Game Show Party -9yr- Game Relays

My daughter's 9th birthday was looming and we had to come up with something different. Since at home birthday parties are rare around here they are actually a novelty in and of themselves.  This year we came up with a "game show" theme with two teams involved. We based the games on "Beat the CLock" and "Family Feud" but the possibilities are endless.

I bought yellow and green T shirts on sale at the Rag Shop and pre-assigned the teams so there would be no arguing at the party. As the girls arrived and we waited for more party-goers, we had them make their own name tags and pin them to their T-shirts.

Our games included "Smartie Sucker" where the two teams raced the clock (75 secs.) to see how many smarties they could suck onto the end of their straws and move them from one bowl to another one about 6 feet away. As time is announced, I counted the smarties in the bowls and announced a winner.

The next relay was "Cottonball Relay" where the two teams again raced the clock to see how many cottonballs they could each move from one bowl to another on the end of a plastic spoon held in their mouths. Again, at time we counted and declared a winner.

The third game was "Sponge Relay" where the two teams filled their sponges with water from a central bucket and raced to fill a glass. At time, we measured to see which team had moved the most water.  OUr last Beat the Clock game was "Balloon Srop" where they put inflated balloons between their knees and raced the clock to see who moved more balloons to a crate in 75 seconds. You get the idea! 

To calm down, we moved on to "Family Feud" where the teams answered "survey" questions I had made up about "Favorite Kids' Meals", "Favorite Girls' Sports", "Favorite Desserts", "Favorite Nick Shows" etc.  I had taken poster board and glued the answers on. When they guessed a correct answer, I removed the construction paper strip covering that particular answer and the team received the points. 

At the end we added up the points and declared a winning team.  We then went inside for cake in the shape of a hundred dollar bill with my daughter's head photo where Ben Franklin's would be. When they finished we went outside for the swirling whirlwind which was embarrassingly low tech, but the girls loved it - I had fake money which I threw in front of a floor fan placed on high power. They chased down all the money and we counted up for an overall winner. In order of monetary value they went to the prize table to pick their prize.

The prizes were all the same but in different colors. The girls had a blast and they had so much fun it didn't matter who "won"!