Minute to Win It

Recently, the youth in Alyssa's class in our ward at church agreed that it would be fun to have weekend parties for playing games together. After a kick-off that was a birthday party, they moved on, and this weekend, Alyssa volunteered to host a party at our house.

Alys did some research to find some Minute to Win It games, and here's some of what she came up with, in no particular order:

First.... ping pong basketball. The backboards are clipboards attached to the kids' belts. Their teammate had to use ping pong balls to hit the backboard and [hopefully] get as many ping pong balls into the "baskets" as they could (we used ice cream buckets, but wastebaskets would be better because they're deeper.) Those with the clipboard could help maneuver them, although it didn't seem to make much difference!!
Another game used a popsicle stick in the mouth, and stacking 6 dice on the popsicle stick -- and had to hold for at least 3 seconds. Not bad, not bad.......

The really challenging game: "Glass Road Truckers". In only 60 seconds, they had to stand 8 bottles and a drinking glass in a row, upside down, with a shot glass on top of the drinking glass. And THEN they had to blow a ping pong ball across this line, and into the shot glass at the end. It was definitely not easy!!

(We used Jarritos bottles: it's a made-in-Mexico soda that we made the kids hurry and drink so we could use their bottles!) But after taking a long time for setup, Darcie managed to get her ping pong ball in with only one try! Showoff!!

And finally, it's not a game night at our house without a rousing game of "States". I can't believe I haven't already explained this. Disclaimer: this one can get a bit violent........

For this game, each person chooses a state for themselves. (Up to 50 could play, but it gets a bit difficult with more than 25, really.) One person - the hitter - stands in the middle with a rolled-up newspaper. The object is NOT to get hit with the newspaper. So when someone calls your state name, you must call another state before the hitter nails you with the newspaper. If you call the name of another state, then the hitter can hit THEM. If you don't call another state before they hit you, then you're up. You become the new hitter and the previous hitter sits down in your place. It's a lot of fun:

Other extenuating rules:

You must speak up: no whispering a state name.

If you call the state of the person who IS the hitter, they can hit you and you're up.

If you call a state that's not being used, the hitter can hit you and you're up.

Once you as a hitter get to sit down..... you MUST call the name of a state before you sit. Otherwise, the new hitter can immediately hit you, and you're up again.

Hit only the knees of the person, and not excessively. It IS a game.

Some strategy does come in to play, like when the two players continually call each other's state, or when everyone agrees that Someone needs a turn in the middle, so they all call his state, no matter who he calls.

The game is over when the newspaper is shredded to bits and completely unusable. Whenever the extended Huffakers get together, we try to include States sometime during the gathering. In fact, Brandon mentioned that he recently taught the game to some Jamaicans, and I believe they rather enjoyed it!! (Be sure you're reading his blog for updates.... he only has FOUR MONTHS left! http://www.huffakermission.blogspot.com/ )

The kids had fun at Alyssa's party.... and next weekend, I believe they already have one scheduled. At someone ELSE'S house!