Games for a Family Fun Day

Well it's that time again. In a month I have my annual Family Fun Day coming up. We always have a team event with prizes and lots of activities to choose from and this year I was having trouble coming up with something new.

I've created Scavenger Hunts, Genealogy Races, Amazing Race Genealogy style and more. But I wanted something new and something a little less work. Finally I've got a plan thanks to a little story my youngest son told me of a Military challenge he participated in! All I have to do was tweak it for my family and add a genealogy twist.

The basic idea is that I'll place 10 to 12 objects on a table in our shed and cover them with a sheet. The objects will have some kind of genealogy aspect to them - perhaps a photo of Great Grandma Simpson, the toast rack she owned, a family bible, etc. I might throw in non-genealogy objects such as a kitchen colander or a shovel - ordinary items you'd find in or around your home.

Family members will be partnered by finding their match to an Ancestor card I'll give each person when they arrive. The object is to race to the shed, study and memorize the objects then participate in 3 games of skill before heading to the last event. At the last event teams will write down what objects they saw in the shed. If they're wrong they go back to the shed and start over.

The 3 games of skill will be simple but will break their concentration, making it harder to retain what they've memorized. The games I've decided on are:

1. Toss a frisbee through a hanging hula hoop. Not as easy as it sounds.

2. Toss a ball into a hula hoop lying on the ground

3. Run to the pig pen and taking one scoop from a pail of food, toss it over the fence to entice the pigs out of their barn. Team members must call out "Piggy piggy oink oink oink" as they toss the food (hubs will be there to monitor the calling). The task is to count all our pigs. 

I am laughing already thinking of my family completing task #3.