Last weekend Esther and William had their 8th birthday party

And for the first time in 8 years

It rained on party day

I am so happy to report that rain did not stop play

The children did not really seem to be aware of the weather at all

They all had a glorious time

Playing football

Exploring the tree house

And toasting marshmallows round the firepit

Esther and William asked for an adventure party

So we pulled together a pirate treasure hunt

With a campfire cake

And food that could be cooked on the fire

Baked potatoes, sausages, cheese and beans

And we punctuated the party

With some minute to win it games

We had road tested some of these at an earlier family party

And Esther and William loved them

They are perfect for parties

And really good rainy day fun for everyone

Here are our favourite

Minute to Win It Games

For each game

I chose a song to be played

The songs work best if edited into

Sixty second snippets

GAME – FACE THE COOKIE
SONG – C IS FOR COOKIE
Place a cookie on each player’s forehead
They have to use only their face muscles (no hands) to get it into their mouth

GAME – DEFYING GRAVITY
SONG – DEFYING GRAVITY
Give each player one, two or three balloons
They have to keep all their balloons up in the air for a minute

GAME – TRAFFIC YAM
SONG – PUSHBIKE SONG
Push a sweet potato across the floor from one side of the room to another
With just your nose
This works well as a relay race

GAME – THE NUTSTACKER
SONG – DANCE OF THE SUGAR PLUM FAIRY
Players will stand facing the table
With 5 metal nuts strung onto a wooden chopstick in front of them
At the whistle, they will move the nuts to the end of the wooden chopstick
And stack 5 metal nuts on top of each other
If the nuts fall, you must start again

GAME – OREO UNICORN
SONG – THE UNICORN
When the music starts players may begin
Using one hand to stack Oreos one at a time on their forehead
If a cake or cakes fall the player may use the same hand to restack them

GAME – SUGAR STACK
SONG – LOLLIPOP
Each player has a lollipop stick in their mouth
They must try to stack sugar cubes on to their stick
Start with four sugar cubes and increase numbers for players who succeed

GAME – POM POM RACE
SONG – THE CIRCUS SONG
Using tweezers players must move pom poms from one bowl to another
First to move all is the winner or the person who has moved the most in the minute

GAME – MARSHMALLOW MATES
SONG – SWEETS FOR MY SWEET
This game is played in pairs
One person has a cup full of mini marshmallows
One person has empty cup
Players throw marshmallows one at a time to land in their partner’s cup

GAME – PING PONG POLKA
SONG – CRAZY FROG
Each player has a tissue box filled with 12 ping pong balls
The box has ribbon attached so that it can be tied around the players’ waists
The object of the game is to dance the balls out of the box
Be the first to finish or have the least balls in your box at the end of sixty seconds

This was our favourite game and we changed the music to suit whoever was dancing
Very funny to see someone expecting Crazy Frog having to dance to the In The Night Garden Theme Tune

If you have a party to plan for

Or kids to keep entertained this summer

Why not give these sixty second stunts a try

You have to be in it

To win it

In a minute!