games people play

Our family loves to play games. Usually. Since our 3 boys are all 5 years apart, it was harder to find games ALL of them could play during their early years. I mean, a 12-year-old can tolerate "Elefun" only so many times :) But now that my youngest is 17 we have a great time. And more often than not a really WILD time..... or more like, a very LOUD time. Especially when Davy is involved.

My friend Bev asked if I could recommend some good games that our family likes to play. We have a LOT of games/puzzles/cards to choose from, but today I'm going to stick with our 6 most favorites - and 2 honorable mentions. Most of our favorites are word/trivia games - games that are super fun but require at least a bit of thinking and creativity.

1) SCRABBLE (above) is a classic favorite. We go in phases with this one. If you can form a three letter word than you can play! The downside to Scrabble is that there can be a long wait time for your turn. Sometimes we use our laptops or phones to pass the time if it's slow going.

2) BANANAGRAMS is best known as a lightening fast version of Scrabble. I love this game! It needs no board - you can use a table or any flat surface. Every player starts out with 15 tiles and forms connecting words as fast as possible. No down time - it's fast paced and fun!

3) BALDERDASH is another personal favorite of mine, and the more players, the merrier! One player writes down the real definition of a lesser-known word, the other players make up their own official sounding definitions, and players guess to see which definition is the correct one. Creativity is at it's best here, and that makes this game all the more enjoyable (and hysterical).

4) SCATTERGORIES is a game of words..... and lists..... and lists of words! You toss the special letter die, and players have a designated amount of time to write down as many words as directed, that start with that letter. There's a list you follow, but beware of blanking out cuz it happens! It can get quite competitive as you try to sway others that your word IS a real word!

5) BOGGLE has been around in many forms for a long time, and it remains one of our favorites. Make as many words (4 or more letters) as you can by connecting attached letters. You can go vertically, horizontally AND diagonally, but a letter for each word can only be used once. 

6) TABOO is a popular game and our current favorite. Played in teams of two, the more teams the better. Kind of an updated version of Password, if you're familiar with that game. Team members try to get each other to guess a word or term WITHOUT mentioning several key clue words. No actions, no "sounds like"..... can be super frustrating in a fun and funny way :)

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

UNO

The one game you can always rely on for a fun time. 

We make our own rules and then yell and scream at each other.

APPLES TO APPLES

Another super fun game - the more people, the merrier!

Raucous, loud, funny..... but we've played it so many times we're done.

the boys are back in town

So fun to have Henry and John over to practice new music with Davy!

Someone was really happy to relax after his first semester in grad school!

A very, VERY familiar sight - hehe - and one of my favorite things to listen to from the other room!

There was MUCH poker being played during Christmas break!

Talk about CARDS.....

everyone's a comedian :)

I snuck this pic of Tay while she was warming up by the fire :)

Tay brought her kitty Mila over for a play date with Kitty... Kitty was NOT very hospitable :/

Aw, and there's the Mouse :) Having some fun with his friend Caroline :)

craziest Crimbus ever

 Yeah I'm a month late but that's the breaks. And I hardly have any pics but ALRIGHTY THEN.
Our Christmas ("Crimbus" in our house) was *NUTS*

The new roof, interior painting that nearly killed me, and new flooring that DID kill me, 

was barely finished when the holidays were in full swing and the boys came home from Illinois.

I was lucky to get a wreath on my door. Most everything else never even made it out of the attic.

During all the craziness, EVERY single package delivered was tossed in the back of my car.

It was the only way I could keep everything safe and out of the way and in one place.

By the time the Crimbus arrived, I was LONG out of energy. I could only stare at the box mountain. 

To make matters worse, none of us could remember what box was for whom!

Packages had trickled in since October - the older boys sent all their gifts here as well.

I never thought I'd see the day this happened, but there was only one thing to do.

SURRENDER.

So on Crimbus morning, Daniel opened a box one by one, and we yelled out who the gift was for.

Sometimes we'd miraculously remember who a box was for and give it to the right person.

It was so much fun to see the gift and then announce who it was for!

We were actually more on the creative side this year, and chose things everyone would love -

it was SO. MUCH. FUN. 

Daniel got some "Fight Club" SOAP for Davy, hehe :)

Love this pic of Daniel, who did a great job orchestrating everything :)

SOME of us were not as impressed and decided to lay on all our stockings :)

Aw, my little Christmas Angel :)

Later on Taylor and her best friend Alli came over and we played games :)

SOME people got cool new coats (and scarves)

~

BEST. CRIMBUS. EVER. 

Sunday night at the Walkers

Sunday night excitement at the Walker household! Yes folks, this is what it's come to. You can barely see the game board in the center of the table. One by one we each brought our laptops over to the table as we waited for our turn. Why make interesting conversation or joke around when we can have our brains sucked right into our laptops through an unknown magnetic force, no doubt called 'vacu-lock' or 'brain-drain' or 'cell-squash'? I mean, how much easier is that? Practically no thinking required!

All right, all right - we weren't really THAT bad. We were actually having a really fun time. But we caught a glimpse of how we looked and thought it would indeed, seem pretty ridiculous to someone on the outside looking in. And a good reminder to all of us how technology really CAN take over our lives in a big way. So much about technology is incredible and continually changing our world. So much about it is frightening, and used for evil, awful purposes. Or at the very least, a huge waste of time.

My intention tonight is not to climb onto a soap box - just to show you a humorous moment at our house. Normally our Sunday nights are quite animated as we play games (usually on the loud side... okay, on the really obnoxious side) or watch movies. I hope your weekend and your Sunday night was full of fun - or whatever you wanted it to be -rather than 'vacu-lock' or 'brain-drain' or 'cell-squash'. Life is much too short for that!