Have some old nerf guns lying around? Gather them up and use them for some quality family time! After all, isn't love spelled T-I-M-E?
So grab your nerf guns, set your phones down (and put them into airplane mode) and bring out your inner child!
I have three super fun games for you and your families. I promise you, adults and kids alike will have fun with these games.
The first game is called the cup game. My husband invented this one day when we needed something to do. Since then, every single person we have played this with loves it. From itty-bitty kids to full grown adults.
This is what you will need ...
1. You need nerf guns with A LOT of extra ammo.
2. You also need plastic cups, please make sure you do not use glass cups here!
3. You need something that will create obstacles that the runners can hide behind and a place for the shooters to stand behind. Depending on the number of people playing you will need one or two shooters, one person to reload the ammo and then the rest are runners.
This is how it works ....
The object of the game is for the runners to start at point A, run towards the cups while the shooters are shooting, gran the cups and then return them to their starting point. We usually set out 20-25 cups and then set a timer for 5-8 minutes. If the runners get all the cups back to their starting point in that time than the runners win. If they don't, then the shooters win that round. There are rules and I HIGHLY suggest you have an adult playing so that they can keep kids honest about if they got shot or not.
The rules:
- The runners have to start with one hand on the wall. If they get shot they have to return to the starting wall and touch it before going again.
- If they have a cup in in their hand when they get shot they have to set it down right where they got shot and then go back and touch the wall.
- The runners are not allowed to toss the cups to one another. They have to be the one to grab it and take it back to the wall.
- The shooters have a spot that they are not allowed to cross with their bodies or with their guns. In our house that spot it the counter top.
In the pictures below you have some of the runners hiding while the shooters shoot. In the middle is the starting point for the runners. They have to start with at least one hand on the starting wall. The far right is one of the runners hiding behind an obstacle as she makes her way towards the cups.
Like I said earlier, we have yet to find someone who doesn't love this game! It's a great challenge for everyone involved and has just the right amount of intensity to it.
The second game is capture the flag. We've done this couple times now and what we've learned is that in this game it's better if the parents stick to being the referees. We're just a little too tall! The other things we've learned, and this is important is that this game is ideal when you have 8-10 players. If you have more than that it just becomes a chaotic mess while any less than that and it's kind of boring. So this would be a great game to play for a birthday party or on a night when. you invite one other family over.
What you need:
You will need large obstacles. We used cardboard boxes that we got from a neighbor who had recently moved in. They worked perfectly!! Plus, when you're done with capture the flag you can take all those boxes and make an awesome fort for your kids.
Okay, I got sidetracked. You will also need nerf guns and a flag for each team. When we invited the kids over for our nerf party we told them to bring their own gun so we didn't have to provide all the guns. It worked out perfectly. We also had each team decorate their own flag & they had a great time with that!
How you play: Once you have your obstacles up, teams divided & flags hidden it's time to start. Each team starts on their side and the object of the game is to get to the other side, capture the other teams flag and bring it back to your team's starting point without getting shot from the other team. Like in the cup game, if you get shot you need to go back to the beginning and start again. This game is fun because every player has their own gun and can shoot as they are running. Again, it's a very good idea to have an adult referee that can make the final decisions on if someone actually got hit. When the kids are running they often can't feel if a nerf bullet hits their clothing.
The third game is Target Shooting. I lost all my pictures from the times we've played this game when I lost my laptop in NYC. So just image!!
What you need: Targets! We made ours out of cardboard, construction paper and stickers. We placed a numerical value on each target starting at 5 and moving up in random increments until we got to 100. We mostly just used ten's but when we got done and realized we needed a few more we added a few 5's. Like 25,55, 75 and 85. you can make as many or as few targets as you want. The larger the number, the smaller the actual target was.
How the game works: You hang your targets up around your house. The lower the number (the 5, 10, 15 and 20) will be pretty low to the ground. The larger numbers will be closer to the ceiling with the number 100 being the hardest to hit. You than set a timer for a set amount of time, around 3-5 minutes, and let the kids shoot the targets. The goal is to get to 200 points (or it could be 300 or 500, you need to determine that based off of the age of kids) before the timer goes off. When we played we actually had starburst we would give out. So every time the child got to 200 points they could come to use and we would give them 2 starbursts.
Okay! You're armed and ready to go with awesome ideas on how you can make memories with your kids. The rest is up to you. Plan it, make it happen! You could surprise them sometime or have them help with all the set up. And then let me know how it went. I would love to hear which games were your kids favorites.
Do you need a great way to end your night? Pick up some ice cream and make a batch of this to drizzle over the top. It's pretty much the yummiest hot fudge sauce ever and you can whip it up in under 10 minutes. Bam, fun games and dessert served!
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