family fun night - board games

We haven't had an organized family fun night in a while now. What with the busy schedules and the kids taking turns being sick, it just hasn't happened. So Friday night seemed a good night for game night. Abby wanted to play Disney Scene It, like she always does, but I decided to veto that in favour of Five Little Monkey's Jumping on the Bed. We actually got this last Christmas and hadn't yet played a single game. I'm not sure why not.

Now the box makes some pretty bold claims about how easy it is to get started. I admit I was skeptical, but it was true. The instructions were easy to read and simple to follow. Which is great when you're playing a game with little ones.



The game itself is fairly straight forward, you move your man around the board collecting tokens while adding monkeys to the bed. After each turn you get to press the red button on the bed post once. When the bed pops up, if your monkeys fall off the bed you have to take them back. To win you need to have all four tokens and four monkeys standing on the bed.



You know what was really great about this game? It was easy enough for Maya to play on her own. Usually when we play a board game Maya gets stuck "helping" either Mike or I. She was just over the moon to have a man of her own on the board. Abby helped her with counting out her spaces when it came time to move her man, but all other aspects of the game she could manage on her own. Call me a sappy Mom, but it was a nice "big girl" moment for my little My-Pie.



Of course you know the big attraction of the game is that little red button on the bedpost. Both girls just loved it when the bed would pop sending monkeys scattering across the table. This game was great because it was enjoyable for both a 7 year old and a 3 year old. It's not easy to find a game like that.

We were really rolling with a theme this weekend because Saturday found Grandma Sandi over for a little super Scrabble.



And Maya was, once again, the helper.



But she's such a good helper.



I didn't hold out much hope for winning because Grandma Sandi is a kick ass player. So I was pretty impressed with myself when she only beat me by 2 points. Especially with tiles like those.

Hope your weekend was just as fun!