Games for Annual Family Fun Day

As many of my readers know, I host an annual Family Fun Day (aka Family Reunion). I have games and team activities and I try to incorporate some genealogy in there too!

Every year I try to come up with a new idea for the team activities. This year was tough and I honestly didn't know how or if I could top last year's Amazing Genealogy Race.

Well, I definitely haven't topped it but I have a new idea for this year. First, each friend or family member will be given a card to hang around their neck. The card has a name of an ancestor and the instructions "Find your ancestor spouse. He or she will be your partner in the team activities"

So for example one card is the name of my ancestor Cornelis Van Slyke. Whoever gets that card must go around and talk to everyone to find out who is wearing the spouse card of his Mohawk wife Ots-Toch. I do this to encourage folks to meet newcomers, and also to do a little family tree brainwashing. There are charts with pedigrees which I put up for those who don't know all the ancestors - which sad to say is most of my family!

The activities this year are few and they are simple, but I think they'll be fun. After partners find each other, the games begin. They must first go to our storage shed where they will find 10 objects on a table. Their job is to memorize the objects. They can't take a picture with their smartphone or camera. They can't write down what is on the table. It's all memorization.

I'll have some everyday objects such as a spoon, an egg, a guinea feather, a ruler. But I will also have some Ancestor Cards with a photo of an ancestor plus their name. Whenever a team thinks they have the objects memorized they must race off to the first of four events.

These events are easy, for example one is to toss a frisbie through a hanging hula hoop. The goal is to break the team members' concentration and make it harder for them to remember the ten objects.  The last event is a fun one - they must go to our pig field, toss a scoopful of food over and yell out "Piggy Wiggly Oinky Oink oink" to call the pigs. Then they count them (and remember how many they counted!) The goal of this event is to make hubs and I laugh. We plan to video folks as they do their silly call.

Then and only then do the teams race to the Pit Stop where they will find pencil and paper waiting. They write down the 10 objects plus the total number of pigs and give it to me. If they're wrong, back they go! First team to get it right wins the prize.

What do you think? Will everyone have fun?