Federation Playspace - Warrandyte (review)

Looking for something the whole family will love?

A trip to Federation Playspace is within coo-ee of activities to engage history buffs, fitness freaks, foodies, sweet tooths (or is that teeth), and wildlife lovers. My review of Federation Playspace in Warrandyte is now published online.

10 Party Games for the Royal Wedding

As Wills and Kate prepare to tie the knot I can't claim particular interest. After the royal marriage fiascos that have gone before, its hard to get too misty-eyed about this one. That said, it is an excuse for a gathering of friends, so why not have some fun with the theme at the same time?

Here's a bunch of fun ideas for a gathering on the wedding day at your place, at your street party, or youth group night.

1. Wedding Band rolling relay
William is not to wear a wedding ring. Play a relay where teams have to roll a wedding band to the other end. You might like to use a fun alternative like a keyring, a hoolahoop, tyre or a doughnut!

2. Jelly baby beheading races
A game for teams of three. The executioner beheads the jelly babies and two team members consume either the head or body of 50 jelly babies. First team wins.

3. Get Me to the Church on Time
Masquerading as a glorified wheelbarrow race. Competitors race to the marker where they have to dress in various items such as a crown or veil, a cloak, high heeled shoes, put lipstick on, throw confetti on themselves, and then race to the finish line.

4. Royal sash game
On arrival guests are given six sashes each to wear diagonally across their body. Royal blue is a great colour choice. Each time someone says the word "wedding' or "royal" (or choose your own words) at anytime during the party any party member can take one of their sashes. If you don't want to use sashes, try pegs) though they're not very glamourous). After an hour the person with the greatest number of sashes wins.

5. Pin the ears on the father-of-the-groom
OK, so its an adaption of pin the tail on the donkey. Or come up with your own invention.

6. Royal Carriage obstacle course including walking on egg shells, jumping through hoops, smiling at the camera, waving at the crowd, and outrun the paparazzi.

7. Chocolate Royal biscuit eating race
This is an adaption of the salada biscuit eating contest. Two or three contestants are chosen to compete, and have to be the first to eat a whole packet of Chocolate Royal biscuits. No washing down with water allowed.

8. Sing 'Land of Hope and Glory', 'Rule Brittania' and 'God save the Queen'

9. Marshmellow or Boiled egg Polo
Use drinking straws and marshmellows for this game.

10. Public reading
Once everyone has settled down with a glass of bubbly or like, have a refined public reading. The choices here are endless. Consider Princess Smartypants (Babette Cole) or A.A. Milne's If I were King or The King's Breakfast. For romantic quotations from literature click here.

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10 Party Games for Melbourne Cup Day

I'm no racing enthusiast. For my household the end of the AFL season signals many suddenly unfilled hours. Racing, I'm afraid, is lost on me. Mind you, I am more than happy to accept a day off in celebration of a race I sometimes forget to watch. Most Melbournians know what the Melbourne Cup Day holiday is really for: sleeping in and gathering with friends.

That said, just because you don't get racing, doesn't mean you can't enter into the spirit of things. Australians are guns at that. Just think how many fellow countrymen and women don't rock up to church over Easter! How many of them do we get volunteering to stay on and hold the fort at work, instead taking the four-day break? Hmm? Anyone?

With the Melbourne Cup Carnival  fast approaching, it seems fitting to make a contribution to the weekend, even if it has little to do with the actual race. This year, gather your favourite people together for some heightened hilarity - I mean the real sort you can remember the day after!

Dress Up
Invite your guests to come suitably attired and offer prizes for the most creative costumes. Sure, you could come in a suit or frock. OR you could come as a something a little less, well, obvious. Think Monty Python's Holy Grail amd the pursuit of coconut shells could have you standing on the winners podium. Better still, hand a pair to each guest as they arrive for a clip-cloppity ol' time.

Eat Horsey Stuff
Add to your guest's real-life "saddlebags" with a range of tempting treats. Eat hors d'oeuvres or as my partner prefers to call them, "horses dervers".Cake artists may like to decorate a horse cake. Other tempting treats could include toffee apples, oatmeal biscuits, lolly teeth. Serving dishes might be upturned hats, hessian or straw-filled bowls for wrapped items.

Play Games

• Horse Shoe Coits - this can be modified version of boules, bowls or coits.

• Horse-Pat Challenge - teams race the clock to collect "horse pats" (made from papier mache) using trowels or spades. On the starting gun, one player from each team runs into an area  scattered with patts, retreives one, and races back passing the spade to the next team member. Pats are dropped into a bucket in front of the gathered team. The team with the most pats after 3 minutes wins. You can extend this game by using different objects in subsequent rounds, such as hay bales, sugar lumps, horse shoes. Smaller objects will provide a more challenging activity with the seeking element coming into play.

• Braiding Race - a twist on the chocolate game. Sitting in a circle players take turns to throw a dice. When they throw a 6, they rush to the middle of the circle where they must braid three long pieces of rope. When they have braided the entire length, and provided no further 6s have been thrown in the meantime, they use a knife and fork to cut one square of chocolate from a family block and eat until the next 6 is thrown.The game finishes once all the chocolate is consumed.

•  Pin the tail/saddle/jockey on the race horse - a modified version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Get your picture here.

• Trivia - Make teams for Melbourne Cup Trivia or The Horse Quiz and another horse quiz

• Charades - Bookish types may prefer a round of charades about famous horses.

• Sing the theme from Mr Ed

Prizes
A lump of sugar or a carrot
A refreshing hose down
Other horse-themed knick knacks such as horse shoes, a copy of Black Beauty or dvd of Racing Stripes, mini Melbourne Cups, plastic toy horses etc...

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