See the contest rules at http://crestleaf.com/blog/join-crestleaf-surname-scavenger-hunt/
It sounds like fun!
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Showing posts with label Scavenger Hunt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scavenger Hunt. Show all posts
December 3, 2014
Crestleaf is having a Scavenger Hunt
See the contest rules at http://crestleaf.com/blog/join-crestleaf-surname-scavenger-hunt/
It sounds like fun!
August 24, 2009
What I would do differently at a Family Reunion
Well the Family Fun Fest (aka Family Reunion) is over. We held it Sunday at our place and thankfully the rain held off until all the games were played.
The Scavenger Hunt went well except we had a problem with people getting stung by bees over near the red barn! Unfortunately the nest was around the back and we had no idea it was there. I suppose that's one of the challenges of an outdoor family reunion in the country, but I still felt bad that it happened to my family and friends.
Even though my brother was savvy enough to read my Sunday morning blog post to get clues ahead of time, his daughter and her husband, plus my 4 year old grandson, won! Little Colby knows our property very well and he knew where a lot of the items (chicken eggs, carrot for a bunny, oak leaf, a letter in the mailbox) were.
The victory photo of the winners was amusing as Colby did his Dr. Evil impersonation and held it for all the shots.
After the Scavenger Hunt we had to scramble as it started to rain. Just a light drizzle at first so everyone moved under the awnings (until we ran out of room). But just as the meal was almost ready, corn was boiling over our outdoor firepit, and food was being placed on the tables on the front verandah, it began to pour.
I had no backup plan (note to self: create a Plan B next time for eating!) and had a moment's panic trying to think where 38 people would sit in my house to eat a very messy meal! But everyone was very good natured and they either sat outside under the awnings or made do with whatever little space they could find to park themselves inside. Luckily the food was fine as our front veranda is 40 feet long with a roof.
The most correct answers to the Family Trivia Game was won by my oldest son (go figure!!) and his prize was the McGinnis Family Book I created.
What would I do differently next year?
1. I would have name tags - and I'd ask each "guest" to put their name AND their relationship to me or to my husband. That would not only be kind of fun for distant cousins to figure out their relationship, but it would also help people to know who everyone is. There are complex relationships with today's blended families and sometimes Person A can't figure out how Person B fits into the family.
2. I'd shorten the Family Trivia Game, and I would have it a bit more structured. I'd have a set time where everyone who wants to play is given the sheet of questions and a pencil, then given a set amount of time to finish the task. I thought it would be more fun if they had all afternoon and could ask other family members for help, but that just resulted in confusion and people losing interest in the game.
3. I would put up a more prominent family chart - a simple pedigree chart - and make sure everyone knew where it was for viewing
It was a lot of fun and I can't wait til the next one!
The Scavenger Hunt went well except we had a problem with people getting stung by bees over near the red barn! Unfortunately the nest was around the back and we had no idea it was there. I suppose that's one of the challenges of an outdoor family reunion in the country, but I still felt bad that it happened to my family and friends.
Even though my brother was savvy enough to read my Sunday morning blog post to get clues ahead of time, his daughter and her husband, plus my 4 year old grandson, won! Little Colby knows our property very well and he knew where a lot of the items (chicken eggs, carrot for a bunny, oak leaf, a letter in the mailbox) were.
The victory photo of the winners was amusing as Colby did his Dr. Evil impersonation and held it for all the shots. After the Scavenger Hunt we had to scramble as it started to rain. Just a light drizzle at first so everyone moved under the awnings (until we ran out of room). But just as the meal was almost ready, corn was boiling over our outdoor firepit, and food was being placed on the tables on the front verandah, it began to pour.
I had no backup plan (note to self: create a Plan B next time for eating!) and had a moment's panic trying to think where 38 people would sit in my house to eat a very messy meal! But everyone was very good natured and they either sat outside under the awnings or made do with whatever little space they could find to park themselves inside. Luckily the food was fine as our front veranda is 40 feet long with a roof.
The most correct answers to the Family Trivia Game was won by my oldest son (go figure!!) and his prize was the McGinnis Family Book I created.
What would I do differently next year?
1. I would have name tags - and I'd ask each "guest" to put their name AND their relationship to me or to my husband. That would not only be kind of fun for distant cousins to figure out their relationship, but it would also help people to know who everyone is. There are complex relationships with today's blended families and sometimes Person A can't figure out how Person B fits into the family.
2. I'd shorten the Family Trivia Game, and I would have it a bit more structured. I'd have a set time where everyone who wants to play is given the sheet of questions and a pencil, then given a set amount of time to finish the task. I thought it would be more fun if they had all afternoon and could ask other family members for help, but that just resulted in confusion and people losing interest in the game.
3. I would put up a more prominent family chart - a simple pedigree chart - and make sure everyone knew where it was for viewing
It was a lot of fun and I can't wait til the next one!
