Mustache Party

When our oldest son turned twelve, we decided to celebrate his “coming of age” with a Man Party (AKA Mustache Party).

Invitation
Our invitation was very manly (absolutely no cutesiness). We copied a photo of our son, drew a mustache on him with a marker, then wrote the party details on the inside of the card.

Mustache Invitation  Inside Mustache Invitation

The invitation asked that all guests come wearing facial hair. –And boy did our guests deliver. We had a lot of manly facial hair at that party!

Mustache Girls
Girls with yarn mustaches

Activities

Ultimate Man Jeopardy (or Macho Madness)

Jeopardy Board

When the guests had all arrived and been photographed with their mustaches, we played a lively game of “Ultimate Man Jeopardy”. I didn’t make it like the real game of Jeopardy. In fact, the only similarity was the board itself. I made a huge board with 6 columns and four rows. The rows each had an index card with $200, $400, $600, or $800. Think of the game Jeopardy, and you’ll know how it looks… something like the table below. Under each index card was a question or challenge. The teams had to be the first to yell “Carburetor” to answer the questions. (You could choose another manly word.) If it was a challenge, everyone did it and the judge (me) decided who won the points.  Macho Madness Questions

Macho Madness

Male or Female?

It’s in the News All About Sports Birthday Man Fuzzy Faces

Manly Men

$200

$200 $200 $200 $200 $200

$400

$400 $400 $400 $400

$400

$600

$600 $600 $600 $600

$600

$800 $800 $800 $800 $800

$800

 

We had six categories (columns) for Jeopardy- with the following questions/challenges under each card. I’ve listed them all as questions, but you’ll notice that many are challenges, and many require supplies to accomplish the tasks.

Category: Male or Female?

$200 Question: Who has more taste buds, boys or girls? Answer: A recent study in Denmark showed that boys and girls have roughly the same number of taste buds. However, the study showed that girls generally have a better sense of taste than boys. The study was held by the Danish Science Communication and The Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.

$400 Question: Is the heaviest person in the world a male or female? Answer: Male at 1400 lbs. The closest female is 1200 lbs.

$600 Question: There is scientific evidence that eating a certain vegetable will make a man more attractive to women. What vegetable is it? Answer: For men, chewing a stalk of celery releases androsterone and androstanol odor molecules – making them more attractive to women.

$800 Question: Does a man or woman have the world record for the longest fingernails? Answer: Woman. Lee Redmond of Salt Lake City, Utah, has the record with nails measuring 28 feet, 4 inches.

 

Category: It’s in the News: Newspapers (Don’t all men love the newspaper?)

$200 Question: Build a hat out of newspaper. Best hat wins the points.

$400 Question: Name five major newspapers.

$600 Question: A person from the team who picked this category must sit on a stool with a cup on his head. The remaining guest will wad up newspapers and throw them at the cup. Whoever knocks the cup off first wins the points.

$800 Question: Use one page of a newspaper. Find and circle each individual letter in this sentence:  “Happy Birthday ________(name of child).”

Paper Hat
Newspaper Hat

Category: Sports

$200 Question: Name five sports that don’t use a ball.

$400 Question: Free throw shooting contest– Everyone gets 5 shots.  High score wins the points.

$600 Question: Name ten events in the winter Olympics.

$800 Question: Who is the tallest NBA player in history? Answer: Both Gheorge Muresan and Manute Bol were 7’7”. However, Muresan weighed 325 lbs. and Bol only weighed 200 lbs. Shaun Bradley and Yao Ming are tied for second place at 7’6”.

 

Category: Manly Men

$200 Question: Choose one person from each team to drink a cup of root beer.  Best belch wins the points.

$400 Question: Choose one person from each team to be Chuck Norris.  His teammates will toss foam blocks at him and he will try to kick the blocks using his best Round House Kick. Most foam blocks kicked wins the points.

$600 Question: Watch a Saturday Night Live sketch of Hans & Franz. Choose two people from your team to do their best reenactment of the skit. Best skit wins the points.

$800 Question: One person from each team pretends to be Mr. T, Nacho Libre, Hulk Hogan, or Rocky Balboa. Have a “wrestling match” wear the competitors’ goal is to take the socks off the other wrestlers. (Make a square with masking tape on the floor that they must stay inside.) Last wrestler to have a sock on wins the points.

 

Category: Fuzzy Face

$200 Question: There is a point where a man’s beard reaches its growth limit. It won’t grow any more. What is the longest amount of time a beard will continue to grow? Answer: 6 years

$400 Question: Name five famous people with beards.

$600 Question: Name three good reasons a person on your team should grow a mustache.

$800 Question: Shave the face of one person on your team. (Use shaving cream and a popsicle stick.)

 

Category: Birthday Man

You can make up your own questions about your particular birthday boy.

Baby Mustache
Even Grandma and Baby sported mustaches at the party!

