Family Fun Days - Have You Had Yours?

Some of my blog readers might recall that every year I host a Family Fun Day (aka Family Reunion). Hubs and I create different games each year - some have a genealogy twist, some are Scavenger Hunts, others are races. If you're looking for game ideas and f you want to read about some of my former Family Fun Day ideas and activities, just click on Family Fun Day and Family Reunion

This year I decided to keep it simple. We built an in-ground pool last year for my physiotherapy water sessions, and it seemed obvious that most of our family and friends would enjoy just relaxing by the poolside. But just in case I set up 4 fun events, all based on old-fashioned games.

We had an Egg on a Spoon Race, Corn in Your Shoe Race, Froggy Hula Hoop Event and a good old-fashioned sack race. Of course there were prizes for the winning team.

I always draw quick sketches of each event showing the rules and how to play. 


I like folks to mix it up and get to know other family members (each year I invite someone new that other family don't know) That means husbands and wives can't be partners during the games.

So this year I gave out Leis to everyone and the idea was that each person was to find whoever was wearing the matching lei and that would be their partner for the events.

The photos you see here were taken after the posters for each event sat out in the rain so forgive the worn appearance!

The key to a successful Family Fun Day is organization. So if you have not held one yet, be sure you plan it carefully. If you're like me you will need to make notes on what needs to be done. I covered my White Board in my kitchen with daily "to-do" lists starting on the Thursday before the big day.

Of course I also put out the Shutterfly books I created for our McGinnis family for everyone to look through.

I also have a plan for the day itself. Flexibility is built into it but it's important to think about timings - when will you eat, how far ahead will you set up buffet tables, when will you hold the games, when to serve coffee or tea, and so on.

Because I put family members to work I also create a timeline which I post on my white board or the fridge. It lists what needs doing throughout the day. That way if it gets hectic (as it always does!) I can simply ask people to help with a specific task and point them to the white board where they find details on what needs doing.

A quick diagram of where I want the events set up in our yards helps with organization when I ask my husband or son to get that set up with flags, ropes, traffic cones and whatever equipment is needed for each event. I just hand them my sketch, point to the tubs of equipment and they manage the rest without any input from me. You can see from my sketch that it isn't elaborate - it takes about 5 minutes or less to create.

So remember - organization and flexibility are the keys to a fun and successful Family Fun Day. Have you had yours this year?

A 90th Birthday Party Family Reunion

Yesterday was my auntie's 90th birthday party. That's auntie in 1925 with her sisters and yesterday in her beautiful coral skirt and jacket. Auntie is the only sister left now.

It was a nice time as all of her sons were there and I got to reconnect with cousins I had not seen in over 30 years. I wish her daughter could have been there too, how nice that would have been for auntie!

For her gift I gave auntie a book I had put together on her family - the Fuller family.

It was chock full of photos of her parents and her siblings (and her of course!) from 1912 to 1960. Many people at the party mentioned it to me so I think she passed it around for everyone to enjoy.

 While Auntie was the oldest person there at 1080 months, the youngest was my niece's son Liam at 2 months.

If you are want some ideas for a Family Reunion or a special birthday party, take a look at Family Fun Days

Family Fun Day!

 Today is our Annual Family Fun Day! I forget how long I've been hosting these, but at least 12 years.

We usually get about 30 family for it which isn't bad considering that every year we lose a few of the older generation. In fact, I am now part of  "the older generation"!

Today our youngest attendee will be my niece's one month old son, and our oldest will be my 90 year old aunt. I can't wait to get a photo of them together.

There's always tons of games and activities - both planned and free choice. Living on 100 acres allows us to put out lots of events that family can play or not as they choose. So we have things like archery, horseshoes, croquet, frisbee, football... some years we even have a golf driving range of sorts. (a few old clubs, a lot of golf balls, stand at the top of a small hill in one of our fields and you've got a driving range)

Every year I organize either a Scavenger Hunt (confined to two acres around the house) or an Amazing Race type event. These photos are from the Amazing Genealogy Race event we had a couple of years ago. That's right - I made sure every event was linked to an actual event that affected one of my ancestors

This year we're having an Eggsalent Adventure Scavenger Hunt with a couple of twists.

If you want to read about some of my former Family Fun Day ideas and activities, just click on Family Fun Day and Family Reunion

And now, I'm off to help hide those eggs!

Games for Our Annual Family Fun Day!

It's that time of year again. As many of my readers know, every year I plan and organize what I call a Family Fun Day. Friends and family are invited to join us for a day of activities, games and chit-chat.

Every year I have a different theme. Here's my genealogy theme that I incorporated in 2012. Games for Annual Family Fun Day

Here's some of my ideas for planning a Family Fun Day (aka Family Reunion) Planning a Family Fun Day aka Family Reunion 

And a few more ideas: Genealogy Games For a Family Reunion: Race Events & Eggs (Part 3)

This year, due to some health issues, I am going a bit more low key. I'm organizing a Scavenger Hunt with a couple of twists thrown in. We have various colours of take-apart plastic eggs and these will be hidden on the property.

The first thing family has to do is find their team partner. Sometimes I use pictures of animals and when the signal is given, each person has to find their matching animal. They can show their picture, yell out the name of their animal or start making that animal's sound.

