Seasonal & Holiday Activities, Projects and Fun
It was my daughter’s seventh birthday party over the weekend and I want to share with you the games we played. Not just because all the kids had a blast, but also so I can justify all the time I spent planning that party! I spent more hours planning the party than the length of the party itself! So to justify spending an inordinate amount of time planning a child’s birthday party, I’m rationalizing that those hours were also spent researching games for this post. Perhaps I’ll even save a few of you some time when it’s time to plan your kid’s next birthday party. Just steal these ideas and make me feel better!
The theme of my daughter’s birthday party was the Olympics. Each child was assigned a team and I listed their names underneath a picture of their country’s flag. When the kids first arrived, I had them go to their team’s table to decorate their Olympic “uniforms.” Each child got a plain white t-shirt and markers to correspond with the colors in their country’s flag to decorate their uniform.
Before we could begin the party games Olympic events, we had to have the opening ceremonies, of course! Since I don’t think there will ever be an age when I feel comfortable having one of my children run with fire, our “Olympic torch” was a large yellow shiny balloon in the shape of a sunflower. If you squinted it gave you the illusion of flames as my daughter ran by!
Then each team marched in holding their country’s flag. In our case, we used a shamrock flag for Ireland and our U.S. flag (neither flag touched the ground!)
Since there were ten Olympic events, and this post is already getting long, I will share the first couple events in this post and the rest over the next couple days.
Event #1: Bouncing Relay
For this event, you’ll need two hopping bouncy balls with handles. Have each team line up behind a starting line. Each child takes a turn bouncing to a designated spot (we used an orange cone) and then has to bounce back to the next teammate in the relay waiting at the starting line. As with all relays, the team who finishes first wins.
Event #2: Spoon Relay
For this event, you’ll need two plastic spoons and two golf balls. Each child takes a turn balancing the golf ball on the spoon while walking to the cone and back to the next teammate waiting to go. If the golf ball drops, the child has to stop, pick it up and put it back on the spoon before starting to walk again. Make sure the kids don’t hold the golf ball, it’s a balancing game! Some people use eggs, but who needs the mess and risk of salmonella!
Check back tomorrow for more fun birthday party games!
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I love themes! This could really be great if someone has a birthday that coincides with the Olympics, too.
I thought so too, but we didn’t want to wait until next summer! I even thought about waiting to post about it until next summer when the Olympics were on, but I wanted to write about it while the party was still fresh in my mind!
Those look like so much fun!! My son was born during the Opening Ceremonies of the 1996 Olympics - this is a great party idea for him next summer.
We hosted a party for my daughter this weekend too - also held outside. Ours had a pizza party theme but they played a lot of games too. You can read my recap at Parenting Teens and Tweens.