Wordless Wednesday

 

 

Blog Merge

Just a general announcement...It was getting a bit tough to keep two blogs separate and going so I merged It's a Gamers Wife with this one. 

(Pint Size) Games We Play

We love playing games as a family (obviously) but with a 2 and 3 year old sometimes it's pretty difficult to find things that we can all enjoy playing.  So here are our latest favorites...Hisss and Uno Moo.

 

 

Hisss - (Here's the Amazon link - though if you think it's a game you want to add to your collection, check out your local gaming or comic book store first!)

 

My cousin got this game for A for her 2nd birthday, turns out it's just a smidge advanced for her and all she wants to do is throw the cards around, but C absolutely loves it!  It reminds me of a cross between Tsuro (path building) and Uno (color matching), the goal of the game is simply to build as many snakes as you can until the draw pile (or player's attention span) runs out.  The cards are perfect size for little hands and the colors are nice and vibrant. This is an excellent game for working on color matching and fine motor skills. 

 

 

Uno Moo! - (Here's the Amazon Link)

 

This game happens to be A's favorite game at the moment.  We picked it up to help her learn her colors and it's great for that.  It's basically like regular Uno except that rather than cards you have little balls and rather than numbers you have animals.  You play by matching either the color or animal and you get to knock the ball into the barn before setting your ball up on the door.  This is a great game for working on color recognition and matching in addition to working on those fine motor skills.

 

Growing Games

Todays post isn't a geeky game but a growing game...

On pintrest a while back I pinned this link to a fine motor skill activity. 

 

I picked up some salt and pepper shakers at the dollar store, the die and toothpicks we already had at home.  We started out just putting the toothpicks in the shakers then shaking them out...

 

but then we came up with an idea to take it to the next level and make it into a game. I ran into grab a die... C would roll the die, then count the dots and put that number of toothpicks in the shaker.  Simple and yet it kept her busy and smiling for about half an hour plus we got to work on fine motor and counting skills.

 

 

A's Birthday!!

This week we celebrated A's 2nd Birthday!  In some ways I can't believe it's already been two years and in some others I can't believe it's *only* been two years since she joined our family.  Seriously, sometimes I wonder if she's two or twelve...more info and updates to come after her 2 year doc apt!

Birthday girl on her birthday morning!

Getting her Birthday Build a Bear

 

DIY "foam pit" I made for her party, I think it was a hit!

Her rockstar doll cake

Cupcakes on the cool record stand I DIY'd

And of course her birthday plate!

 

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!