Well, as expected, March was a super busy month. Our family involved in two different shows with two different tech weeks made for a very tight schedule. When we had time to have family game night, one or more of us was just not feeling up to it. So, we only have one game event to recap here. It’s a good thing we had extra game nights earlier this year! We also have not had any game nights involving my in laws this quarter, so we will need to figure that out for April.
On March 26th, we took Micah and 4 of his friends to Tabletop Game Cafe to celebrate his birthday – finally. The high schoolers had their own table and, as far as I know, only played two games. Betrayal in the House in the Hill and Kids Against Maturity (a more PG version of Cards Against Humanity). They seemed to have a great time with both of them.
Their game of Betrayal was the longest I have ever witnessed! The haunt started early and lasted forever!They had a great time!
At our table, Keith, Charlotte and I played Love Letters a couple of times. This is a quick game that we really liked. Not complex and pretty fun.
Next we played Catacomb. Catacomb ended up being a lot of set up and learning, so we only played one encounter. We really liked the game play, though. Flicking disks at your enemies is strangely satisfying. We plan to watch a little gameplay on YouTube and then give it another try with all 4 of us.
No photo of the board set up – I was definitely not “on my game” that day!
The last game we played was Apples to Apples. It turned out to be a little rough for Charlotte because Keith and I have so many more years of inside jokes, but we all enjoyed this one, too.
Another easy to learn and play game – definitely less frustrating to Charlotte.
We also found a game we want to try next time we are at Tabletop – Sagrada. It is a dice game with only a couple pages of directions, so I think it could be a hit with our whole family. Charlotte is especially excited to try it.
Have you tried Sagrada or any other game you think we should check out? Let us know in the comments!
As expected, our Family Game Nights (FGNs) have slowed down a bit for February. We were, however, able to fit in two and thus meet our goal. It is really thanks to Micah deciding that he would love to spend his birthday evening playing games with us. Whew!
Our first FGN was Super Bowl Sunday. We aren’t huge football fans, and we definitely didn’t have any team we were favoring. So, we got set up to play a few games and have a few yummy snacks. First up was Dos Rios: Valley of Two Rivers. Keith and I had played this one before, but it was the first time for both kids. First up, they enjoyed stacking their meeples, casas, and haciendas.
White tower
Red tower
Everyone seemed to enjoy the game play once we got going. In the end, Charlotte prevailed with an excellent use of strategy, but everyone had a good time. We enjoyed some chocolates from Christmas, some Hello Panda green tea treats, and some Bhuja Snacks Cracker Mix. (We also had Little Debbie Valentine Cakes, but did not end up eating them that evening.)
Dos Rios game board
Sees Chocolates
Hello Panda Green Tea treats
To finish the evening out, we decided on Fluxx because it can be a quick game. Unfortunately, that was not the case on February 3rd. It was a long game with many rule changes and a couple times shuffling the deck. We were all quite relieved when Keith won, which is generally not the case.
Fluxx with so many rules…
Our second FGN for February was on the 24th for Micah’s birthday. We had to order a couple of cords on Amazon Prime Now and noticed that Betrayal at the House on the Hill was on sale for almost half off. We couldn’t pass that up and naturally decided to give it a whirl right away. Since it was Micah’s special day, and because Charlotte and I were right by The Cheesecake Factory on Polaris, we decided to get cheesecake to celebrate.
Cheesecake Factory and games
Our house almost complete
Keith and Micah had played Betrayal at the House on the Hill before, and our whole family played Betrayal at Baulder’s Gate in January, but this was the first time Charlotte and I played this version. We liked building the house better than building the Baulder’s Gate with all the different colored doors. We had unfortunate luck with our haunt this game, however, so Micah’s Zombie Lord ended up killing all of us. Keith and Charlotte were cornered in the basement and I was a 9 year old girl, so we didn’t stand a chance. We will definitely be adding this game into our rotation and are very excited to have gotten it on sale. We did not end up playing Fluxx, Micah’s other choice, because Charlotte was done and wanted to FaceTime and text with her friends. Since Betrayal took about 90 minutes, we let her go. Overall, a great evening. Can’t wait to see what games we will play in March – maybe we’ll have a Family Game Night at Tabletop over Spring Break.
