Reunion 101

• Every year on both sides of our family we head out for fun family reunions. This year we happened to be in charge of both our family reunions. One we hosted here at the Homestead and the other we went to a family cabin. Both were very enjoyable and each different. We have loved including opportunities to learn about our family past and present.


• If you find yourself in charge of a family reunion here are a few tips and fun ideas that have worked for us.
  


• Reunion 101.


• Pick a theme or person to highlight.


• On my side of the family we have picked a different person each year to tell about their mission and it has been lots of fun learning about Australia, Germany, and Bulgaria.


• This year on my hubbies side we choose his Grandfather. We played Jeopardy based on stories from his life.


• One year we focused on my Grandmother and took coloring pages out of a Precious Moments coloring book and wrote captions about her life underneath...(an idea we stole from my Mother in Law) It was a fun way for the kids to get involved.


• This year on my side we also did a driving tour of the city of Layton were both of my parents lived while they were growing up. We had addresses, and driving instructions on where to go and then a brief history when we arrived. It was fun for our kids to see where my parents went to school, and church. To hear about how Grandpa rode his tricycle all the way to main street when he was 5 years old.


• Plan activities but not too many.


• We have found that it is good to plan activities like roasting s'mores or this year we did a fun skit called "For the Love of Alvin and Maggie" but don't schedule too much and be flexible. We had planned other activities, but the kids were having so much fun outside playing night games and looking for shooting stars during the meteor shower we just let them play.

We also thought it would be fun this year to have some friendly competition. We set up a small rifle range with BB guns and a Wii Bowling competition. All fun things that everyone could participate in. Here is our own "Granny Oakley" who shot an 83 and was our most improved shot. Try something different. This year we thought it would be fun to show a silent movie...especially since they were popular during the life of Grandpa M. We watched "The General" a Buster Keaton movie that we were able to get from Netflix and had popcorn and caramel corn. It turned out to be a fun evening. Last year my sister-in-law rented a Karaoke machine and we had a great time singing and laughing together.Another fun and easy idea is Family Bingo. My sister in law made this game up and we have played it for the last couple of years. It has pictures of things we do at the reunion, and names of each family. It is a fun and easy tradition.
We also played some fun games called "Minute to Win It" a lot like the TV show. They were a huge success. If you want ideas for these games go here.


We take all kinds of craft projects and have them out on the table so kids can work on them. We love these beads... They are perler beads and you can even buy them at IKEA.Most of all I really believe it is about spending time together and enjoying one anothers company. Hope you have wonderful, fun reunions this year. If you have other ideas be sure to leave a comment.