#iPPP ~ Just Dance

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Jackie

Over the weekend the kids wanted to rent Just Dance 3 for the Wii because I’m a mean mom and haven’t bought it for them yet (or any other Just Dance game… maybe for the holidays). Our big plans for the night were to hang out together and play video games.

This was the first time that I can remember both of my older girls setting the phones down, walking away from the computers, and really spending some quality time together. I really enjoyed it and I think that they did too!

Now, to protect myself from the laughter that would be heard around the world I won’t post any pictures of myself playing the game. It’s to scary and I deleted them and the video that my lovely children took of me. Honestly…. I can’t afford the therapy you’d all need either.

All the kids joined in!

Andrew thought that it was a lot of fun to stand in front of where his sisters were playing and dance! He spent a lot of the evening dancing away.

See the pic on the right... that's what happens when I don't pay attention.

Except for the time while I was playing and he decided to climb on the table. I guess it’s easier to play with trains that way.

So here’s the thing…. Just Dance is a serious work out and if you have no rhythm it’s even harder! It just looks like you’re flaying about! But it was a lot of fun and I think that if I were to keep playing I might actually lose weight and look good doing it! Then maybe… just maybe there’d be a picture of me playing the game (don’t hold your breath though).

I think we need to make it a regular family event… maybe even make it into a contest or something fun.

Have you played any of the Just Dance games yet? What do you think of them?
I’m linking up with Liz & KLZ for iPhone Photo Phun because well…. my iPhone is awesome and I take about a million pics a week on it! May as well share them!

Yahtzee!!

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Jackie

This week, we want you to recall the games you played when you were young.

Did you love Monopoly, Yahtzee, or Uno? Or did you prefer backgammon, Trouble, or Scrabble?

Write a piece that explores one of your memories.

I’ve been missing for a while from TRDC prompts and really have no reason why, but I’m jumping back in today.

Many years ago when I was just a little girl my family and I used to take long weekends and go up north to St. Helen, Michigan to visit my grandparents on my moms side. I loved going up there for so many reasons, but most of all I got to spend some time with my grandparents and usually got away with a lot more than if I were at home.

Every evening after dinner (often polenta, sausage, and a marinara sauce) I would take a bath and use the Irish Spring soap, the traditional green and white marbled bar. Even today the smell brings back all sorts of fond memories of my grandparents house and the times that I spent with them. After my bath my grandma would french braid my hair into two long and really tight braids on either side of my head. I’m amazed at how tight she was able to get them! Seriously… sometimes it hurt. But I endured it because I loved the way they looked so much and my mom couldn’t braid.

Image via Wikipedia

Once all of us kids were in bed the adults would all gather in the kitchen with their snacks and wine to play Yahtzee.

They would all take their seats at the table, passing out the score sheets, pencils, and gathering the cup and dice at first. And this is when the fun started. They’d shake the cup letting the dice rattle around a few times before letting them roll out of the cup and on to the table all in hopes of getting that elusive Yahtzee. Again and again the dice would be tossed into the cup, rattle around, and then fall onto the table.

So many times I would get up and tell them that I couldn’t sleep because of the dice, but really I just wanted to watch or even to play with them. Of course I was always sent back to bed where I would lay and listen to the fun.

As the night progressed they would laugh, talk, and carry on. Always having a great time and yelling out “Yahtzee!!” in a gleeful manner when someone managed to get the five dice to all have the same number showing. They would play well into the night it seemed or probably something closer to 10 or 11pm.

During the day my grandma would pull out that old Yahtzee box and play with us kids. I remember the box, it was worn very much use throughout the years and held shut by a single rubber band. We would have so much fun playing with my grandma.

As I think back of all the times that they played I can still hear the sound of the dice rattling and my mom laughing. Looking back things were much simpler then.

I remember this so well and it’s such a fond memory that even today my sister and I love to play it when we get together.

Scrabble Flash Giveaway!

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Jackie

Are you ready for a great family fun night game? Hasbro has a new game out called Scrabble Flash and it’s a ton of fun! It’s a fast paced game where you have to line up the five tiles to form as many words as possible in 75 seconds! I’m here to tell you that it’s not as easy as you may think!

You don’t need the traditional board or any of the little letter tiles (that always seem to get lost) to play either. All you need is paper and something to write with if you want to keep score and of course the game.

My daughter and I have played many times (it’s really addictive) and have found that we’ll only get about 1/4 of the words that are possible!

The game can be played in three different ways.

Flash: Find as many three, four and five-letter words before time runs out.
Five-Letter Flash: Find the five-letter word for each letter mix until time runs out. Each tile will display one letter, and as the countdown begins, players will quickly form the one five-letter word that uses those letters. If you find the right word in time, the game will continue. When the game ends, the tiles will display the five-letter words that you missed.
Pass Flash: Players take turns forming five-letter words with the letters on the tiles. If a player is successful in forming the word, the tiles will display “N-E-X-T”, and the player to their left quickly tries to form a new five-letter word. Players drop out one by one as the timer seeds up – the last player left playing is the winner.

This is a game that the entire family can get in on since it’s for ages 8 and up! I will say that my daughter who is 9 (as of yesterday) had a difficult time especially with the time limit, but she still had fun with it.

Scrabble Flash

Are you interested yet?

Well, I have one game that is up for grabs!

And I’m going to make it really easy for you to win! All you have to do to enter is follow me via Google Friend Connect and leave a comment that you do AND tell me why you want to win this game!

A winner will be chosen using random.org first thing in the morning on April 1 and their information will be passed on that same day so their game can be sent out to them! So make sure that your email is visible in your profile or leave in your comment!

Yellow!!

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Jackie

Image via Wikipedia

You’ve all played the game as kids or still do where you see a Volkswagen Beetle and yell out “Slug Bug!” and punch the person sitting next to you. Loads of fun I know, unless of course your slow with the game and are the one getting hit all the time!

Well, there’s a new game in town. One that I thought was limited to my oldest daughter and her friend and then I realized that it was much bigger than that.

Yellow is the name of the game. You see a yellow car and yell out Yellow! Simple as that, right? So I thought. My middle daughter informed me that I’m wrong (big surprise, huh).

We were leaving the high school after dropping the oldest off and on the way to the middle school to drop her off and in pulls a yellow car. I saw it first and yelled out Yellow!

And then she tells me that it doesn’t count because it’s there every day. What?? Really.

So from there we get into this discussion on the “rules” of Yellow.

If we see it in the same place daily it doesn’t count.
If it’s a bus it doesn’t count.
If it’s not moving it doesn’t count.

I think there’s more to the list, but at that point I just started making fun of it all and pointed out & yelled Yellow! for every thing I could see! House’s (yea, like 4 of them), cars that didn’t count, and I even thought about the 3 or so buses that we passed but figured that’d be overkill.

Seriously, they’re trying to make it more difficult for me to win! I mean there are only so many damn yellow vehicles in this small town!