Summertime Fun Party Ideas
Summer is a great time of year for entertaining. You’ve got sunshine, great weather, the outdoors to enjoy, great garden fresh food, BBQ’s, water fun and so much more! Here are some great ideas for hosting a summertime fun party:
Themes:
- Luau – decorate with grass tableskirting, baskets of fresh fruit and coconuts, fish netting and bowls of seashells… serve tropical smoothies and teriyaki chicken kabobs…hand out leis to friends as they arrive… play calypso music and do the limbo…practice hula dancing!
- Patriotic Party – celebrate Memorial Day or 4th of July in style! Decorate with flag buntings on deck or front of house…fill flower pots with red, white, and blue fresh flowers- stick little flags in the pots as well…serve firecracker popsicles to the kids…have the kids decorate their wagons in patriotic style and have their own parade…serve All American grub- hamburgers on the grill, corn on the cob, baked beans, and rootbeer floats…for the fireworks in the evening, hand out glow-in-the-dark sticks.
- Camping Party – Set up tents in the backyard…ask guests to bring their sleeping bags…hand out goody bags with a mini flashlight, a compass, and a bag of trailmix…serve snakes on a stick (hotdogs) and s’mores…sing campfire songs around a campfire…take turns telling spooky stories…
- Pool or Beach Party – make your invitations by blowing up a beach ball, writing party info on with a Sharpie, and hand deliver to friends…use beach towels for tablecovers…fill a large basket with extra sunglasses, water goggles, pool toys, sunscreen, and beach towels…set up a pool with pool games, or a Slip and Slide…have a water balloon fight…hand out plastic sand pails filled with water guns, sunglasses, bubbles, and temporary tattoos…serve hot dogs on the grill, and sno cones for cooling off…
For more great summertime party ideas, check out It’s A Party-ful Life! summertime parties.
Author: Cynthia Roesner(ArticlesBase SC #871510) Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Summertime Fun Party Ideas
Children’s Party Games – Getting People of the World to Have Fun Together
Chinese whispers ~ Sit everyone in a circle. Whisper a long phrase to one person. They, in turn, whisper what they heard to the next person, and so on. The last person announces what they heard.
Pass the Parcel ~ Wrap a bar of chocolate (or some other gift), in a layer of paper. Now wrap it in another layer and repeat until you have about 10 layers. Finally wrap it in gift paper (so it looks nice). Sit everyone in a circle and play a short snippet of music. When the music stops, the person holding the parcel removes ONE layer of wrapping. Repeat until the last layer of wrapping has been removed. The winner keeps the present.
Pass the Parcel with forfeits ~ As above but every layer contains a forfeit (E.g Sing a song, Eat a teaspoon of Mustard, have your belly button filled with water).
The Chocolate (or Jelly) Game ~ Sit everyone in a circle and place a tray in the middle with a hat, scarf, gloves, knife and fork, die and a wrapper bar of chocolate. In turn, players throw the die. If they throw a SIX, they must put on the Hat, Scarfe and Gloves before they start to unwrap the chocolate with the knife and fork, ad then start to eat it. To speed up the game add a second die and require a Double SIX. The Jelly Variation is to turn out a set jelly onto a plate and eat it with the knife and fork.
Musical Chairs ~ The old favourite. With one fewer chairs than people, a short snippet of music is played while the people move around the room. When the music stops everyone tries to sit on a vacant chair. (Only ONE person per chair) The person who doesn’t find a chair is out. One chair is taken away and the game continues until only one person (The Winner) is left.
Memory Game ~ On a tray, place about 10 to 15 small items (e.g. pencil, watch, comb, shoe lace, spoon, toy car, etc.) and cover with a cloth. Sit everyone in a circle. Place the tray in the middle of the circle and remove the cloth for 60 seconds. Everyone has to remember the objects. When the time is up, replace the cloth. In turn, each person has to name an object on the tray. The first person to fail to name an object, repeat an object or name something not on the tray is out. The tray is then removed and some or all of the objects replaced, and the game re-started with the person following the one who is out. If the game is too easy for the group, add more objects or reduce the time.
Musical Statues ~ This is like Musical Chairs, but when the music stops, the players have to keep still. Anyone who moves, quivers, shakes etc is out. The winner is the last one still playing.
Listen and Move ~ Place party shapes on the floor in a circle. For example if your theme is Knights the shapes could be shields, swords, and castles. Children walk around circle while listening to music. If the music is loud the children move fast. If the music is quiet the children move slow. If the music stops, the children stop on the closest shape. Young children like to play it this way.
To make it more challenging for older children have 1 less shape than the number of children. Continue remove shapes as the children are ‘out’.
Postman’s Knock ~ All the boys gather in a group and each takes a card with a sequential number (One, Two, Three etc). The girls do the same. The boys then form a line (shoulder to shoulder) facing the girls who are in a similar line. (Players should NOT stand in order. First a girl calls out a number and the boy with that number goes across to kiss her. The a boy calls out a number and the girl with that number goes and kisses him.
