I’m one of those people who spent hours planning theme related birthday parties for my girls. I know, gag me, right? I am creative, a teacher, and I live for that kind of nonsense.

So, I have experience with birthday celebrations from princesses to dinosaurs to cooking extravaganzas and back. I must say, the very best party I ever threw was a surprise party for my daughter Molly’s 8th birthday. We set up “Minute to Win It” games throughout the house and let the girls have at it. It was soooooo fun and soooooo easy! Basically, you buy the items on this list below, set them up in different areas of your house, give your guests a clip board with directions for each task (I included a pass or fail check box) and sit back and watch. Let the giggles, cheering, and all out fun begin!

P.S. You’ll want to video Face the Cookie, trust me!

Minute to Win It Games for Kids’ Party (with Instructions)

1. Face the Cookie
   Place a cookie on your forehead. Move it from your forehead to your mouth using only your facial muscles. If the cookie drops you may replace a cookie on your forehead.
2. On the Nose
   Transfer 5 cotton balls from one bowl to another using only your nose. Use Vaseline on the tip of your nose to transfer the cotton balls.
   
3. Separation Anxiety
   Separate 50 M&M’s into five different cups with one hand behind your back. Each cup should contain 10 M&Ms of the same color.
   
4. The Nutstacker
   Use a single chopstick and slide 6 metal bolts off of the chopstick one by one to form a freestanding tower.

5. Johnny Applestack
   Stack five apples one on top of the other until you have made a free standing tower. If the tower falls, it may be restacked.
   
6. Balloon Launch
   Blow up a balloon and use its escaping air until 10 cups are completely blown off of the table. You may blow up the balloon as many times as you need.
   
7. Stack Attack– Stack 15 plastic cups to build a pyramid. Once built, you must deconstruct the tower without dropping any of the cups. (add more cups for an older crowd)
   
8. Movin’ On Up
   Begin w/ a stack of 20 yellow cups with one pink cup at the bottom. Inch the pink one upwards by moving cups from the top to the bottom using alternating hands. This must be repeated 20 times until the pink one returns to the top of the stack.
   
9. Hangover
   Form a balance chain of 6 hangers hanging one hanger over the other and so on.

10. Elephant March
    6 unopened bottles are placed in parallel rows 6 feet apart. You have to wear a pair of panty hose on your head w/ a baseball in one of the feet. You must swing your head back and forth like an elephant and try to knock down all of the bottles.

Walk around and try the challenges. You may try each challenge as many times as you want! Record your results. P for Pass, F for Fail –play until you pass!!!

Items you will need: -scour the house and garage first, then hit the dollar store, then hit the grocery store!

• Clip boards for participants
• Printed directions for each task
• one box of cookies. Nilla Wafers or Oreos work great (Face the Cookie)
• 4 bags of cotton balls (On the Nose)
• One Jar of Vaseline (On the Nose)
• Two large bowls (On the Nose)
• M&Ms (Separation Anxiety)
• clear plastic cups (Separation Anxiety)
• 2-4 skewer stick -shish ka-bob sticks (The Nutstacker)
• a box of small metal bolts (The Nutstacker)
• 10 apples (Johnny Applestack)
• 2 sleeves of Keg Cups for Balloon Launch and Stack Attack and Movin’ On Up (Two colors needed) (Balloon Launch, Stack Attack and Movin’ on Up)
• two or three bags of balloons. (make sure you have enough for each participant so you don’t share germs!) (Balloon Launch)
• 12 Metal Hangers (Hangover)--you will need some sort of rod to hang them, possibly a shower rod –(you can purchase a tension rod at a hardware store to put in a doorway)
• 6 Water Bottles (Elephant March)
• 1 pair of panty hose (Elephant March)
• 1 soft ball (Elephant March)

Note: feel free to search these game names on youtube.com if you are unsure of the directions. Search “Minute to Win It” and the title of the task.

Don’t limit the fun to birthday parties. “Minute to Win It” games are excellent for end of the year classroom parties, family reunions or even adult functions! This blog just gave you a taste of the games that are out there. If you search the net, you’ll see there are oodles of variations of super fun games…. You have a Minute to Win It! Good luck!