2015 Daily December 19--favorite games

We love games at our house.  We always get at least one new one for Christmas, and I can't share what that one is now, but will later because someone might see :)  Anyway, wanted to share a few of our other favorite games in case you needed a last minute gift--these are all good and have our stamp of approval :)  Enjoy!

Jenga--can you get more class that that?  After Thanksgiving the big and little people all loved playing this.

Q-Bitz--this game is kept under our Christmas tree because we like to play it all the time, and you can play it really quickly or for longer periods.  Lots of fun-- no reading required so any age can play.  Miss E played Q-bitz Extreme at school and says that is even better--maybe on the gift list for next year.

Settlers of Catan--a classic board game we love.  Miss A just had a group of high school friends get together and play this for a few hours.  They all loved it!  Several went home and ordered it right after they were done.

Tenzi--a super fun dice game, and I would suggest when you buy it you get the "77 ways to play Tenzi" card pack to go with it.  So much fun!  We got the 6 pack of dice for our family.  

What games do you like?

2012 Blue Jeans Week 3

Hope you have all had a wonderful week.  Here is what we have been up to. . .

Sunday:  Our family really enjoys playing games.  Sunday evening we were playing Qwirkle--a shape/color matching type game that we all enjoy.

Monday:  No school today, and the weather was nice and warm but very windy.  Miss E and Mr J tried to fly a kite, but the wind was so strong it broke the string off--darn!

Tuesday:  Mr J was home sick today from school--no fun, but luckily it was a short duration stomach flu, and so far no one else has gotten it, which is something to be very grateful for in a house with 4 kids!

Wednesday:  My poor front yard--our water meter sprung a small leak, and they came to replace it and fix it today, but had to dig a huge, huge hole, so we know we will be planting new grass this spring after they level it :)

Thursday:  Once a month during the school year I get together with some dear friends, and we go out to eat and shop to different little towns near where we live --GLO (girls lunch out).  This is so fun and such a life saver for me.  What would we do without friends?  Sure love these ladies!

Friday:  Snapshot of our life--piano bags--all 4 of my kids take piano lessons--Miss A is going on 8 years, Miss O 6 years, Miss E 4 years, and Mr J is just finishing his first year of lessons, so piano bags are a big part of our everyday lives--practice x 4 in our house each day.

Saturday:  I am not and have never been a real "girly-girl," just not my thing, and my 3 girls have never really been into the princess "girly-girl" stuff either, but every once in a while it is fun to do their nails, and Saturday afternoon we had nothing else going on, so we broke out the nail polish and did toes and nails. 

Hope your next week is a good one!

2012 Blue Jeans Week 2 and history

2012 makes my 4th year in doing a picture-a-day type scrapbooking and documenting of our family's life.

2008 was the first year I tried it.  I was lucky enough to get one of the Project 365 kits.  Becky's first kit like this when she was with another company. 

This is a page out of that album--sorry it is sideways I could not get it turned.  It had a little different layout with the pictures and cards.

This is my 2009 Project Life album.

And this is a page layout from it.

My 2010 Project Life album

And a page from it.

And now I am very happy to be starting my 2012 album, and these are the pictures which will go in this week's layout. . .

Sunday:  We are Settlers of Catan fans at our house.  Even my 6-year-old likes to play.  Sunday evening we were finally able to all play because we bought the extension that allows 6 to play.  Lots of fun!

Monday:  Lately Miss O and Miss E have been into having their hair braided at night after they shower so it is all curly and poofy in the morning.  Tonight after Miss O got out of the shower Miss A was nice enough to braid all her hair.  Sadly, I forgot to get a picture of it in the morning, but it was cute, curly and poofy :)  She said everyone at school wanted to touch her hair.

Tuesday:  This white bowl with this turtle in it has been on my kitchen counter for the last week.  Mr J bought one of those water expanding animals with some Christmas money and has had it in the kitchen to see how big it would get.  Those are really not one of my favorite things, but he enjoyed looking each morning to see how much it had grown.

Wednesday:  The day started out about 60 degrees, and the kids and a friend had fun playing outside, but then the wind picked up and dropped the temperature about 30 degrees, so the kids came in freezing and in desperate need of hot chocolate which is something we are never without at our house. 

Thursday:  End of quarter awards day at school today.  Miss E and Mr J show off their school awards.  I don't think Mr J was too excited to share :)

Friday:  Wow, thank goodness it is Friday, and we can relax!  What a little man with both remotes!  Too funny!

Saturday:  Sorry for the far away, blurry picture, but Miss A was in a regional honors choir this weekend and with how far away we were, this is the best I could get.  They practiced all day and gave a performance in the afternoon.  She is right above the conductor's head with a black hair band on.  They were very good.

Hope you all had a great week!

Daily December 30: Fun new games

We love games at our house.  We got some fun new ones for Christmas that I wanted to share.

*Ratuki is a fun, fast paced card game that Miss A got.  Very quick to play and very addicting. 

*LeftCenterRight is a dice game with chips that we played last year at a school family game night, and we loved it.  I didn't know where to find it, but then Wal-mart had it advertised right before Christmas, so I ran out and got one for Miss E.  It is really fun and simple. 

*The Scrambled States of American Game is a fun US geography type card game based on the book by Laurie Keller. 

*Rory's Story Cubes is an awesome imagination game.  Anyone can come up with a cool story, no right or wrong answers, just roll the dice and think of a story.

New Year's Eve/Day is always a big game playing time at our house.  We will be playing these and others.  Hope you have fun playing games at your house too!