Epic Road Ralley

After the games, we divided into groups and set off on a photo scavenger hunt. The groups had to take photos of themselves with as many of the items on the list as they could find in one hour. Remember, all of our guests had awesome facial hair- so these photos were pretty funny. There was an adult driver assigned to each group who also served as the photographer. The groups had to be back to the house by a designated time. If they were late, points were deducted from their scores.

Here’s our Mustache Photo Challenge list:  Manly Road Ralley Checklist

Road Ralley
This team spotted some chainsaws.
Fancy dresses
Next find– fancy dresses.

Back at home, we shared the photos, laughed at each other, opened gifts, and had a huge ice cream smorgasbord. We also broke out the left-over root beer from the earlier events so we could have a manly belching contest. Good times!

 

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Fun Family Next Door- Family laughing together

The Fun Family Next Door is the place to find inspiration for your next gathering.  Our focus is on making memories and building relationships through fun family activities. We don’t put much thought into decorations.  It’s the fun without the fancy stuff.  So, if you’re looking for great games, real family adventures, and party plans that will make kids smile… you’ve come to the right place.  We’re so glad you stopped by!

Scroll through our menu to find unique activities for your church and school groups, family reunions, and neighborhood parties. We have creative gift ideas, and strategies for teaching children to work.  Find recommendations for family movies and books that will add more fun to your household.  Come on in and stay awhile!  We hope you feel at home.

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“We didn’t know we were making memories. We just knew we were having fun.”  -Winnie the Pooh

Mini Golf Party

My seven-year-old son wanted to go miniature golfing for his birthday, but he didn’t want to leave our house to do it. He wanted to build an 18-hole miniature golf course in our yard. -So, we did! Afterward, I thought this would be a fun party with several families. You could have a pile of supplies and let each family build three holes.

Invitation

Here’s the simple invitation we sent to all of his golfing buddies:

Golf Invitation
Mini Golf Invitation

Golf Clubs/Balls/Tees/Scorecards

As the guests arrived, they checked in at the club house and received their scorecard, ball, and putter. We borrowed putters from lots of neighbors. Many of the kids were able to bring a putter from home. In the end, a couple of kids used random irons. That worked out just fine. I purchased a box of golf balls and tees. You can find these online or at any sporting goods store. I printed my own score cards and gave each foursome one card and a pencil. Here’s the scorecard with the rules printed beneath.  Mini Golf Scorecard

 

The Golf Course

Dividing the Yard into 18 Holes

I bought four rolls of brightly colored plastic marking tape at Harbor Freight & Tools. They use this tape (which is not sticky) to mark off areas during construction projects. I used this tape to divide both the front and back yards into 18 sections. I used 3-inch-long nails to pin the ends of the tape into the grass. These were our 18 holes. Most holes were long rectangular sections, but a few were triangles. In each section, I stuck a flag with the number of the hole. This helped our golfers know where to go next and where to mark their score. I made the flags with dowels and paper. You could also use sprinkler flags.

Putting

Building the Holes

We found that the best thing for the actual holes were large 24 oz. paper cups. We laid them on their side and stuck a nail inside and through the cup into the ground to hold it in place.

We used all kinds of stuff to create the obstacles leading up to our holes. Here are some of our ideas:

PVC or dryer vent pipe for tunnels

Multiple 2 X 4’s, rocks, and bricks made great tools for building obstacles.

A castle made from a cardboard box with a hole through the middle (the doorway).

A ramp that drops into a toddler’s potty. (The kids thought that was hilarious.)

Weave the ball around a bunch of boots or shoes.

Make an animal face with a hole for the mouth.

We built a wooden ramp up and over a small kiddie pool—water hazard!

Plastic rain gutters make great ramps and slides.

Boxes- Oh what you can do with boxes! Ooh- and plastic crates or bins are great too.

Tree branches are challenging to hit a ball through.

Tires are great obstacles.

Orange cones (We have them for soccer drills.)

2 X 4’s set at different angles are fun because balls bounce off them and go a different way.

Toys! You can incorporate any cool toy buildings into your course. Think Little People, Legos, blocks, etc.

You can also use a lot of other toys. We used our big stuffed alligator and plastic snakes for a fun swampy hole.

We used a bicycle right in the middle of a hole. They had to hit the ball between the wheels to get through to the hole.

Creative Golf Holes

Treats/Cake

We served golf ball cake pops- which were donut holes on a stick, dipped in white chocolate, and sprinkled with white nonpareils (sprinkles).

The birthday cake was frosted with chocolate icing, then sprinkled with green colored coconut (grass) and white Sixlets that looked like tiny golf balls. I wrote the birthday boy’s name with red golf tees and stuck a flag made from a bamboo skewer with a 7 (the birthday boy’s age) written on it. We saved the cake to eat after dinner and gave the kids cupcakes. The cupcakes were frosted, sprinkled with the coconut grass, and had a large white gumball on top. You can kind of see them on the far right side of the photo above.  Super easy and super cute!