August 22, 2009
Scavenger Hunt at Family Reunion
Today is the day of our big McGinnis Family Reunion. I always create a Scavenger Hunt for these gettogethers and this year is no exception. Because we live on a large property the hunt covers a fair bit of ground and usually takes from 30 to 60 minutes.
Because our reunion also includes my husband's family, and friends, I like to encourage mingling by creating random partners for the hunt. I do this by creating cards in pairs - either numbers or animals or colours. Sometimes I have people choose their cards as soon as they arrive. This gives them lots of time during the first hour of the party to look for their match. But other times I wait until the Scavenger Hunt is ready to start and then everyone picks their card and frantically hunts for their match. That's lots of fun as it gets quite noisy with people yelling out numbers, or animal names, or sometimes making the sound of their animal.
I like to have family gather some items but I also have them answer questions for part of the hunt. This year I tried to think of some genealogy questions that could be incorporated but decided instead to create a separate game called Family Trivia Game which I talked about in yesterday's blog post.
This year we are using pairs of animals and it should be fun to see everyone trying to find their matching animal.
So our Scavenger Hunt consists of gathering items such as:
* a piece of hay
* an oak leaf
* an egg (we have chickens but they don't lay enough eggs. So to make sure everyone finds an egg, I hardboiled 2 dozen which we will hide in the barn and around the yard. However the teams will not be told that the eggs are hardboiled. Instead each team wil be told that they need to be very careful with their eggs since they are freshly laid by the chickens and can't come back to me broken.... just a little McGinnis twist!)
* a Canadian flag (I'm going to plant small ones on sticks around the yard)
* an apple (we have apple trees scattered around the property)
I also ask questions such as
* How many outside doors are on our house
* How many barns do we have
* What is the name of hubby's tractor?
For a bit of extra fun this year, I took envelopes and addressed them to each animal team. I then created stamps using the animal picture from the cards I made, and on each stamp I printed a postage amount (2c, 5c, etc) The instructions and question posed on the Scavenger Hunt say that it is Mail Call. Each team has to get their team mail (it's up to the teams to figure out there is a rural mail box at the end of our driveway) and bring it back. They must also note the cost of their stamp. But the trick is that I fastened the stamps on very loosely, and it is almost guaranteed that many will fall off before the team checks the postage. Yes okay I have a bizarre sense of humour....
For an extra surprise I sealed all the envelopes and in each one I put a slip announcing that team had won a bonus prize. It will be interesting to see which of the teams open their envelopes! The bonus prizes are small tokens which are genealogy related - bookmarks I created with genealogy slogans on them.
I think this will be quite a bit of fun and as long as my niece doesn't break her ankle again (as she did at the last family reunion at our place) we should be okay.
Because our reunion also includes my husband's family, and friends, I like to encourage mingling by creating random partners for the hunt. I do this by creating cards in pairs - either numbers or animals or colours. Sometimes I have people choose their cards as soon as they arrive. This gives them lots of time during the first hour of the party to look for their match. But other times I wait until the Scavenger Hunt is ready to start and then everyone picks their card and frantically hunts for their match. That's lots of fun as it gets quite noisy with people yelling out numbers, or animal names, or sometimes making the sound of their animal.
I like to have family gather some items but I also have them answer questions for part of the hunt. This year I tried to think of some genealogy questions that could be incorporated but decided instead to create a separate game called Family Trivia Game which I talked about in yesterday's blog post.
This year we are using pairs of animals and it should be fun to see everyone trying to find their matching animal.
So our Scavenger Hunt consists of gathering items such as:
* a piece of hay
* an oak leaf
* an egg (we have chickens but they don't lay enough eggs. So to make sure everyone finds an egg, I hardboiled 2 dozen which we will hide in the barn and around the yard. However the teams will not be told that the eggs are hardboiled. Instead each team wil be told that they need to be very careful with their eggs since they are freshly laid by the chickens and can't come back to me broken.... just a little McGinnis twist!)
* a Canadian flag (I'm going to plant small ones on sticks around the yard)
* an apple (we have apple trees scattered around the property)
I also ask questions such as
* How many outside doors are on our house
* How many barns do we have
* What is the name of hubby's tractor?
For a bit of extra fun this year, I took envelopes and addressed them to each animal team. I then created stamps using the animal picture from the cards I made, and on each stamp I printed a postage amount (2c, 5c, etc) The instructions and question posed on the Scavenger Hunt say that it is Mail Call. Each team has to get their team mail (it's up to the teams to figure out there is a rural mail box at the end of our driveway) and bring it back. They must also note the cost of their stamp. But the trick is that I fastened the stamps on very loosely, and it is almost guaranteed that many will fall off before the team checks the postage. Yes okay I have a bizarre sense of humour....
For an extra surprise I sealed all the envelopes and in each one I put a slip announcing that team had won a bonus prize. It will be interesting to see which of the teams open their envelopes! The bonus prizes are small tokens which are genealogy related - bookmarks I created with genealogy slogans on them.
I think this will be quite a bit of fun and as long as my niece doesn't break her ankle again (as she did at the last family reunion at our place) we should be okay.
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