Blue Jeans Week 33

It is finally beginning to feel like fall here this past week.  I love fall.  School is in full swing.  Life is good.  I love my quiet days, love them, and we are all adjusting to the crazy busy nights and weekends of having a family of 4 active, growing kids.   So here is our week. . .

Sunday:  In trying to force the weather into what we wanted (fall type weather, not 106 which it was 2 days before this picture) we bought a pumpkin pie at Costco on Saturday and had it for our Sunday evening dessert.  Sunday evening desserts are a tradition at our house--not to say we don't have dessert other days.  Some days we do and others we don't,  but you can count on Sunday evening desserts--those are a constant.  So tonight we loved our pumpkin pie from Costco.  If you haven't ever tried their pumpkin pies, I would highly recommend them.  I can't make anything near that good--so yummy!  Miss E is cutting it for us with her crazy wild just-out-of-the-shower hair.

Monday:  It was purse switching day.  I have loved my pink and brown one, but it is getting a bit worn, so I cleaned it out and moved to the green and brown one.  Look at all that junk in my purse--my, oh my. . . good thing I cleaned it out, found some treasures :)

Tuesday:  Before bed tonight we played Outburst which is a classic.  We have the travel edition.  Miss A was marking off for Ben and Miss O.  One of the lists it had was "Goldie Hawn movies," and Miss A and Miss O both said, "Huh?  Who in the heck is that?"  So we passed on that one.  Kind of dates the game, and Ben and I couldn't even name one.  I guess we aren't Goldie Hawn fans here, but we are Outburst fans.  

Wednesday:  Miss O making some cookies.  It has finally cooled down enough to actually want to turn on the oven to make cookies :)

Thursday:  Volleyball begins!  Miss A had her first game today.  So fun!  She did great!  Love her socks, too :)

Friday:  After a long week, this is how I play checkers :)  Mr J is pretty good, and we had a nice relaxing evening playing games.

Saturday:  The kids have asked and asked to spend the night on the trampoline all summer, but it has either been way too hot, or chance of rain or something.  Well, all the stars aligned tonight, and they headed out.  Ben and I were taking bets on if they would stay out all night, because it was actually cold--50 degrees, and after 106, that is definitely artic weather.   So, Miss A came in around 3 a.m.  Miss O and Mr J came in around 5 a.m., and Miss E won the prize and actually slept out there all night and came in at 8 a.m.  I was impressed.  I don't think any of them were too overly excited about doing it again, but we shall see when and if the stars all align right they might do it again.

Hope you all have had a great week!  Have you seen the new Project Life kits??? Oh. my.  Talk about eye candy.  I am thinking the Cobalt is the one for me next year. 

Blue Jeans Week 25

We had a great 4th of July weekend.  Didn't do too much, kept it low key, watched fireworks from our back yard, went swimming, BBQ, Ben slept with the kids in a tent in the backyard, and enjoyed being together as a family.  Hope you all had a good one!

Sunday:  Our kids really like paying games--board games, card games, etc.  This afternoon they played PayDay with Ben.

Monday:  For part of our 4th of July dinner Miss E made patriotic strawberries dipped in white chocolate with blue sprinkles.  They were yummy!  She saw them in Family Fun.  Ben was her helper :)

Tuesday:  I love to fly our flag.  So grateful for our country, freedom, and the men and women that work so hard to keep it that way!  God bless them and their families!

Wednesday:  Nana taught Mr J a duet that they can do together.  Having a sucker in his mouth must have helped him play better :)

Thursday:  Like I have said before, we love the library and are there lots in the summer.  For each pound of books the kids read they get to donate a penny to the library for new books.  Mr J adds his 10 pennies for reading 10 lbs this week.  He is up to 100 lbs for the summer so far--super reader!

Friday:  Classic summer shot, I am watching the kids in the pool--love summer time!

Saturday:  Got up to a city and a Toys-R-Us to get these Poptropica toys.  My brother is a web designer for the kids' online game (he does the people and scenery), and they just came out with some toys from it.  My brother designed these toys.  The kids were so excited to get their Uncle's toys!  If your kids aren't Poptropica fans, they should be, it is a safe, fun online kids game, and so much fun!  All of my kids ages 6-13 play it.  Check it out  http://www.poptropica.com/

Hope you all have a great week!  I am getting caught up on my paper Project Life this week.  Catching up on my journal cards and putting photos in.  Love it!

  

Blue Jeans Week 24

We are hitting the hot dog days of summer here, and they just seem to fly by, can anyone else relate to that?  :)  Hope you all have had a good week!  Here is what we have been up to. . .

Sunday:  Ben is so good to read aloud to the kids.  They are finishing up #5 in Brandon Mull's Fablehaven series which they have all loved.  Good summer reads if you are looking for some.

Monday:  Ben, Miss O, Miss E and Mr J finish up their new bookshelves.  They are super excited to get them filled with stuff which I am sure won't take long.  They did a great job and look great!

Tuesday:  Swimming lessons week!  Miss E has fun jumping off the diving board.

Wednesday:  Mr J with his cute swimming teacher.  He loved going to lessons this week!

Thursday:  The girls checking out one of the Harry Potter 7 part 2 previews. . .with just a few days left in the countdown until the movie is out!

Friday:  Mr J and one of the most classic of childhood entertainments--a pot and pan band--he entertained us with some pretty good music this afternoon.

Saturday:  Mr J and another classic entertainment--dominoes.  He was showing me his favorite dominoes  :)  It has been too hot to be outside, so we have been playing lots of games and doing projects inside in the nice A/C. 

Hope you all are keeping cool and enjoying your summer!  Have a good week!