Summer Bucket List

It may only be April and Summer may seem ages away, but when it comes to Summer there never seems to be enough time to fit in everything we want to do.  Every year we say we need to make a list so we don't forget to do anything important and yet it never gets done. So this year I am writing that list down and I'm starting off early :)

Here is our official VanDerlofske Sumer Bucket List (to be amended and/or added to if need be!)

~ Go to Zoom Flume
~ Freeze and Free Toys in an Ice Block
~ Go Geocaching
~ Ride Bikes at the Park
~ Go to a Baseball Game
~ Go on a Nature Scavenger Hunt
~ Start Discovery Journals
~ Explore Spring/Summer at the  Pine Bush Discovery Center
~ Go to the Butterfly Conservatory
~ Go to the Bird Sanctuary
~ Make a Rain Gauge to Measure Rain
~ Make Ice Cream
~ Make a painting using paint filled eggs
~ Have a Marshmallow Fight

DONE!

~ Make a Fairy Garden
~ Make S'mores
~ Have a Front Yard Camp Fire
~ Have a Super Fun Super Hero Family Photo Shoot
~ Have a Picnic
~ Go to Free Comic Book Day
~ Go Camping
~ Put up a Clothes Line
~ Go to the Drive-In
~ Have a Squirt Gun Fight
~ Plant Our Garden
~ Make Ice Cube boats
~ Race Soap Boats
~ Make Sidewalk Chalk Paint
~ Stargaze with the Telescope...Show the Girls the Moon Up Close!

Gloom

Back on Table Top Day we picked up Gloom figuring, it would be fun to get into some card games and it turns out that that was a great investment because this pretty much has to be one of the best games I have played in a while.  My husband and I played it by ourselves the first time so we could figure it out before introducing it to our friends, but after that first night we were hooked.  The best part about the game is really the story telling I think and while it was fun with just the two of us, it really is amazing when there are other players to bring more families into the mix.  

 

The object of the game is to make your family as miserable as possible before their "untimely death" while making the members of the other players families as happy as possible and the family with the least amount of points at the end of the game wins.  As I said up above the best part of the game is the story telling aspect, yeah you could just put the cards down on top of the other cards, but it is way more interesting when you can explain just how exactly Cousin Mordecai was walking through a forest when he got "mauled by manatees" or how Lord Slogar who is actually just a brain in a box met his untimely death by "choking on a chicken bone" you can seriously learn a lot about your opponents by playing this game :)

 

If you want to see Gloom in play here is its Table Top episode!

Tabletop Day 2013

Like many others I was ecstatic when International Tabletop Day was announced on Geek and Sundry  then I realized that it was to be held on the day before Easter and some of the excitement faded a bit when I realized we had a ton to do that day, still we did the best we could!

 

To celebrate the day we made our first trip to our local comic book store!  This is a place where if Tabletop Day didn't exist we probably wouldn't have found.   The shop is called Zombie Planet and I am so glad we did find it!  Having never been in a comic book store before I had no idea what to expect, when I walked in the door I was pretty amazed.  In addition to the comics (which are housed upstairs), this place has every game imaginable and they have weekly and monthly events.  We bought three new games (Smiles, Qwirkle Cubes and Gloom) and walked away with an insane amount of (self-imposed) guilt for ordering 3 other games on amazon last week, if only I knew!  Good to know though that there is a local small business that we can support in the future though!!

 

 

Hubby and the Girls (in their Easter best) checking out the game selection at Zombie Planet

Ending the day with a little Tsuro by fire and glow-stick light

 

Hi April!

Oh Hi there April, you kind of snuck up on us.  March just flew by and judging by the looks of our calendar it looks like April is looking to do the same thing so I made two main goals for the month:

 

1) Get the girlies outside for at least 20 min *every* day even if it's wet, damp, rainy April showers weather, even if they are just riding their bikes in the garage.  It's just not cool to be cooped up in the house.

 

2) Try and post here on the blog at least twice this month (this one doesn't count) to document all the goings on and growings up!

Hello Again!

Yep just about a year since my last post...sorry, we've been busy!!  So to make up for it here are some recent pics :)

 

 

 

Hello Again

Wow, just about a year since my last post...ah well life gets in the way.

 

Anyway...we haven't been doing much computer/console gaming lately but we have been doing LOADS of tabletop/board gaming. 

 

It's like a whole new world was opened up to us when I ran across a random episode of  TableTop by Geek and Sundry. 

 

And in other news we attended PAX East again this year!  We had an incredible time (more to come on that once I edit the pics) and learned a lot!  Well I did anyway...particularly when we attended a panel on education gamification, which I think gave me some new educator-parent ideas on how to teach through games. 

 

Soooo I guess the point of this post is that hopefully I will be dusting off this blog and posting reviews on games we play as adults and on games we play (and/or make!) with the kiddos.  No promises but hopefully it wont fall by the wayside again. 

 

And with that I leave you with some PAX East 2013 pics...

 



Adventures and such

Here's a look at what we V's have been up too...

We had A's first birthday party!  Okay, that was back in April but I haven't had a chance to upload pics yet...

It was an absolutely beautiful day for a party, the birthday girl was feeling more than a little under the weather thanks to her 12 month shots but she had a good time anyway I think :) 

                                 

We planted a garden for Mother's Day

We built a fort and played Super Heroes for Father's Day

    

We went Strawberry Eating (I mean Picking)

And we celebrated our 5 year wedding Anniversary!