Friday, July 18, 2014

It Doesn't Have to Be Big or Expensive

Now that our girls are older, I often think that I have to spend lots of money and plan big activities to entertain them.  Not so.

Since this was one of our slower weeks for the summer, I wanted the three of us to do something together.  However, we've spent money on several outings lately, so I wanted an inexpensive option.  The weather was also a factor for part of the week.

Then I realized that we hadn't done a game day in quite awhile and thought I'd see if that still appealed to them.

When I mentioned it at breakfast, they were excited!  We took turns choosing games to play and had a fun afternoon.


Just like we'd done previously, we interspersed game playing with a little work, focusing on cleaning out their closets.

Here are the games we played.  [Amazon links are affiliate links.]

Bakers Dozen

Strawberry Shortcake Princess Hide and Seek

Uno

Scrabble Turbo Slam

Classic Pit

Disney Princess Old Maid

The afternoon was a great reminder that even at 13 and 11, spending time together - even just at home playing games - is what's important. not how much we spend or how big the activity.  Now I'm inspired, so I think we might have an "at-home" spa afternoon and do pedicures and fancy hairdo's!

What games do your kids like to play?

7 comments:

  1. I've been thinking about getting some new games for my children, so I'm going to check some of these out. Some of these games (especially the Disney princess ones!) look like ones my girls would love...and Daniel would put up with. :)

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    1. Oh, and we had a game morning a couple of weeks ago when we couldn't go to church because Mary was sick and John was working. (I couldn't stay home with Mary while John took the others to church.) And we had a great time. Have you played Mancala with your girls? My children love it, and Sarah Beth almost always beats me!

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    2. I've never heard of Mancala - I'm going to look it up now!!

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    3. Did you find it? Ours is a wooden "board" with lots of marbles. It's an old, old game, but it's still great fun!

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  2. I'm not a big game person (definitely *NO* video games of any kind for me - not on a gaming system, computer, or even my iPhone = none! but also not big on board games) b/c I am so hyper competitive. :-/ I know this about myself. I gloat when I win & pout when I lose like a 4 yr old. :-D So I try to avoid.
    But I *did* play Will's "Ticket to Ride" game a few times...and no one was hurt ;-) :-D :-P

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  3. What a great idea! I often forget about board games!! Glad that you had a wonderful day!

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  4. Board games are great - and once they are bought, they can be played over and over! We always spend time playing board games in our summer holidays. We have a few Bible-based games that we really enjoy, and I like them especially because not only do we have fun, but we get to learn things from the Scriptures at the same time! :) We also love word board games, like Scrabble, and Quiddler. My son prefers chess and checkers, so we play plenty of that, too. :)

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