As I stated in my first post, we have a goal of having at least 2 Family Game Nights (FGN) a month this year. We also plan to include our extended families, but that did not happen this month since we just saw everyone over the holidays. 🙂 We were total overachievers, though, and managed to have 5 nights of games and snacks this month!
We had our first FGN at Tabletop Game Cafe in Clintonville on January 2nd. It was a great day of games – we tried the games Stuffed Fables, Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate, and Kill Doctor Lucky. Stuffed Fables ended up being a lot more involved than we wanted, so we played the first adventure and moved on. Another group was playing Betrayal at House on the Hill, so we tried the D&D version of the game and enjoyed it. We would really like to try the Haunted House version still. Our last pick, Kill Doctor Lucky, was quick to learn and and we all enjoyed it. We will definitely be back to Tabletop to eat delicious samosas and try out some more games!
Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate
Our next FGN was January 6th because we were all home without plans. We decided to eat some of our yummy snack gifts from Japan (Thank you Kamei and Sato families!!) and we played Exploding Kittens and Smallworld. It was the first time for all of us playing Exploding Kittens, but it did promise it was for people that like kittens, explosions, laser beams and sometimes goats, so we were pretty sure we would like it. It was an instant favorite with all the kitten art! Keith, Micah, and I had all played Smallworld before, but it was Charlotte’s first time. We all enjoyed the game. We also really enjoyed the Japanese snacks.
Our planned Snacks and games – we did get to Oregon Trail and we did not eat all the snacks. 🙂
On January 20th, all activities outside our house were canceled due to weather. So, we took the chance to have a FGN! We played Pitt and Quarriors. Pitt is one of Micah’s favorites, so he was excited to play. It was not my night with the cards, so at one point I was trying to see how far negative I could go before someone won the game. Needless to say, I was not the winner. But it was a fun time for everyone. We had played Quarriors on New Year’s Eve Eve with Charlotte and it is now one of her favorite games to request. She has always like collecting things in bags, so I think this is just an extension of that passion. 😉 We all really do like the game, though. We tried a couple more snacks from Japan (chocolate drizzled potato chips and teriyaki rice cakes – both yum!!) and had chips and Little Debbies as well. And orange slices as you can see in the photos…
The plan – we did not play Forbidden Island, but we ate most of the snacks.
Playing Pitt
Playing Quarriors
This past weekend, we actually had two FGN opportunities because we were away in a treehouse cabin with no television! It was wonderful! The first night, we played an old favorite from before Keith and I had kids – Filthy Rich! It is really fun that the kids are now old enough to appreciate and enjoy games we used to play. Charlotte did not want to be Queen of the Shmoos, but it is still true that Nobody Shops at Shorty’s. The kids may have thought we were strange for the entire language we have surrounding that game, but they went along with it anyway. We also played a quick game of Tsuro. In the end, I sent Charlotte off the board, Keith sent both of us off, and Micah was victorious. We had some really great green tea (for the adults) and hot chocolate (for the kids) and some Japanese chocolate mushroom snacks, a known family favorite.
Filthy Rich – such a fun game!
Playing Tsuro
Our second night at the cabin, we had a short FGN because we had a late dinner and didn’t have a lot of time. We played Monopoly Deal, a quick version of the Monopoly game that only uses cards but still manages to break relationships and evenings. Just kidding, it is pretty fun, but you do have to be okay with hurting other people in order to win. I am not blessed with that skill, so it will probably never be my first game pick. We had jiffy pop, green tea mochi (another family favorite), and new little chocolate and green tea Japanese treats – so yummy! We have decided there is a reason we’ve never done jiffy pop as a family snack before, though. So much shaking!
Monopoly Deal and snacks
Seriously, the little chocolate and green tea trees are fantastic!
We are sure that our opportunities for FGN will be much more limited as we move forward due to theater and other commitments, so who knows what February will look like. Will we pick a new country for snacks? Will we just try new things from Japan and the US? I guess you will have to wait and see like the rest of us!
Adventure. Create. Relate 