Minute to Win It Outdoor Summer Party Games

These fun (and funny!) Minute to Win It Games are perfect for your next outdoor summer block party, bbq, family reunion, or backyard bash! Great for all ages!

If you enjoyed our Minute to Win It Birthday Party Games post, you’re going to LOVE this outdoor summer version! These silly games are the perfect way to spend a fun afternoon with your friends and family! They’re great for a wide variety of ages from toddlers to adults – even Grandma will want to get in on the fun!

To start with, you’ll need a way to keep track of the players’ scores. This is the scoreboard that we used for our previous Minute to Win It party games, but a similar grid would work well for all of these fun outdoor games. The winner is whoever cumulatively scores the most points – easy peasy!

Washer Bucket Toss – give each player 10 washers, and see how many points they can score in one minute.

Classic Water Balloon Toss – pair up players, and give each set of players one water balloon. Players start about a foot apart, facing each other. Player 1 tosses the balloon to Player 2, and if Player 2 catches it successfully, he takes a step backwards. Continue tossing back and forth and taking steps backwards until the water balloon pops. The dry player scores 5 points, and the wet player scores 0.

Ring Toss – give each player six rings and see how many posts they can loop in one minute. Score one point per ring looped.

Milk Crate Tug of War – pair up players by size, and have each player stand atop a milk crate. Players have one minute to try to pull each other off of their crate. Winner gets 5 points, loser gets 0, and a tie will result in 2 points for each player.

Blindfold Lawn Gnome Bowling – Each blindfolded player bowls and tries to knock down as many lawn gnome hats (cardboard cones painted bright colors) as they can in one minute (if the player knocks over all of the cones before the minute is up, he may set them up again, and keep bowling until the minute is up.).

Bucket Dash – set two buckets about 20-30 feet apart, and fill one with water. Using only a large sponge, transfer the water from one pail to the other. This game can be scored in two different ways:

Make a mark near the top of the bucket. If the water reaches the marked level in under one minute, the player scores 5 points.
Alternatively, you can match two players against each other, and whoever has more water in their transfer bucket at the end of one minute wins the 5 points.

Rubber Band Can Shooting Gallery – Players stand 10-15 feet away from a tower of cans. Use rubber bands to knock down as many cans as you can in one minute (if all the cans are knocked down, the player may set them up again and continue shooting until the minute is up). Earn one point for each can knocked down!

TP Hut, Hut, Hike! – Players take turns trying to hike rolls of toilet paper through another player’s arms 15 feet away (second player stays stationary and does not move). Score 2 points for each tp roll that successfully makes it through their arms in one minute.

Frozen T-Shirt Race – wet, fold, and freeze one t-shirt per player (use wax paper or freezer paper in between the shirts in the freezer so that they don’t stick together). Players can go head-to-head in this game, or you can do this one with the entire group as a whole. Whoever can defrost and put on their shirt within one minute* wins 5 points! (* Note: you may want to increase the time on this game to more than a single minute. It can actually take up to 10 minutes for the shirts to unfreeze enough to put them on!)

Penny Drop – Place a small glass jar inside a larger glass container, and fill it with water. The challenge is to drop pennies from the top of the large container and have them land inside the small jar – it’s not as easy as you might think! Score 2 points for each penny that makes it into the small container within 1 minute.

Squirt Gun Car Race – Have 2-4 kids per round race their toy cars to the finish line using only a squirt gun to propel the vehicle. First one to cross the finish line wins 5 points! If you have more than 2 kids per round, points can also be awarded for 2nd and/or 3rd place.