treats and surprises during our reunion. One day each Big Six received crackers, chocolate and marshmallows for S’mores around the campfire. Another day bouquet of lollypops was delivered to each pocket.

Treasure Hunts and Scavenger Hunts

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Aunt Mo

Puzzle Treasure Hunt

Take a picture of where the treasure will be hidden. Cut up the picture of the location into several pieces. (The older the participants the more pieces)

Hide the pieces in a designated area. Players search for the pieces then try to assemble the puzzle to get the prize or treasure.

Sandbox Treasure Hunt

Who’s Got the Key? Treasure Hunt

Gather as many spare keys that you can find. You will need a lot of keys so ask family members to bring their keys also. (You can purchase large lots of key blanks on eBay for under $10.00) Buy a lock and key. Put the lock on a treasure chest or box of some sort with hidden treasure in it. Hide all of the keys including the key that will open the lock. Everyone searches for a key, when they find a key they try it in the lock- if it doesn’t work they search for another key until someone finds the correct key and opens the treasure.

Digital Camera Treasure Hunt

This is such a fun idea for a family reunion. You’ll need one digital camera for each team. Give each team a list of things to take pictures of. If you want to put a family history spin on this hunt, challenge teams to find:

Someone who served in a war
Oldest relative at the reunion
Youngest relative at the reunion
Relative that has won a trophy
Someone that had a rotary dial phone
Relative who came the farthest distance to the reunion
Someone who has lived out of the country
The couple that has been married the longest

You get the idea- it’s fun to really make teams talk to their older relatives to find out the information. Be sure and take a team picture with each relative.

Getting to Know You Game

Scavenger hunts can be a fun addition to any family reunion or party. We’ve included several fun scavenger ideas in this blog that can easily be personalized to your own situation. Scavenger hunts aren’t just for kids though- teenagers and young adults love scavenger hunts too.

Video Scavenger Hunt

Puzzle Treasure Hunt

Sandbox Treasure Hunt

Who’s Got the Key? Treasure Hunt

Nature Scavenger Hunt

Digital Camera Treasure Hunt- idea 1

Digital Camera Treasure Hunt- idea 2

“I Spy” Scavenger Hunt for Weddings and Receptions

Scavenger Hunt Clues Using Pictures

Secret Codes Hunt

Urban Race Scavenger Hunt

Riddle Clues

New and improved is not better than tried and true!

Preparing the tug of war rope

Tug of War Hints

Family Tree Photo

Birthday Game

Family Reunion Concentration Game

Family Tree Chart

Name Tags for Your Family Reunion

What Game Should We Play?

Search for a Game

Games, Games, Games

Getting to Know You Game

Writing Station

Puzzle Treasure Hunt

Sandbox Treasure Hunt

Who’s Got the Key? Treasure Hunt

Digital Camera Treasure Hunt

This is such a fun idea for a family reunion. You’ll need one digital camera for each team. Give each team a list of things to take pictures of. If you want to put a family history spin on this hunt, challenge teams to find:

Look for part 2 or this article next week and in the meantime- happy hunting!

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