Messy Disgusting Derby Party

If you have a kid who loves to play in the dirt, then we have a party plan for you. This party is a mess, literally. Get your camera set up and prepare to laugh a lot at our messy Disgusting Derby!

Whipped Cream Face

The Disgusting Derby

First things first…

Make sure your invitation warns your guests to wear old clothes. Seriously, they may want to throw them away at the end of the party. Here’s our simple invitation:

Disgusting Derby Invitation

Now for the activities…

Divide your guests into groups of two people. Each pair will be a team. The activities will include a series of disgusting competitions.

Messy Marshmallow Drop

Supplies: Each team will need 5 large marshmallows, one cup of chocolate pudding, and one chair.

One person from each team will stand on a chair. The other will lay on the ground next to the chair. The goal is to dip a marshmallow in pudding, then drop it into the mouth of your partner laying on the ground. The team with the most marshmallow catches gets the points.

Messy Marshmallow Drop

Spitty Sticky Game

Supplies: One roll of LifeSavers per team (14 LifeSavers are in a roll.)

This game is seriously gross. One person in the pair will suck on the LifeSavers, then stick as many as they can on their partner’s face. They have 30 seconds. The team with the most LifeSavers on a face gets the points.

Spitty Sticky LifeSavers Game

Whipped Cream Toss

Supplies: One or two cans of spray whipped cream.

An adult will spray a blob of whipped cream on the top of each person’s hand. The kids will flip the whipped cream in the air and try to catch it in their mouths. (See video.) Give every player at least three chances. The team with the most successful catches gets the points.

Whipped Cream Toss

Whipped Cream Catch

Gross Goatees

Supplies: Each team will need a plastic cup with 1/8-1/4 cup corn syrup in it. They will also need a plastic cup with 1/2 cup of Life Cereal crumbs. (Make the crumbs by pouring Life cereal in a Ziplock bag and smashing it with a rolling pin or your hands.)

Once again, the teams will decide who will do each of two tasks. One person will paint a beard and mustache on their partner with their fingers and corn syrup. Then they will pat Life cereal crumbs on the syrup to create “facial hair.” So funny! Best beard wins the points.

Gross Goatee Bearded Boy

Disgusting Derby (Relay Race)

Supplies: Paper Plates, Creamy and slimy foods such as pudding, refried beans, canned tomato soup, cottage cheese, peanut butter, hummus, whipped cream, baby food, yogurt, and mud.

Combine the pairs into two large teams for a relay race. Players will run across the yard to a table. The table will have paper plates sitting on it. Each plate has one of the following items: pudding, refried beans, tomato soup, cottage cheese, peanut butter, hummus, whipped cream, baby food, yogurt, or mud. Anything slimy, sticky, or creamy will work! The plates will then be covered with a second plate so the contents are hidden. When the runner reaches the table, they point to a plate. An adult removes the cover and the player must smash his face in the contents before he can run back to tag the next person in line. Those who hesitate usually don’t win!

Smashing his face into chocolate pudding. Lucky choice!

Refried Beans Face — Covered in refried beans

Disgusting Derby- Tomato soup — Oooh! Tomato soup slime.

Whipped Cream Face

Water Fight

End the party with an epic water fight! It may help clean up your little mess-makers, or it may just make everything more sticky. Either way, it will be fun.

Treats

You can choose your favorite messy dessert. We served Dirt & Worms at our party. Yum!

Dirt and Worms Dessert Recipe

We hope this party is as much fun at your house as it was at ours!

Find more of our unique party ideas for kids ages 8-12 at Big Kid Parties.

Cousin Camp – For the Strength of Cousins

Our extended family holds a biannual cousin camp that mimics church youth conferences like For the Strength of Youth and Especially for Youth. Our cousins live all over the country so this is an opportunity for them to spend quality time together strengthening their cousin bonds.

It’s really great to have over twenty teens for this event. We invite all our cousins who are ages 12-18. Then we tell them to invite their cousins from the other side of their family and any close friends they think could be adopted cousins for the week. Our group has varied in size from 20-38 teens.

