FAMILY FUN FRIDAY - Bubble Master!

We have said it before and we will say it again. Families that play together, stay together. So, let the games begin.

For this game you will need... 

Bubbles

Hula Hoop

Object of the Game...

Get a bubble through the hula hoop. Using only your breath. 

Here's how you play...

1. Establish a starting line. 

2. Choose someone to hold the hula hoop. They should stand about 6-8 feet away from the start line, depending on how old your players are. Older kids and adults, stand farther away. Younger, closer. You will want to hold it up so the opening is facing the start line. 

3. Choose someone to blow the bubbles. They will stand behind the start line. 

4. Everyone else will stand in between the start line and the hula hoop.

5. The bubble blower, blows bubbles. Everyone then tries to get the bubble(s) through the hula hoop. The catch, players can only use their breath to propel the bubble. They will have to carefully blow the bubbles. Working to keep them from popping on the ground and floating off course. Some players will want to be down on the ground so they can blow the bubbles up. Some will want to be on the sides of the bubbles, etc...

6. Players are not allowed to touch the hula hoop. (unless you are the one holding it up, of course).

7. As the bubbles pop, the person blowing the bubbles, keeps blowing and providing bubbles while the rest of the players carefully blow the bubbles toward the hula hoop, trying to blow them through. 

This is a fantastically fun game to play with your family. You can time yourselves and see how long it takes to get a certain number of bubbles through the hoop. You can have teams, and race. 

If you are playing with a large group, divide them up into smaller groups and have them race one another. 

This is also great for kids, big and small. Get everyone involved and be sure to take turns blowing bubbles at the start line, using your breath to move the bubbles, and holding the hula hoop.

Have fun!

What are you doing this weekend? Anything fun or exciting?

Anyone watching the BYU vs. Utah Football Game? 

Who do you want to win?

Images found via Google Images. Original links found here and here.

FAMILY FUN FRIDAY-Leader of the Band!

This game is a great reminder that all our family members "beat to their own drum". We are all different and make a different sound. It takes all of our sounds to make the music. 

You don't need anything to play this game.

Rules:

First, have everyone sit in a circle.

Then, have everyone pick a different musical instrument. They will need to make the sound of the instrument. Some examples, violin, piano, organ, choir, guitar, flute, drums etc...

Next, establish the rhythm. Slap twice on your knees, clap twice, and then snap your fingers twice. Everyone does this together the whole game.

Now, choose someone to start the game. While everyone is doing the rhythm together, the person who started will replace the two finger snaps with the sound of their instrument. Then as the rhythm continues, they will do someone else's sound during the next set of snaps. That is how the rhythm is passed.

EXAMPLE: (If I was the drums) I would slap my knees twice, clap twice and then make the sound of drums. Then I would slap my knees twice, clap twice and then make the sound of the guitar. Whoever is the guitar now takes a turn. 

They would slap their knees twice, clap twice, and then make the sound of the guitar (to accept) and then slap their knees twice, clap twice and then make the sound of the violin (to pass).

This continues until someone messes up, mixes things up, forgets to accept or pass, or takes too long to take their turn. Then they are out. The last two players left, win.

Thank you for all your support and comments this week. Have a wonderful weekend! Our family will be sitting down to watch General Conference on Saturday and Sunday. It is one of my favorite weekends of the year.  See you on the flip side. :)

FAMILY FUN FRIDAY - Ooga Booga Look!

Great News, you don't need any supplies for this game.

And...your kids will think this game is hilarious.

With your family or any group of people, gather in a circle with arms on the shoulders of each person on both sides. Like a huddle.

With head and eyes looking down to the floor the group slowly starts to walk in a circle while everyone chants, ..."Ooga-Booga, Ooga-Booga, Ooga-Booga, Look!"

As soon as the group says "Look", everyone stops walking in a circle, and lifts their head to LOOK INTO THE EYES OF ANOTHER PERSON IN THE GROUP.

If two people are both looking at each other, they are out of the game. Repeat the above steps until only two players remain. They are the winners!

If you have small children, have everyone play on their knees so that you are the same height.