Port and Starboard ~ On the command (from the list below) the children have to do the appropriate action. After a while, start removing the last player to comply, untill only one remains.
- Port (Run to one side tof the area)
- Starboard (run to the other side)
- Captains Comming Aboard (Stand to attention and Salute)
- Submarines (Lie on the floor)
- Hoist the Mainsail (run on the spot – like climing the rigging)
- Mess Deck (Sit cross legged on the floor – ready for lunch)
- Davey Jones (Climb a tree, stanbd on a chair – anything so that you are not on the floor)
- Up Periscope (Stand up straight and old hands to eyes as though looking through binoculars)
British Bulldog ~ Caution: This game can get rough. All the players (except one) line up at one side of the playing area. The remaining player (The Bulldog) stands in the middle. When he is ready, he shouts “Go” and all the other players have to get to the other side without being caught. Any player the The Bulldog can lift off the ground while he shouts “British Bulldog”, joins him in the middle as a Bulldog. On subsequent runs, the Bulldogs may work together. The winner is the last one to be caught.
Read more on Kids, teens, adults and outdoor parties here 
Party Games for Large Groups (more than 8 People)
Outdoor Pool/Water Parties ~ These parties are great as they are held outdoors on a beautiful summer’s day. (Remember High SPF SUNBLOCK). If you don’t have a swimming pool, hire or purchase a small pump-action pool, there are so many varieties nowadays. This is particularly fun for large groups of younger children.
A few soft beach balls, plastic cricket bats/tennis racquets and water toys make this a great hit. ADULT SUPERVISION REQUIRED. For older children a swimming party in a regular swimming pool is also a great way to entertain, again Adult Supervision is necessary.
There is no greater place than the family pool. However, as water holds endless fascination for toddlers, you must take every precaution to prevent your child from entering the pool without you. Small children lack the cognitive ability to discern danger. It is the adult’s responsibility to protect these curious and impulsive explorers from entering any body of water unsupervised. Fortunately, many proactive strategies do exist providing multiple layers of protection to help minimize the risk of a child “accidentally” falling into the family pool or any body of water. Supervision, combined with barriers (including double door locks, door alarms, pool alarms and perimeter yard fencing), pool safety fencing, gentle swimming lessons and CPR/water safety awareness can help keep our children safe.
Food and drinks can be kept under beach umbrellas or a tree in the garden. Makes for a colourful and exciting time and will keep kids and teens occupied for hours. Take lots of photos. Children LOVE to have their photos taken BBQ is GOOD idea
Dramatized Chinese Whispers ~ Specially suitable for teenagers
Several people are taken out of the room. One is returned and while the others are entertained by an assistant is told to mime one of the following (or one of your own ideas)
- ~Changing the nappies of twins
- ~Bathing an elephant
Before they start, a second person is brought into the room and told to watch. When the first demonstration has been completed, the first person is allowed to retake their place and the second is told that they have to do what they have just seen. Again, before they start, the third person is brought in to see the demonstration. The games ends when the last person has done the mime, and is asked what they have just done.
Who Am I? ~ A Good game to get people talking together at the start of the party As they arrive each person has a piece of paper pinned to their back. The paper contains the name of a famous person. By asking questions which can only be answered with “Yes” or “No” such as “Am I still alive?”, “Am I fictional?”, etc. the person has to guess their name. Successful guessers may have another go.
Mummies ~ Split the patry goers into teams of three and give each team a toilet roll. Two persons then wrap the third in the toilet roll so that they look like an Egyptian Mummy. The winning team is the one who in a set time (say 2 minutes) have the neatest and most covered Mummy.
Fashion Designer ~ This is like “Mummies” but instead of having toilet paper and having to wrap the ‘victim’ to look like a mummy, you give each team part of a (not ready pasted) wall-paper roll, and 12 safety pins and they have to make an ‘outfit’, in say 5 minutes. If you wish, you may specify “A dress”, “Jacket and trousers”, etc. (The paper may be pinned on the person’s normal clothes, rather than having to make the ‘outfit’ and then they have to put it on.)
Soldiers ~ Take all the girls out of the room and tell them that the room has a line of soldiers who are willing to demonstrate their skills of quick and slow firing. Tell the boys to form a line (shoulder to shoulder) away from the door. (Optionally turn the lights down or out.) In turn, each girl is asked if she would like the demonstration of quick or slow firing. Having answered, the door is opened and she is pushed into the room, and her answer is shouted to the boys. If she opted for quick firing, the boys give her a quick kiss before pushing her onto the next in line, as quicklty as possible. Slow firing allows the boys a longer kiss.
Pins ~ Game Instructions, this is a game for a large crowd of people to get them talking. Give each guest a pin and have them pin it on their shoulder. Instruct everyone they cannot use the words, yes or yea, etc. When they do, the person they said this to gets their pin(s). the person then adds the pin(s) to their other pin(s), the person with ALL the pins at the end of the evening wins (an elastoplast).
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