Neighborhood Party Archives - Fun Family Next Door

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.

Neighborhood Mini Triathlon

We have organized two mini-triathlons for the kids in our neighborhood. It was part of a celebration of the end of summer. The kids in the neighborhood were invited to bike one mile, swim two lengths of the pool, then run half a mile. We had kids from age 5 – 14 participate. You should have seen all those proud faces when they crossed the finish line!

Make sure to recruit at least 8 adults to help. You’ll need to place them along the route to keep everyone safe. Map out your course and give your volunteers specific assignments, making sure there is an adult at any road crossings or wear a kids could stray from the route. You’ll also need timers with stopwatches and clipboards recording start and finish times. And, you will need a volunteer lifeguard at the pool.

We like this order, bike – swim – run, but you could also put your swim at the end. Kids don’t want to get out of the pool once they’re in, so we like sandwiching it in the middle so the pool stays clear for the next athlete.

The Starting Line

We wrote numbers on the kids’ shoulders with eye liner pen. The pens are waxy so they don’t rub off in the water.

We sent the kids one at a time, every thirty seconds. They raced against the clock, not each other. Otherwise, there would be way too many kids in the pool at once and the bike route would be too crowded as well.

Biking

Swimming

Running

The Finish Line

I really love this event. I think it’s a great opportunity for kids to feel the glory of hard work and determination. We all feel better about ourselves when we finish something difficult. Everyone feels like a winner if they complete the course– and they all did!

End of Summer Neighborhood Block Party

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.

Tag: Neighborhood Party