Thanksgiving Day Pumpkin Sweep Game

No matter how much planning you do for your Thanksgiving day, no matter how much food you make, or how beautiful you get the table to look, there can still be spur-of-the-moment things on that holiday. For example, all the kids indoors might be getting a little rowdy and you might suggest that they go outside to play. What can they do outside? They can always have a pumpkin sweep contest. In that game, kids race across the finish line in an unusual way. Youll need a couple of pumpkins to get started.Decide on a line where the kids will begin the game. The line can be marked by laying a yardstick down on the ground, or even by creating it with flour. Make a finish line, too, and make it at least several yards from the starting line.There are different ways to play the game. In one version, give a pumpkin to each child, stand them behind the line, and call "go". With another version, two kids race at a time, and all the kids are lined up behind one of the two players. As teams, one person will "go" with the pumpkin, bring it back, and give the job to the next player.To move the pumpkins, give each player a broom. Dont have that many brooms? Other things they can use to move the pumpkins along include sticks, or even their feet. Its a good idea to mark each pumpkin, though, so no one gets confused on which pumpkin is whos. Just use paint, fingernail polish, or even a marker, to write a number on each pumpkin. It can be helpful to give each child a sticker with that number on it.The most fun youll have out of the pumpkin race game isnt to just sweep the pumpkin across the finish line, on a level piece of ground between the two lines. Youll have more fun if the players have to sweep the pumpkins around corners, down hills, and around other tricky places.If youre playing the first version of the game, the first person who gets the pumpkin across the finish line is the winner. In the second version, each player on the team has to go across the line, and sweep the pumpkin back to the starting line, and the first team that finishes, is the winning team.Kids will have lots of fun playing the pumpkin sweep game but, just in case, keep a couple of extra pumpkins on hand. You never know when one of the pumpkins might get destroyed, especially if youre playing the version where the kids kick the pumpkins to the finish line. Thanksgiving only rolls around once a year so, instead of kids getting reprimanded for being underfoot inside the house, they can all go outside and have a great time.