Starting a Neighborhood Family Group

I would play fun games - my friend threw a party for her hubby and had some fun games - it was a total blast.

One game was she had the name of a celebrity taped to everyone's backs and you could ask questions of people to guess who the celebrity was and the first person to guess their celebrity wins a prize. You can do this either in small groupings at a table or walking around socializing, either way is fun.
Another one I read about on line sounds fun.

Before your party make up a grid sheet with some personal characteristics on each line. Like: sings in shower; been to Asia; never had a speeding ticket; watches a soap opera; has met a famous person; wears thong underwear; plays the lottery; speaks at least three languages; etc. Distribute copies of grid sheet to your guests and have them go around and collect unique signatures of guests who have those characteristics. The first person to get all (or the most) squares filled in wins a door prize.

Another fun one you can have everyone do is sit down and write all 50 states and the first person to get it wins a prize.

Prizes can be dollar store items like a candle, salt and pepper shakers, little kitchen things, it is not about the prize, it is about having fun.

Cute and fun idea!

Hi there!

I think the following links that I copied and pasted for you should help:

http://www.sugardoodle.net/Get%20to%20know%20you%20games/... (a Jenga getting to know you game)

http://thecraftingchicks.com/2010/05/minute-to-win-it.html

http://www.theredheadedhostess.com/home-and-garden/fun/fu... (the name game)

If you want more ideas, just go to Pinterest.com and type in a search... like... getting to know you games or party games. (You don't have to be a member, although it free, to check out boards/pins.) I love being a member though because I save all the interesting stuff that I find unto boards.

Have fun with your neighborhood group! I've always wanted to get one started around my neighborhood. Some moms play Bunco (card game) every month and I was invited as a sub and I loved it! It gave me a chance to get to know some of the moms in between rounds of Bunco.

J.

My neighborhood group used to have coloring contests, bike rodeo with a police officer to talk to the kids about safety, short meetings with just lemonade and cookies, longer meetings with pizza or hotdogs, a plant exchange, and a garage sale or swap meet.

We do two things "annually"... a cookie exchange where each mommy brings 4 dozen "signature cookies" with the recipe attached. All of the cookies go on a table and after a cup of coffee/tea/juice and a chatting everyone gets to leave with 4 dozen. We do this at Christmas time and it's a lot of fun.

We also do an annual Mary Kay party. I know it sounds funny, but we have one woman in the neighborhood who sells the products so rather than all of us having to host/purchase we gather at her house in late August for wine and appetizers, makeovers and lots of girly chatting.

I like the idea of a coloring contest at a restaurant. It will keep the kids engaged and you could have several prizes with age categories.

We had a great neighborhood group. We tended to meet each Friday evenings after work, usually at the house that had a wonderful long gated driveway..

We would bring our own drinks and snacks for the kids and adults.. Take our own folding chairs. Sometimes, if we were out there pretty late, we would order food to be delivered.. we each paid our own orders..

There are a ton of family friendly free or very low cost events going on all of the time here in town.. If one family was considering attending, we would share the information with each other..

Example.. The Annual Kite flying contest at a central park.. Usually one family would promise to get there first and save a spot, then we would all take out own picnics and gather there. We would watch each others children, share snacks,, etc..

We celebrated the adults birthdays sometimes.. Maybe the host would make a huge pot of chili and the rest of us would sign up to bring sides, drinks..

I usually hosted the Halloween night Trick or Treat pre party. I served dinner and then we would all talk about the rules.. That the kids needed to say, "Trick or Treat Please".. Then to "say thank you", "when you were given the treat. No eating the candy until you get home." "Does everyone have a flashlight and glow necklace?"

We would sometimes meet at a parade in the same spot.. It was just known someone would be there to join.

We did giant Simon says games with everyone participating. Of course we would also have the children sometimes lead.. Red light Green Light.

We pretty much used the same rules with all of our kids..

"Ask them to share in your nice voice."

"We do not hit, use your words."

" Looks like it is time for that toy to go to time out, if the 2 of you cannot share."

"Careful, soft and gentle when you play with each other. "

"I sure do like your nice manners!"

"Uh, oh, you fell down, you look just fine!"

We all had a list of each others names, children's names, address, home numbers cell numbers, emails.. etc.. Work numbers..

One person would gather the info and then pass them out.. If there was an update, we would email it to the list.

It is wonderful to get together and just let the kids play and the adults just visit.. No agenda needed.