Fun Kid Carnival/Party Games

by Sariah S. Wilson

Recently my husband's company threw a company picnic. It was a beautiful location where they had rented out an air-conditioned lodge (thankfully, because it was 5000 degrees outside with a million percent humidity). They served all kinds of yummy food, and then after the meal had kids' games planned.

The games were set up behind the lodge, where there was only one path in and out (good way to keep an eye on everyone). They had a moonbounce (expensive) which the kids loved, but then they had these very inexpensive type games that the kids all really enjoyed.

Our ward tends to do carnival type activities and oftentimes they seem to have a hard time coming up with ideas of things to do, so as I imagined other people might be in similar circumstances, I thought I would share.

The first was a ring toss. They took a lot of two liter soda bottles, filled them up with sand in the bottom and decorated the outside with logos from different pro football teams. The rings were just toy rings you could get at any store.

They had a bean bag toss. They had made an initial investment of a toy where you could toss the bean bag in to (it had Elmo on it), but then every year after that you have a game that doesn't cost anything. They awarded levels of prizes based on how many/which hole you got your bean bag in.

The third, and my daughter's absolute favorite, was they took a big round toy bucket with rope handles (my mom used to have tons of these for her daycare) and filled it up with sand. They buried cheap plastic animal toys. When you dug up a toy, you got a prize. If you found a frog you got a big prize. The two-year-old found a frog and didn't care. She just wanted to kneel there and keep digging in the sand. (We made her stop when she threw sand in another little girl's hair.)

Then they had your typical Tootsie Roll sucker game where you pull a sucker out and if your sucker has color on the bottom you win. Even if you don't get a prize you still get a sucker.

They set up a baby wading pool, put water in it and put in a bunch of rubber ducks. Each of the ducks had a different symbol (heart, star, smiley face) on the bottom and you had to find five of a kind to win a prize. Again, another game we had to drag the two-year-old away from.

The last game that they had set up they took another one of those large, circular, rope handle bins and filled it with water. They attached candy dishes to floating discs and then the kids had to throw ping-pong balls into the dishes. If they got it in, they won a prize.

The company had other games like a water balloon toss and cornhole (which is a really big deal here in Ohio and Kentucky) and even a dunk tank where you could pay to get upper management all wet.

There were also some door prizes, which I convinced my husband to enter because I always think those are fun. They're even more fun when you win, which we did! But we didn't find out until the next week because we left before the drawing (everybody was too hot and tired at that point to keep functioning). We won passes to Dollywood and Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I hear that's a fun place to visit, and it's only about a five-hour drive from here, so we're going to try and go this fall (it would be our second ever family vacation).

Do you have ideas for inexpensive, easy and fun carnival or party games?