Family Game Night Take 2
If you are not having a family game night… you need to. They are so much fun!
This is what we do.
My friend Kim and her husband (who has decided he will forever just be known as ‘Kim’s husband’ in the blogging world) have 3 kids.
Then, I have my 5.
Our friend Lisa has 4.
We gather at one of our homes on the 2nd Friday of each month (game night 1 and game night 2 have both been at Kim’s).
This time we ate homemade fajitas (last time we made homemade pizza). Then, the games begin.
Board games and card games are what we are supposed to be playing, but at some point the kids usually end up going and playing with toys or the big boys go out and play in the dark as that is the coolest thing in the world when your friends live in the country on 5 acres and you like to play like you are hunting in the wilderness.
Garrett dressed in his friends wilderness get-up…. painted face and all:
Little kids generally destroy a bedroom somewhere pulling out every last toy in reach no matter how high Kim puts them all away before we get there. My kids are part Puerto Rican, they will climb as high as it takes to get what they want. I should have taken a picture of the bedroom before we straightened it up at the end of the night. It was BAD!
Our first game this time was Apples to Apples. Have you ever played this game? It is so much fun!
That is Miss Hayley. I remember when she was born….. like 12 years ago? Ok, I feel old now. She was an absolutely adorable baby. She looked exactly the same then as she does now, just no hair and no cute trendy scarf with her sweatpants.
Crystal-Kim-Lisa-History 101:
Hayley’s mom is my friend Lisa. Lisa and I worked together at Acme Brick.
Lisa and Kim were friends.
Kim inadvertently became my friend too.
As we started having kids, our kids became friends.
First Lisa had Hayley.
Then real soon after, Kim had Sean.
Then Hayley got a baby sister, Ashley.
Then I soon had Garrett.
Then Kim had Blake.
Finally another girl, when Kim had Skylar.
Then I had the twins.
And finally I had baby Matthew.
Now, with the blended family love, we have Anthony (my step son) and Tristan and Lauren (Lisa’s step kiddos).
Now, Hayley takes great pride in beating up all the boys- Sean, Blake and Garrett mostly. Someday, I am sure one of these boys will marry Hayley. Won’t that be cute? (Hayley, stop saying ‘Eeewww’ as you read this!)
Yes, I digress.
Here is how you play Apples to Apples.
See all of the red cards on the table in the picture above? Everyone gets 7 of those.
See the green cards? One green card is drawn at the beginning of each round.
Each green card has a descriptive word on it- like the word angry. Then there are three synonyms listed to help each player understand the descriptive word even better.
Each round someone plays the ‘judge’- you alternate. This round Hayley was the judge.
The judge reads the descriptive word on the green card as well as it’s three synonyms.
Each player determines which card in their hand best fits that descriptive word.
Remember, you have 7 cards in your hand to choose from. Some of the cards in your hand are words like Elvis Presley, Empire State Building, Mexico, Friends, Toes, Chocolate, Will Smith. Figure out which card you thinks best fits the word ‘angry’ and place it in the middle of the table face down.
Not as easy as you think, hua?
Once everyone has their card in the middle of the table, the player serving as judge for that round (who, by the way, does not participate in any other way while playing the role of judge) reviews all of the cards.
All players try to convince the judge why their card should be the winning choice. The judge narrows down her choices and then chooses a winner and the winner gets to keep the green card from that round. (The photo above is Hayley trying to narrow down a winner in her very organized-12-year-old-girl-kind-of-way.)
The first player to earn 4 green cards wins the game.
We had a lot of fun! Great game for a group comprised of adults and kids. Fun to see how everyone rationalizes answers differently.
The silly girl in the background is Hayley’s sister Ashley. Like, totally a valley girl! Can you tell?
I can not remember who won this game… I think it was either Hayley or Kim. I know it was not me.
Then we played Scattergories. Fun!
Someone rolls the dice and it lands on one letter.
Everyone works off the same list. This list has 12 different categories listed out. Examples of categories are: a reptile, an appliance, a famous person, a president, a US city, something you find in a park, a color, a car, etc.
Each player writes a word that starts with the letter on the dice for each of the 12 categories before the timer runs out. Keep your answers covered because you want your answers to be unique in order to win.
Help us if the dice rolls on the letter ‘P’ in which case Blake, who is 9, figures out a way to make all of his answers the word POOP. I am serious.
Something you keep a secret…. POOP.
A menu item….. POOP Sandwich.
Something you pack in your suitcase…. POOP.
A type fish….. POOP Fish.
Something in this room…. POOP (Blake, go check your pants!)
Blake is super funny! We laugh hysterically when he plays Scattergories with us.
One at a time you share your answers, and if someone else has your answer you mark it off your list. You get a point for unique answer. (Oh, and you get more than one point for an answer where there are multiple words and each letter starts with the letter on the dice. For example if the letter is ‘S’ and the category is something in your kitchen your answer can be ‘stainless steel spatula’ this makes it a 3 point answer as long as no one else gives the same answer.)
This game night Kim was our winner (Blake’s mom). She was so proud!
Last we played Boggle which is also one of my favorite games, and it great for kids as it increases your spelling skills. But, by this point in the evening Matthew had checked out and just wanted to be held and loved on.
Basically Boggle is this square contraption with dice inside that have letters on them.
You shake it up and all the dice land on different letters.
You start the timer and write down as many words as possible that you can spell from the dice. The dice do need to touch each other in order to spell the word, but you can go in any direction just as long as the dice touch somehow. Make sense?
When the timer goes off everyone shares their answers one at a time and you obtain points for words that no one else has on their list.
Protest words that you do not think are real on someone’s list and look them up in the dictionary.
I am pretty sure Kim won this game as well, but we have a new rule.
If you do not know the definition of the word, you can not write it down. Hayley is a lucky (and convincing girl). She had a list of like 20 words after the first round. She had no clue if they were real words or not, but she had convincing definitions for them all. She got lucky on many… but from now on, you have to know the definition in advance of the word ‘voll’ in case you are protested.
We unanimously decided, Crystal never wins. Never. I think the kids could beat me at tic-tac-toe.
Which leads us to this list.
The Reasons Why Crystal Never Wins:
1) She has bad night vision…
2) She is always holding a baby.
3) She always has a baby on her boob. (Not really, we give him bottles at game night.)
4) She cannot see the letters on the game board for Boggle.
5) Her kids constantly interrupt her.
6) And Skylar’s innocent 5 year old answer ‘She just isn’t any good.’
Start your own game night. Your kids will love it and so will you. Make sure you give them lots of cookies, powdered donuts and soda and then stand there andscratch your head like we do when they are bouncing off the walls.
Fun, fun, fun!