FAMILY FUN FRIDAY-Spaghetti and Gummy Bears

Round up the family, it is time to play with your food.

For this game/activity, you will need

 Spaghetti Noodles (Uncooked)

Gummy Bears

Objective: To construct a tower made of spaghetti noodles and gummy bears. The tallest tower wins and must stay standing for three minutes. 

Rules: You can play as individuals or in groups. If you have a lot of people, groups of 4 work really well. More than 4 will work, but it is hard for everyone to be involved. Towers must be built of only spaghetti noodles and gummi bears. Nothing else.  If your tower falls, before the 3 minutes is over, it doesn't count. Tallest tower wins. 

From experience, I have found that each person, or group, will need about 75 gummi bears. You will want the gummi bears to be fresh. Stale gummies will not be any fun. You will want a good handful of noodles for each person or group also. When the game is over, you have a built in treat. :)

TIP: Do you have very small children? You and hubby build the towers and have the children be in charge of warming up the gummy bears. 

Have a Great Weekend!

Home for the Holidays-Family Activities

The kids will be out of school in a day or two. That means they will be home all day, ready for some holiday fun. It is a great time of year to draw closer to one another, serve others and have some fun. I put together a list of 21 of our favorite ideas for family fun. Put them on your list and check them twice.

Don't miss my favorites: #2, #3, #4, #9, #12, #14, #16, #17, #19. I have lots of favorites. Wink.

**If you have an advent calendar, why not replace some of the candy and treats with slips of paper that list some of these fun family activities. Your kids will love the time together. **

1. Family Movie Night. Watch a favorite Christmas movie together. Don’t forget the popcorn.

2. Drive around town and look at Christmas lights. Take a little treat for the house with the "Best Christmas Lights". Leave it on their porch with a little note. Make hot chocolate for everyone and take it with you to drink as you go. Make sure the cups have lids to avoid the spills. The paper cups with lids that they sell at the grocery store work great. 

3. Read about holiday traditions around the world. Teach your children where their ancestors came from and learn about the traditions there. You could even make a traditional treat from the country. It is very easy to find recipes on line.

4. Make Christmas sugar cookies. Let the kids help decorate. Even your little ones can help. Not only can they decorate, but frost also. Just have them use the back of a spoon instead of a knife.

5. Bake a treat (like the cookies above) and deliver them to a few of your neighbors.

6. Go caroling. While you're delivering the cookies to your neighbors sing them a little song. It might put your family a little out of their comfort zone, but it a great opportunity for your family to do something hard together. And it will provide a lot of laughs.

7. Write letters to Santa. Drop them off at your local mall. 

8. Make Rice Krispie Treats, or popcorn balls. Add crushed pieces of candy cane to make them festive.

9. Make ornaments for the birds. Simple sugar cookies will work. Before you bake them, take a straw and put a little hole toward the top. Make sure it is big enough to not close up when they bake. Over-bake them so they are brown and crispy. String a thread through the hole and let the kids hang them outside in your trees. Be sure you put them by a window so your kids can watch the birds eat. We like to spread ours with peanut butter once they cool. The birds love it. You could also pick up some pinecones from outside and cover those in peanut butter, then hang them. If you have birdseed lying around, roll the peanut butter cones in seeds before you hang them.

10. Have a little outside snow party. Bundle up and sit on the porch and drink hot chocolate.

11. Have a hot chocolate party. Make a few different types of hot chocolate and let everyone decide what they want to put in theirs. Candy canes, shaved chocolate pieces, sprinkles, mint extract, whipped cream. The possibilities are endless.

12. Ask the kids to collect all the toys they don’t like or play with any more. Donate them to kids in need. Take the kids with you to make the donation. It will make a big impression on them. This will also help un-clutter your house. You can also do a Sub for Santa and provide Christmas for another family. 

13. Visit the senior citizens center or local hospital and sing to the patients. Be sure you call first to find out what their policies are.

