Summer is the perfect time to entertain outdoors, and kids of all ages will enjoy playing these 10 fun and easy outdoor party games!
Frisbee Tic Tac Toe
This is a fun new twist on Tic Tac Toe! Create a game board by duct taping a grid on a shower curtain liner, square blanket, or sheet. Provide each player with five Frisbees. (Use two different colors so they can keep track of whose is whose). Have the players stand behind a throw line to toss their Frisbees onto the board. If they miss the board or hit a square that’s already taken, they can throw again.
Digging for Treasure
If you have a sandbox, turn it into a fun party game. Hide small toys or prizes in the sand, give kids shovels, and have ’em go to work. It may be simple, but kids LOVE this game!
Backyard Bowling
Save up 10 plastic water bottles, refill them, and tint each one with a few drops of food coloring. Set them up as bowling pins, create a “bowling lane” with streamers or rope, and give kids a soccer ball to roll at the pins.
Sack Races
A sack race is a classic game that’s fun for the whole family, and it burns off a whole lot of kids’ energy! Give each participant a burlap potato sack, mark a starting line and a finish line, and they’re off!
Water Balloon Toss
Hang up a hula hoop or foam ring (the one in the photo is decorated with red ribbon to look like a life preserver) and provide kids with a big bucket of water balloons. Little kids can have a close starting line and older kids can toss from farther away. You could even compete to see who can make it through the target from the farthest distance!
Photo via Chickabug
Cold Potato
This game is perfect for a really hot day! Poke a hole in a water balloon and fill it with water, then toss it around as the water leaks. The idea is not to be the one holding the balloon when it runs out of water, but really it’s all about getting wet and cooling off!
Vintage Ring Toss
Collect a set of soda bottles and paint them with latex paint. You can layer the colors if you want a shabby chic effect like in the photo. Use fabric-wrapped embroidery hoops as toss rings.
Photo via Chickabug
Scavenger Hunt
Give each child a bag and a list of things to find from around the yard. You can keep it all-natural (two different kinds of leaves, a flat rock, something red, something soft, something square, a Y-shaped twig) or hide various objects throughout the yard and assign different ones to each child, so they have to pick and choose only the ones meant for them.
Giant Marbles
Gather as many large sports balls as you can, and use rope to make a large circle on the lawn. Place all the balls inside the circle except for the heaviest ball. Have the kids stand 10 feet away from the circle and take turns rolling the heaviest ball at the balls in the circle, trying to knock out as many balls as they can without the “shooter” ball going outside the ring. If a player knocks a ball out of the ring, he gets to keep it and then take another turn. When the circle is empty, the player with the most balls wins.
Duck Pond
Fill a kiddie pool or large tub with water. Buy several dozen rubber ducks (they’re inexpensive at party supply stores) and use a Sharpie to mark some of the ducks with a star on the underside. Float the ducks in the tub and have kids take turns picking a duck to see if they win a prize.
Another way to play is to use the same number of rubber ducks as prizes, and to number both the prizes and the ducks. Then each child draws one duck to find out which prize they get. This is especially fun if you put the prizes inside of paper bags, so it’s all a big surprise!
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