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A Great Big List of Games
It’s underneath the tree every Christmas. A new game. Sometimes we open it on Christmas Eve to play, sometimes it gets played Christmas afternoon and sometimes it waits a couple of days to make the rounds. But it’s long been a tradition – the new game for Christmas. If your family likes to search out a new game for the holidays, I thought I’d take some of the guess work out of the search for you. Some of the games listed I have written reviews for over the years and you can click on those to read more. Some of the games I’m just telling you are fun and…
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Fast Flip: A Blue Orange Game Review
Here it is. Fast Flip. It’s a little triangular metal container that stores a game made by the clever guys and gals over at blue orange games. (Which, by the way – I love that the games made by Blue Orange generally have the name of the game designer and creator on the game itself. I like al little credit where credit is due – I think that’s cool.) The cards are triangular shaped too, which Otto and Piper liked. (I found them a little tricky to shuffle due to their shape, but not impossible.) At first I thought this game was too similar in style…
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Dr. Eureka: A BlueOrange Game Review
I’ve said for a long time that the blue orange company makes almost all of our family’s favorite games. We love the Spot It series of games. They seem to be a steady favorite. We like YamSlam an awful lot. We’ve enjoyed Thumbs Up. And recently we received the game Dr. Eureka from the kind folks at blue orange to play and review for you guys. (Reviewing games? No problem. Happy to do it!) Dr. Eureka is a four player game and I prefer six player games just because there’s six of us, but that’s alright. Otto and Bergen were pretty stoked to open this box and get started playing.…
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Game Night: Apples to Apples
I’ve been a little MIA this past week I guess. And it was good. But I’m back now and it looks like the sun is back too and I am incredibly grateful to see blue sky. (Rainy weather. It always gets me down.) Last week I taught the kids how to play Apples to Apples. We’ve been trying to learn new games together and I love introducing them to other games that they are just now old enough to enjoy. I guess I forgot how outdated Apples to Apples is. And how little old school pop culture my children actually know. (Which is a lack of knowledge I am perfectly happy to…
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Timeline: A Game Review
It was definitely good salesmanship that convinced me to purchase the Timeline game. We were shopping before Christmas in our favorite toy store – Dancing Bear Toy Store – in our favorite North Carolina town – Hendersonville. I had already chosen this year’s family game – Bananagrams. I had secretly handed the helpful employee the game without the kids seeing our exchange. (This store makes it so easy to shop for gifts for your kids with your kids. They’ll take your purchases and even wrap them for you (for no charge) while you’re all right there at the store and your kids are absolutely none the wiser. It’s genius.) My…
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The Game of Keigley
I’m certain the idea came from an issue of Family Fun magazine almost ten tears ago. Recently, the kids unearthed a hefty stack of fluorescent index cards wrapped in a rubber band. The Game of Keigley. Taking an idea from the magazine, I had created a game custom-designed for our family about our family. The goal of the game was to have fun learning about family details and testing our knowledge about how life in our home operated. Plus, it had the added bonus of encouraging positive habits, such as turning out the lights and picking up your dirty clothes. The set up is simple. A stack of cards.…
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what a grandpa does
Grandpas aren’t just good for taking naps in the hammock with. (Although no one was complaining about that treat.) They are also great for playing chess. Learning new strategies. And being reminded that Grandpa is not the kind of man that’s going to let you win. If you conquer him – you’ll know you’ve earned it, fair and square.
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Ages 8 to Adult
How do you know your children are growing up? When you introduce them to the game of Monopoly, that’s when.
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Fingers
You may be thinking, “Uh. This photo is kind of . . . not that great.” Well. This might look like a blurry, poorly executed attempt at the classic “tiny hands” photograph. But it is not. It is actually a photograph of a game. (Probably not truly invented by Keigley kids, but don’t tell them that please.) It’s a game alright. A game called Fingers. It travels anywhere. And it costs nothing. And I would say it might even be worthy of making one of Tyler Stanton’s boredom-busting games posts. (Are you reading this Tyler? Remember how you said you would write a guest post for me one day? What…
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Hello.
Tetherball. Meet Bergen. Bergen. Meet tetherball. I think you guys will enjoy a long and enduring friendship.
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This Game Needs A New Name
One of the most enjoyable aspects about raising kids has been the opportunity to pass on games and activities and tradtions that I played as a kid. And just this week I remembered a new one. Funeral. I think we made it up one long ago Virginia summer at the Wickstrum’s farm. It’s a simple game, really. Probably born of hot summer days and looking for excuses to not run around outside. One person pretends to be, er, dead. The, uh, dead person lies on the ground alone, arms crossed. After the deceased is lying still and his face is composed, the other players enter the room. The goal of…
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Unexpected
Kevin had taken Riley, Bergen, Mosely and Piper with him to the store. Fox was asleep. London and I were suddenly alone in our own home. Just the two of us. Unexpected. It was so quiet. And peaceful. And what I really wanted to do was to steal the time. Steal the time for me. I wanted to finish The Red Pony or write down a few ideas. The bedroom was messy. I could take care of that. Call a friend with no interruptions. (Endless possibilities.) London asked me, “Can we play a game?” I looked at that little blond mini-me (sighed mentally inside my head) and reluctantly said, “yes”.…