14. Turn on some holiday music and play Freeze Dance. You kids will love it. You control the music, when you turn it on, your kids dance around the room however they want. When you stop the music they have to freeze and stay in the position. Have everyone look around and laugh as they look at the silly faces and positions everyone has found themselves in. It doesn’t matter the age, all kids “feel” music and will move with it. Our kids could play this for hours. You can get active also. Instead of sitting while they play. Get up and dance with them.

15. Make a paper chain to countdown to Christmas. Just link strips of paper together and have the kids take one off each day until Santa makes his appearance.

16. Make gingerbread houses. We have made this a family tradition. Grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles and cousins alike. We are doing this tomorrow. I will post pictures and give you the best cement frosting recipe ever.

17. Head to your local library and check out a bunch of holiday books. Read a different one each night before bed. Or, sit down for a little read-a-thon and read all of them at one time. This could be a great Christmas Eve tradition. Don’t forget the popcorn and hot chocolate.

18. Help your kids make homemade gifts for the family. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Let them get creative. 

19. Don’t want to make the gifts. Take each of the kids to the mall for their own little shopping trip. Or better yet, take them to the dollar store and let them shop for family members. They can choose what ever they want and you don’t have to tell them no because it is too expensive.

20. When it snows, build a snowman. Go sledding. Make snow angels.

21. Make Rice Krispie Treat Trees. Make regular rice krispie treats but add some green food coloring to the melted marshmallow. Add the crisp cereal and spread evenly in a 9x13 inch pan. While they are still warm, use a tree shaped cookie cutter to cut out the trees. Have some little candies like M&M’s ready and let the kids decorate the trees. 

WHICH ACTIVITIES WILL YOUR FAMILY ENJOY?
DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITES WE SHOULD ADD TO THE LIST?

FAMILY FUN FRIDAY! M & M Pass.

Hang out with your favorite people this weekend. Your family.
You will need:
Light weight bowl to hold M&M's.
Cup or Bowl for each individual
Straws for each individual
Big Bag of Plain M&M's
2 Dice

Directions:
Have everyone sit in a circle on the floor or around a table. Give each person their own cup/bowl and straw. This will be for their personal M&M's. Empty the big bag of M&M's into the community bowl. Set the bowl in the middle of the group and pick one person to start with the dice. That person will roll the dice once, trying to get doubles, or a two and a four, or any two numbers you want to choose. After one roll, the dice are passed to the next person and so forth until someone rolls doubles.

When doubles are rolled, that person grabs the community bowl of M&M's in the middle of the circle and begins to "suck" the M&M's up with the straw and transfer them from the community bowl to their personal cup. They continue to transfer the M&M's until someone else rolls doubles.

Meanwhile, the dice is still being passed around the circle, as people are still trying to roll doubles. Once someone else rolls doubles the grab the community bowl and start to transfer the M&M's into their own cup.

This continues until the community bowl of M&M's is empty.

The person with the most M&M's wins.

For even more fun and to help bring your family together and foster communication, once the bowl is empty, Have everyone count how many of each color M&M they have in their cup.

For every YELLOW M&M, have family members share something that makes them happy.

RED - share something they are scared of.

GREEN - share their favorite family memory

BROWN - share what they are most thankful for

BLUE - share what the toughest part about being a kid/grown up is?

ORANGE - if you could have any foods you wanted for dinner, what would you eat?

(So, 8 yellow M&M's in your cup means you share 8 things with your family that make you happy.)
You can change the categories to suit your own family and the ages of the individuals playing.

Think your family will gather around for this one?

Play a round for me. This is one of my favorites.

Have a great weekend.
Family Volley

FAMILY FUN FRIDAY! The Paper Bag Game

You have got to give this game a try. Be sure you have a camera close by when you play.

Objective: To see who can bend over the lowest and pick up the paper bag, with their teeth. :)

Materials: All you need is a paper bag (grocery size). The best place to get them is at your local grocery store. Ask for paper the next time you are checking out.

This game is great for the whole family. You will get better at it the more you play.

