First, you’ll need to make two pairs of shoe cups. Use a pushpin to poke holes in the bottom of clear plastic cups. Push a wide rubber band through the holes to create a strap. To play, split the birthday party guests into two teams. The first player straps cups on their shoes and fills them with popped popcorn from a bag at the starting line. Then the player hustles to a basket on the other end of the lawn. After the player dumps out the popcorn in the baskets and races back, the next player follows suit. The race is over when one of the bags of popcorn is empty. Measure the popcorn in the baskets to see which team got the most in. To play, each player gets 10 letters. The first player spells a word on the ground. The next player must build off that word. The player with the fewest letters at the end wins! Cut a rectangular hole on both sides of a cardboard box. You want the hole large enough to comfortably fit your Frisbee. Decorate the box with colorful tape, paper, or paint. Grab a bunch of Frisbees, and off you go! Get the most Frisbees to land inside the box by aiming for the hole. Decorate plain burlap potato sacks with felt cutouts to suit the party theme. Use fabric glue or fusible web and an iron to adhere the shapes to the sacks. Give each child a potato sack. Line the kids up in a grassy area. At the starting signal, have kids hop down a marked path—include a few curves to add a challenge—to the finish line. Keep the path clear to prevent injuries. Be careful of tiny toes—the tower will fall at the end of the game. Editor’s Tip: Add a twist by blindfolding the contestants. Have kids wade through the pool using only their feet to discover the underwater treasures. Encourage the onlookers to shout out advice. Make sure to supervise so everyone stays safe. Editor’s Tip: This fun game for kids doubles as a DIY party favor. Send each guest home with a wand and a small bottle of bubble solution. Editor’s Tip: Make this fun game for kids even wilder. Arm a team with water balloons to use as obstacles and distractions while the other team tries to push its bucket across the finish line. Editor’s Tip: Alert parents about your plans for an outdoor party and ask about their children’s allergies. Make sure to have silk flowers on hand, just in case. Editor’s Tip: You can also use large square flooring tiles to make the board. Inexpensive tiles are available at home improvement stores. Start with 30 wooden dowels; ½-inch-diameter dowels in a standard length, such as 48 inches, work well. Paint the ends with bright colors: red, blue, green, yellow, orange, and purple, for example. To start the game, drop the sticks on the ground in a big messy pile, and let the kids take turns picking up a stick. If a stick other than the one the child is removing wiggles, the child must return the stick and forgo his or her turn. At the end, the player with the most sticks wins. Editor’s Tip: Add a challenge to the game by assigning each player a color. The first player to successfully remove all the sticks of the assigned color wins the party game. Dice are a dynamic yard toy, so come up with your own variations on common dice games to keep the fun going.
