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Kathy,

 We've had great successful Pioneer Day celebrations.....We have a family here that has a large farm and so our Ward (and often times inviting another ward ) meet on Friday evenings for a "devotional".....excerpts from family history some of the members share....followed with homemade handcranked ice cream.  Those who wish, pitch tents, campers, etc. and spend the night.

At 7 a.m., we have a flag raising ceremony by the Cub Scouts.  And then a ward breakfast at 8 a.m. consisting of eggs, pancakes, and hot chocolate.

Once breakfast is done, we then have the childrens parade.   We then begin the festivities with not only the usual relay races and such, but also tug of wars and  watermelon spitting contests.

We invite the Primary to  take about an hour and a half with the children making homemade butter in small baby food jars and getting to sample their success.  They also make homemade ice cream in individual coffee cans by rolling them back and forth for 15 minutes.  This is a very special treat they look forward to every year.  (I have the recipe....email me and I'll send it along)....

In the meantime, we also have the youth and adults in a roaring game of volleyball.

At one point, we turned on the hoses and had a slip and slide....even Bishop got in on that....he loved to man the hose, and when unsuspecting people, like myself, walked by, we knew why he liked that end of the hose!!!  (But I got even....he forgot all about me until a LARGE glasss of ice water went down his unsuspecting back.....and it was about 95 degrees....rather warm for Washington.....

We also assign the YW to come up with several games that "every one" can participate in.

YM also are assigned a pioneer game where 2 wheel barrows are used.  One person (youth or adult) pushes the wheelbarrow and one person rides.  At one point on the trail, the rider dives out, builds (sets up a fire pit ...materials lying off to the side), then the next point to split some wood, next station, etc.....just use your imagination and think of what pioneers wood be doing.  There could be several teams set up..... The Elder's quorum sets up log sawing contests with cross cut saws.  It was especially fun to see some of the women go up against each other in this too!

There were hammering contests, sawing, horseshoes were really popular. At the end of the day, the YW would set up 3 haypiles  and hide loose candy inside.  One pile was for junior primary, senior primary, and Youth.  Each one was run at a separate time, so that no one got killed in the process.....

When the day was finally done, and candy papers, paper plates, etc. adorned the area, we then had 2 sisters sit in chairs of honor and man garbage bags.  For every 20 pieces of garbage picked up, that person would receive a ring sucker.....ring suckers seemed to be really popular.....could be most anything.  Needless to say, in minutes the area was clean and everyone had a smile and a sucker!  Imagine our surprise when our Bishop "Had" to have a sucker....we made him turn in 20 pieces of garbage too!.....

Hope some of these ideas help.....

Louwanna