Our event usually runs from Tuesday evening to Saturday morning. Here are two example agendas.

Utah: For the Strength of Cousins Agenda 2020

North Carolina: For the Strength of Cousins Agenda 2023

Here are some ideas so you can organize your own Cousin Camp. We’ve divided our ideas into the fun stuff and the spiritual stuff. This is an opportunity to strengthen faith and family unity, so we always schedule faith-promoting devotionals and speakers at our event. However, we know our audience and no one would come if it wasn’t super fun. So, make sure you have a good balance of both and don’t forget to allow lots of free time.

-The Fun Stuff-

company competitions

Divide your group into teams of 5-10 people. Four groups is ideal. You can use these groups for food prep and cleaning assignments, but the main purpose is for everyone to be a part of a team. Every day should include at least one company competition. Here are four fun ideas:

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Set your teams lose on a photo scavenger hunt in a mall, park, or downtown plaza. Make a list of items and activities their team can photograph and video to earn points. Set a time limit and let them go!

Here’s our list: Photo Scavenger Hunt- Downtown Salt Lake City

Photo Scavenger Hunt Cousin Camp — Photo Scavenger Hunt in City Creek Plaza, Salt Lake City

Obstacle Course

Create an obstacle course in a back yard or park. We had access to an inflatable obstacle course that served as one leg of the race. Make sure there are enough obstacles that everyone on the team will be part of the competition. We had climbing, jumping, running, and throwing events. We also had a putting golf hole, a trampoline challenge, and then some team challenges like a human pyramid and carrying people. Make it up based on your space. You’ll need a few adult judges to make sure no one cheats. Make sure the rules are laid out clearly before you start. This is supposed to be fun, so you’ll want to avoid any arguments over the rules mid-competition.

Obstacle Course

Game Show Competition

We created a really fun game show competition that was a huge success. We needed an inside activity for a hot afternoon and this fit the bill. Here’s the link with a full description and clues: Epic Game Show Competition

Cousins Got Talent (Skit Night)

On our last night, all the teams made up a skit and performed for the group. We had a panel of judges (uncles, aunts, older cousins) who scored the skits for the team competition. The groups knew about this all week so they had talked about it and used some of their free time to prepare.

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Water Kickball

If you’ve never played water kickball, you’re in for a treat. This activity costs about $100 but you can use it over and over. You will need 3 inflatable kiddie pools, four rolls of 3’ X 50’ 4 mil plastic sheeting from a home improvement store, baby liquid soap, a rubber kickball, and access to a hose/water.

Roll out the plastic in a 50′ square with kiddie pools for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bases. Sit the pools on top of the plastic at each corner of your diamond to weigh it down. Pin down the home base corner with a couple of tent stakes. You don’t want stakes in the plastic anywhere else because someone could hurt their bare feet as they run. Squirt baby soap on the plastic, then spray it with water and fill up your kiddie pools. Keep the water flowing and continue to spray the plastic and fill the pools as needed throughout the game. Now, play kickball! You’ll be slipping and sliding and laughing the whole time.

Water Kickball

Yard Games

Make sure your event has lots of free time. Yard games should be readily available so the kids can play whenever they like. Volleyball and Four-Square were our two favorites last year.

Cousin Volleyball

Water Day

If you have access to a lake or reservoir, take advantage. Our group had a great time floating in the Great Salt Lake. (I’ve lived in Utah most of my life and I had never swam in the Great Salt Lake. It was a blast!) Other years, we went to a water park or swimming pool. Water is just fun– especially on hot summer days. Add a little water to your event if you can.

Trip to the Great Salt Lake — Swimming at the Great Salt Lake

Ropes Course

We really like ropes courses because they encourage teamwork, courage, and trust. We have had several good experiences with Utah’s CLAS Ropes Course in both Provo and Eden. In addition to the aerial park, we succeeded in several team building challenges on the ground. It was a great day.