I try to come up with a different way of finding team members each year and this year I've created math questions! Yep. I created simple math questions (2+2=?, 12/6=? etc) Each person has to solve their math question then look for another person whose answer to THEIR math question is the same! This should be amusing to watch.

As soon as each person finds their partner, they will race to where a line of hula hoops is laid out on the ground. I call this activity the Froggy Jump. Using one hula hoop, each person in turn tosses it ahead and jumps or steps into it. They must lift the hula hoop over their body and toss it ahead, then step into it and so on until they reach the finish line. At the finish line, my husband will be waiting to hand them the instructions for the scavenger hunt.

Teams of two have to find one of each colour PLUS one multi-coloured egg which I made by putting different coloured halves together. The multi-coloured eggs will contain instructions for one event which must be completed before teams race to the finish line with their eggs. The event that teams must complete is to head to the field where our pot-belly pigs are kept.

I have Canadian flags to put out to mark where teams are to go. Once there, they take one scoop of pig food and call our pigs, enticing them with the food. The goal is to count the pigs and believe me it's not an easy task as they don't exactly stand still to be counted! The next part of this event is memory based as teams must remember the total number of pigs until they have collected all their eggs and have run home.

I think this is going to be a lot of fun and plan to take lots of photos. Cross your fingers for sun that day because if it rains we will not be doing any of these fun things.

Family Fun Day in Pouring Rain - Yes it Can Be Done!

Well, our annual Family Fun Day (aka Family Reunion) was this past Saturday. It poured rain almost all day so I had to hold it inside our house. That called for some last minute revisions of games, events and the meal!

But guess what? As horrifying as it first was to figure out how 30 people were going to fit into our home, and be entertained, and fed at tables (I don't like people eating on couches and antique chairs), it worked!

I still had everyone wear an ancestor name tag and find their matching ancestor spouse for a partner for the games. Then I placed the 10 objects on the coffee table and gave a 2 minute time period to study and memorize them. I learned the hard way that 2 minutes is way too long as almost every team got it right at the end. In future I'd give a one minute time limit or more objects.

After they studied the objects we covered them and handed out a 10 question multiple choice quiz. This was funny because the questions were all about my husband and I! So whoever knew us best would score well.

I noticed a lot of cheating going on (One of the grandchildren called it research, not cheating) with folks looking at other people's questions for answers.

After the quiz was done, we had a 10 question oral math round. As a former teacher I should have known better, but I told the teams to yell out their answers and first team with right answer would get one point. Big mistake. Because I made the questions super easy, there were many simultaneous shouts of answers and it became impossible to know who said it first. But it made for a lot of laughter.

And really it wasn't very fair as I taught Math in High School and guess what both my sons are amazing at? Yep - Math. So I kind of figured they'd score well for their teams and they did, with the most points. Good thing my daughter was late arriving or she'd have been a strong contender because she too is a math whiz.

Anyway it was fun but we had a tie between the two teams both my sons were on. I had to come up with a quick tie breaker so I played one song from my iPhone and whoever got the name of the song and the artist would win. I chose Stereo Hearts by Adam Levine and Gym Class Heroes so that made it tricky as they both kept guessing Maroon 5 as the group! Cheating almost won the day as one team tried to Shazam the song using their iPhone for the answer.

Seating for the meal was fine - we brought up portable tables and a card table, and used the mudroom, dining room, living room and entertainment room to set places. No one complained so I think it went well.

All in all a good time was had and the last family member left at 9 pm (it started at 1 pm). And yes I'll do it again next year even though I was exhausted and sore and aching everywhere by the time it was over. But that's okay as I rested up all day on Sunday. I'm already planning the 2013 Family Fun Day.

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?

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.

Planning a Family Fun Day aka Family Reunion

Are you having a family reunion this year? I have one every summer. We call them Family Fun Days because I want everyone to have fun. Every year I plan a different team activity. 

Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger Hunts are popular. They're the easiest to set up. I have my family work with a partner. They don't choose their own partner, instead I have different ways for them to find one. Sometimes they have ancestor cards and have to find the person who has the matching card. Or they are given pictures of farm animals and have to find their partner match by making the animal sound.

Amazing Genealogy Race
Last year I created a Genealogy themed race. It was a version of the Amazing Race but each activity teams went to was based on a real event that happened to one of our ancestors. This required posters with instructions for each event, as well as hiding clues in plastic eggs, and arranging for referees at each event. It was super fun and hilariously funny but tons of work so I won't do that one again any time soon!

This year I'm debating creating another Scavenger Hunt but this time giving it a genealogy twist. I haven't worked out all the details yet but I've got two months to think about it.

Fun & Games
It's great to have one organized game with a prize for the winner(s) but you also want to let your family just talk and enjoy themselves. My rule of thumb is that the race or the Scavenger Hunt should not take more than an hour, but I aim for 45 minutes.

I put out lots of activities such as hula hoops, foam lawn darts, golf clubs, croquet set, football and so on. We also clean out the horseshoe pit and hubs makes sure the ATV is gassed up and ready to go.

Our ATV holds two small children on the back seat plus hubs driving, and I think it's the favourite part of the day for the grandchildren!

If you're running your Fun Day alone, you need to be super-organized. Here's a few tips that might help.

What do you do for your Family Fun Days?