General

Everyone likes having a party every once in a while. Some people even prefer to go the extra mile and love hosting them, especially at home. In the warmer weather, that typically takes place in the back garden so that you can enjoy the sun.

That isn’t all you’ll need to throw a proper backyard party, however. You’ll also need entertainment, such as music, and food. After that, having the right guests might be the only other thing you’ll need.

You might want to go the extra mile, though. If you do, you mightn’t have any ideas for how to make sure the party is a good one. Keep a few things in mind to make sure this happens.

How To Throw A Backyard Party People Will Love

Have Some Fireworks

As long as they’re legal to use where you live, you could consider using fireworks. These can take a backyard party to the next level. It’s worth noting, however, that you might need to leave this for certain occasions, such as Christmas or New Year’s Eve.

You’ll also need to know how to shoot fireworks. As easy as it might seem, you’ll need to think about safety. Alongside hurting yourself or other people at the party, the fireworks could set fire to or otherwise damage a building.

Keeping things safe will mean that you can concentrate on making the fireworks show enjoyable. It’ll also help your backyard party be much more memorable. Taking photos of this can also be a part of the event.

Make Sure Guests Know What To Expect

You’ll need to communicate with your guests in the days and weeks leading up to your backyard party. There are a lot of things that this will cover, including inviting them and getting an R.S.V.P. You’ll naturally need to give them the time and date of the party.

You should also let them know exactly what to expect when they’re coming. Will you be putting food out? Setting up an outdoor projector to watch movies? Let them know so that they can decide whether or not to come. It’ll also help them figure out if there’s anything they want to bring.

Have String Lights Or Lanterns

You should create an atmosphere for your party. Doing this can be much easier when the party is indoors, as many of the potential decorations will be quite obvious. When it comes to the garden, you mightn’t have any ideas of how to decorate and set the mood.

Some outdoor lighting will be the first step in this. Lanterns and string lights can always be recommended, especially during the dark winter nights. They’ll also ensure that everyone can see properly when they’re at the event.

Wrapping Up

There can be a lot more involved in a backyard party than many people realize. After all, few people will enjoy simply sitting in the back garden with a few drinks. You’ll want to put a lot more effort into that.

Decorating, having food, and putting some entertainment on will all be priorities. Communicating with your guests about when to come, alongside other factors, is also highly recommended.

Once you have that looked after, you’ll be able to sit back and enjoy the party.

We have been avid fans of Richard Osman’s House of Games for a long time now.  It’s standard tea time viewing in this house.  I love the mix of games, the contestants and pitching my wits against the questions as the show airs.  Would it work as a board game though?  I was interested to see how well the series would adapt to the board game format.  So when I was offered the chance to review a copy of the game, I jumped at it.  Read on to find out how we got on and what we thought of the game as we played it.

If you have not watched House of Games, this is the simple premise: the contestants either pair up or go against each other to answer or solve word-based tasks for points.  They do this over the course of a week, but each programme can be watched on its own.  Each day the winner of that day’s programme gets to choose from a selection of branded, rather kitsch prizes with the House of Games fondue set being my personal favourite.  The boxed version follows the same premise, only you won’t play it over a number of days and the prizes are up to you.

There are six categories or rounds to choose from and a final seventh round, Answer Smash, which always ends the game. Four of the rounds are chosen at random and slid into a card holder – this determines the order of the rounds and the rounds that are actually played. Now it suggests that this game can be played by 3+ players. But it’s better played as a group of five (or more in pairs so 7,9, etc.).  This is to make it work better as some of the rounds are played in teams and one of the players acts as the Question Master.

Each round has four questions asked, and the fifth round is always the same but also has four questions – points are gained for correct answers and whoever has the most points at the end, wins.  The prize is a Richard Osman-themed cardboard trophy.

Richard Osman’s House of Games is good fun, but I’m not sure how good the repeat play value is.  I think there could do with being a few more different cards for the various rounds, to keep you playing longer.  That said, I don’t think we’d often have the right number of people in the house to play this at its best, so perhaps that wouldn’t be that much of a concern.

One of the joys of the game for me is that it isn’t a straight forward quiz game like say Trivial Pursuit.  The questions are a bit different and will give your brain a work out in a quirky way.

I’ve got good news for readers, I have a copy of Richard Osman’s House of Games to give away to one lucky reader.  Enter via the Gleam widget below.
Richard Osman’s House of Games Board Game

Competition Terms and Conditions

1. No bulk, third-party or automated entries allowed.

2. Entrants must be aged 18 years or older and resident in the UK.

3. The winner or winners will be chosen by a random draw using the competition widget.

4. Promoter is responsible for fulfilling the prize and full contact details of the winner will be passed onto the promoter to enable prize fulfillment.

5. The winner’s name may be published on this site.

6. Competition closes at the end of Sunday 3rd October 2021.

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of the game for the purposes of this review.

Summer holidays mean the beach, the sea and lots of fun in the water.  So this seemed like the perfect time to test out the Rolltop Welded Dry Bag from Rooster.  Wet swimming costumes and wet suits soon get smelly, so it’s important to have a way of dealing with them that contains the smell.  That smell often seems to linger long after you remove the wet things from the car.  Also, no one wants their car upholstery getting wet, so a dry bag seemed like a perfect solution to the wet clothes dilemma.

The Dry Bag

The bag itself is made from a strong 500D PVC material and is incredibly well made using high-quality materials.  It feels durable and I think it will last a long time.  Also the clips feel strong and again I think they will last well. The bag can be easily wiped down after use, so it’s no problem to clean. Another plus is that it does look very stylish, as well as being functional and useful.  There are 60 litre and 10 litre versions depending on your needs.

The bag folds down well and it’s easy to make it really small.  This is great for storing at home or in the boot of the car when not in use. The straps can be removed and simply clipped on when needed. This helps keep the bag compact, but you can easily carry stuff to or from the beach when the bag is full.  We used it to carry dry things and food to the beach and it works very well for this. However, it really comes into its own when you are using it for wet things.

Using the Dry Bag

When you want to use the bag, you simply pop our wet things inside. It’s just one main compartment, so it’s easy to use.  Then simply roll down the top of the bag. You just turn it over itself three times and then clip the ends together. Then you can clip on the straps, which are really comfortable on the shoulders.

The dry bag is really spacious and can hold all of our swimming things.  It’s been more than big enough for me and my son to use it together and you could easily fit in a family’s wet gear.  We really put it though its paces by turning it upside down and throwing it in the air, but no water escaped.  It’s been so much better than using a plastic bag (they always seemed to spring a leak on me, no matter how well I checked them first).Some people think that dry bags are an unnecessary expense. They believe that a simple plastic grocery bag will do the trick, but I find a plastic bag doesn’t do the job nearly as well.

Perfect for trips to the beach, the lake or for keen sailors, popping your wet clothing in here means no more wet, slightly doggy, smell in the car home.  I can see us using this for trips to the swimming pool too.