Picnic Games for Teens!

Picnics have proven to create togetherness and fun but let's not lose sight of how bored a teen get get so quickly. Here are some great suggestions from Picnic-Basket.com to keep your picnic entertaining!

The DS Challenge

For a crowd with 2 or more teens in it, be sure they bring their Nintendo DS systems with them. Make a call to all the moms with teens or send an email. In case there is a teen or two without one, be sure to have a couple on hand. You can purchase them and games used at EBgames.com. Ask around, as well, to borrow someone's Nintendo DS. You will be surprised at how many young adults and dads have one!

The challenge:

Either have the teens hook up and compete or have them each play a different game. The player who gets through level one the fastest on each game, wins! Be sure to keep a timer with you and to keep score!

UNO GO!

With 2 or more packs of Uno cards, depending on how many teens you have, begin an Uno tournament. Be sure to inform everyone of the new rules, however! For anyone who doesn't shout Uno appropriately or for someone who shouts it out when they shouldn't, that player skips his turn for as long as it takes him to run a lap in a designated area!

The Teens Only Potato Sack Challenge

With a teen magazine or popular video game in hand as the prize (and for encouragement), challenge the teens to sack up and head to your marked finish line. Be sure to tell them that anyone who falls more than 3 times is disqualified and that sabotage is only allowed by cutting each other off without getting physical. Rascals! Potato Sacks can easily be purchased online.

The Pizza Challenge: Food Fight!

Teens, especially the boys, have a strong desire to compete and destroy (although you'd be surprised at how many little girls love this) and a food fight is a healthy way to do this. But keeping it clean can certainly be a challenge. So to keep things under wrap, have the kids wear cheap, plastic ponchos and clothing they've outgrown or out loved, and use only foods that will be easy to collect.

Stay away from liquids. Use items like iced cake, cold pasta or cold mashed potatoes. Foods with consistency. Leftover pizza at room temperature, mashed into balls also works. Shoes and socks should be removed and an inexpensive plastic tarp should be on the ground.

The challenge:

While having the teens face off (make sure they have a helper to hand them food), ask them a challenging question like what's the capital of Texas? First one to answer gets to take first shot. Be sure to remind the teens that aim must be taken, and food should at least mostly stay on the other players and the tarp. Everyone loses in the Pizza Challenge!

Teen Queen Magazine

For a group of teenage girls, a teen magazine contest is a total hoot! Ahead of time, pick out 4 or 5 different teen magazines. Take an hour or two to scour the magazines and make note of up to 20 or 30 facts about their favorite stars, cute guys and hair and make-up challenges. On the day of the picnic, a challenge monitor or parent should read one note off at a time, in the form of a question.

For example, if a note was made that Miley had her 15th birthday party bash at an expensive hotel, the question would be what recent teen singer had her 15th birthday bash at an expensive hotel? The girls must then choose a magazine or read over a shoulder and find the answer in the magazines! The girl who gets the most answers right, wins the pile of magazines!