More Information on CLAS Ropes Courses in Utah: CLAS Ropes

Ropes Course

Games

Check out some of our game ideas to use throughout your event. Large Group Games

-The Spiritual Stuff-

Devotionals

Devotionals by older cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents are at the heart of our cousins camp. There’s something special about learning from people who really love you. Make sure to include as many family members as you can to help promote faith and strength in your teens.

Cousin Camp at the Cemetery — We had a devotional by an older cousin at the graveside of our cousin, Alec. It was a special night.

Speakers

We set aside one day in the middle of our week as our speaker day. We invite two guests to speak back-to-back at 10:00 and 11:00. The speakers are followed by lunch and then one last speaker at 1:00. We invite seminary teachers and friends who we know will connect well with our teens.

Temple Trips

We always try to include a temple trip during our FSC Conference. It’s pretty special to go as cousins to perform baptisms for our ancestors.

Hike with a Speaker at the Summit

It’s fun to go on a short hike with your group and have a speaker at the summit. If you can time it at sunset, it’s even cooler. Don’t forget to bring your flashlights!

Antelope Island Hike

Service

It’s also important to add an element of service to your camp. One year, we did a bunch of yardwork. Another, we made posters and delivered them to a nursing home to hang on the residents’ doors.

Service Project

These are posters the kids made for a local nursing home.

We hope some of these ideas inspire you to hold your own Cousin Camp! Strong families = Strong world

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

One of our favorite activities is our annual neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. We’ve done it for more than 15 years! It’s a great way to celebrate spring and get to know all the great people in your neighborhood.

Invitations

We take flyers around to all the neighbors. We tape them on every door. Here’s an example: Easter Egg Hunt Flyer

Eggs

Every participating child brings 12 filled plastic eggs to our house before the day of the hunt. We make a list of the children’s ages. Then, we organize our list into groups of similar sizes. We usually have groups of 7-12 children. The age groups are different every year based on the number of children and their ages.

Easter Egg Hunt Sign

Mapping the hunt

Before the event, we walk the street knocking doors, asking neighbors if we can use their front yards for the egg hunt. We make a map of all the yards we have permission to use, and assign 3 yards to each age group.

Easter Egg Hunt Lawn Flags — Our flags are made from fabric and wooden dowels. You could also use sprinkler flags.

Sorting

We sort the eggs so each age group has 3 bags of eggs (for 3 yards) with 4 eggs per child in that age group. If we have 8 children in the red group, we will put 32 eggs in each of 3 bags and a red flag in each of those bags. Then, early on the morning of the hunt, we place a bag with its flag in front of each of the yards we are using. Our helpers come and hide all the eggs from the bag in that specific yard. They stick the flag in the front of the yard next to the sidewalk so the kids can find their assigned yards.

Instructions

When the families arrive, we gather them together. We announce the age groups and have all the kids raise their hands when their age group is announced. We tell them that there are three yards on the street marked with their color of flag. They can find 4 eggs in each of those yards. They are only to go into the front yards (no backyards) and they are not to step on flowers or plants. We yell, “Go!” and the children scramble.

Here’s a photo of our Easter Egg Hunt in 2021 with everyone wearing masks.

Bonus Eggs

When it appears that the children have found their 12 eggs, we will honk our car horn. Then the kids are free to go in any yard. (We always add many extra eggs to each yard.) They may find as many eggs as they can. There are also some silver eggs (covered in tin foil) that can be exchanged for prizes when found. We try to put a silver egg in each age group (not every house, just one of the three per age).

Breakfast

As the hunt winds down, we start the breakfast. Everyone brings potluck dishes to share. We provide the plates, utensils, and drinks. Families sit on blankets and camp chairs or mill around visiting.

We love this activity so much! It’s way better than a city egg hunt where the eggs are all gone in 2 minutes. This hunt takes time to go to several yards, and then to search longer for the silver eggs or the extras in other yards. The breakfast attracts neighbors without children and is a great way to visit with people you may not see often. It really is a great activity for everyone!

Make your neighborhood a great place to live by organizing events that bring people together! Find more ideas for neighborhood gatherings HERE.