To Play: Have your family stand in a circle, stand the bag upright and place it in the middle of the circle. One at a time - each person puts their hands behind their back and balances on one leg. They then bend over and try to pick up the bag with their teeth (still on one leg, hands behind their back). Once they pick up the bag the next person gets a turn. Once everyone in the group has taken a turn, rip or cut a layer off the bag making it slightly shorter all the way around. You can take as much or as little as you want. Once you have made the bag shorter, everyone takes another turn trying to pick up the bag with their teeth at the new height. Continue taking turns, and then cutting layers to make the bag shorter and shorter. As people are unable to pick up the bag they are eliminated. Keep playing until the last person can still grab the bag with their teeth. 

For smaller children that will find balancing hard, no need to make them balance on one foot. 

It is hilarious to watch your family as they try to bend lower and lower to pick up the bag.

Perfect for Monday night, or any night. 

FAMILY FUN FRIDAY! The Candy Bar Game.

A perfect activity for your weekend, or for FHE.

THE CANDY BAR GAME!

Materials:

• Candy Bars (Regular Size, Pick your favorites)
• A Dull knife and Fork (plastic silverware will work also)
• A pair of socks, or mittens
• A hat
• A scarf
• A set of Dice

To prepare: Leaving the candy bars in their original wrappers, take them and wrap them like you would a present. Wrap them in a few sheets of newspapers or magazines, even lined pieces of paper or computer paper would work. Wrap those bars up really good. Secure the wrapping with masking tape if you have it. If not, any tape on hand. The more tape and wrapping your use, the more challenging.

How to Play:

Place a wrapped candy bar, socks, silverware, hat, and scarf in the middle of the circle. Have one family member start rolling the dice. Each person takes turns rolling until someone rolls doubles. The person who rolls doubles puts the socks on their hands and puts the hat and scarf on. They grab the silverware and start trying to unwrap the candy bar with the silverware. Meanwhile the dice keeps getting passed, each person trying to roll doubles. As soon as someone else rolls doubles they immediately take everything from the person working on unwrapping, put everything on and start trying to unwrap themselves. The rolling and the stealing continues until someone is able to unwrap the entire candy bar. The person who unwraps it gets to keep it.  

This game has a built in treat. Use the candy bars as dessert. All ages can play. I will give our 18 month old extra die and she helps "roll". When our son was three I would wrap the candy bars more loosely allowing him to have better access. We have also played where the young kids don't have to put the socks on, but my husband and I do. We love playing in winter because our ski gloves are easily accessible.  Be prepared there will be a lot of laughing. Especailly when someone has waited so long to roll doubles and just as they get everything on and start trying to unwrap, everything is stolen from them. 

Any one ever played this game?

Let me know if you give it try. I would love to hear how things go. Take some pictures of your family in action.

Family Volley 

Don't Eat Pete:A Game for your Whole Family

Don't Eat Pete

Life shouldn't be all work and no play. It is
great to understand families better, but we need to be doing things together too.

So here is a game that our family loves to play. It is quick, easy, any age can play (our 18 month old loves this game), and it is fun.

Materials: All you need is a piece of paper and a big bag of candies or snacks like M&M's, Skittles, Cheerios, or Goldfish. I have even used peas and cut up carrots when I am trying to get the kids to eat more veggies.

How to Play: Get your piece of paper and draw lots of silly faces. Your kids would love to be involved in this part. Draw the squares for them and then have them fill each square. As you can see our "board" has gotten a lot of use. If you look close, in the bottom right hand corner, you can see where our daughter accidentally drooled last time we played. To much laughing with too many skittles in her mouth. :)
Put a piece of candy, or snack in the middle of each square.
Send one person out of the room. Everyone remaining in the room agrees on which square with its piece of candy will be "Pete".
Once the person re-enters the room they are to start picking up pieces of candy one by one and eating them. (They are trying to not pick the same square that the group decided on while they were out of the room.)
As soon as the person picks up "Pete" everyone at the table yells "DON"T EAT PETE".
That ends the person's turn.
Fill each square with new candies, send someone else out of the room and decide on a new secret square.

Object: The object is to try and eat every piece of candy, leaving Pete until the very end.

Kids love this game, they love to yell "Don't eat Pete".

If you decide to play, let me know. I would love to hear how it goes at your house.

Have a Great Weekend.

xo
Family Volley