It’s time to bring back the neighborhood block party to celebrate the end of summer! Invite everyone in your neighborhood by taping flyers to the doors of every house.
You can keep your party simple: outdoor BBQ and yard games. That’s really all you need for a good block party. However, if you want to spice it up even more, try adding activities like a neighborhood triathlon, road relay, and an outdoor movie.
The trick to throwing a block party is recruiting lots of help. You’ll need to ask lots of people to share their yards for the evening games and movie. In our case, there are three houses along the street that don’t have fences, so they share a giant combined backyard. This is a great location for our block party
Potluck Dinner
We set up grills and tables in the driveway for the potluck dinner. Families are invited to bring their own meat/veggies to grill and something to share. Our family provides the paper plates, utensils, cups, and water. Everyone brings chairs and blankets.
Yard Games
We use the large backyard for yard games like soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, flag football, kickball and dodge ball. Set up games like Kubb, lawn darts, and volleyball in other yards. We have some lazer tag guns that have also been used at block parties. Use them if you have them!
Road Relay
We sent one of our “take charge” moms around the party to recruit people to compete in our Road Relay. She successfully recruited seven teams. Each team had 5-6 people. The teams had to compete in a relay down the entire street and then back, completing all kinds of challenges. They started at House #1 with the first challenge. One member of the team jump roped from the first house to the second house. Then another teammate took over and completed the next challenge. There was a challenge at each house. We used chalk to mark start and finish lines on the sidewalk for certain challenges. We set up chairs and equipment as needed. Some challenges were individual tasks but others used multiple people or the whole team. People just had to take turns. Our course took about 20 minutes for one team to complete.
Challenges
- Jump Rope
- Hula Hoop 10 consecutive rotations
- 2-man carry
- Eat a bowl of cereal
- Shoot right & left lay ups and a free throw (make 3 baskets)
- Walk with a cotton ball on a spoon (If you drop it, you must return to start.)
- Knock down a kubb (8”block) with a wooden dowel from 20’
- Tricycle ride
- Walk with a tennis ball between knees
- Long division problem on whiteboard
- Sled Ride- Carry one teammate on a sled (Don’t drag them!)
- Scooter ride
- Human wheelbarrow race
- 10 push-ups
- Steamroller the whole team
- Potato sack race to the finish line
Mini Triathlon
If you’d like to add a mini triathlon to your neighborhood block party, you could hold it earlier in the day. Here’s the link for instructions to organize your own neighborhood kids triathlon: Neighborhood Mini Triathlon
Outdoor Movie
Another family offered their backyard for an outdoor movie after sunset. This was nice because they had the projector and screen all set up when we arrived. There was no conflict with games, dinner, or relays to prevent them from setting up early. People could bring their own chairs, pillows, popcorn, and Junior Mints.
Find more ideas to make you neighborhood a great place to live HERE.