Our Family's Favorite Games Over the Last 20 years...

We recently de-cluttered our game closet and realized that times have changed! Of course, we have done it before, but it had been a couple of years, and our teens have grown a lot since then.  Since we just got two new ones and had such a great time, it occurred to me that you might like to know what our favorite games have been over the years besides the obvious like backgammon, dominoes, solitaire and chess.

First of all, we discovered one important thing..we needed a new game of PIT -- It was just worn out!

We had worn the cards to shreds, lost one market corner and broken the bell...if that isn't proof enough of how fun it is, I don't know what is 

 and we didn't want to pass on Clue just yet.

These two games have never grown old even though we have played them since the kids were very young.

The Funnest Version of PIT is the one Tim's dad introduced to his family as a boy.  You put just enough spoons minus one on the table for every player and whenever you 'got a corner on the market', rather than ring the bell, you just quietly removed a spoon and waited to see how long it would take before someone noticed.

We sounded almost like the real stock market--everyone holding up cards at the same time and yelling, "Two! Two! Has any body got Two! Four, four..no one one!!Please someone trade with me!!! 

It's so energetic and fun and certainly does get the idea of how the stock market works across in a very basic way. But the rush for the spoons...is hilarious!

Now, our very favorite little kid games of all time were Don't Wake Daddy ....

and Mouse Trap.

My toddlers absolutely loved these games! We didn't always play them just as they were supposed to be played, but they were so fun and so full of the Oooh, Wow! factor, that it didn't matter.  I cried tears of laughter every time we played these because the kids' reactions were hilarious and priceless. You can get Don't Wake Daddy for $10.00 used at Amazon..so don't panic about the high price tag.

We were discussing what to throw out because the kids had outgrown most of the games in the cabinet with the exception of Apples to Apples (another family favorite),  were no longer interesting to the kids.  It is really fun..and we all love it!

Rebekah mentioned that she had just discovered a couple of new games at a get together with friends from her bible study on campus and begged my hubby to get them for us, which he did.

One of the games was Balderdash. She said they were dying laughing playing this, but I guess that's because they are college kids and didn't have to work so hard to come up with 'fake answers' to bluff each other with, but we still really enjoyed it! Once you learn how to play, it's a lot of fun. 

Basically, the idea for this game is to read a 'weird word', the title to a movie, a person's name, or an odd local law, etc. for the players to identify. Then everyone writes down a fake definition, law, bio or script line for the suggested item. 

The person in charge of that round, the balderdasher, reads the real answer out loud along with all the fake ones. Everyone has to vote on which answer they think is correct.

Most of the time no one knows, right off the bat, what the real answer is because the ideas, people or movies are so obscure it would be impossible. But it's like a multiple choice test--you just guess which one sounds right.  

The goal is mostly to write such a good 'fake' answer that everyone votes for you. It's hilarious! 

I must be good at bluffing..because I got lots of votes for my fake movie story lines and funny definitions! I also got tricked myself  but I tell you, this game stretches the brain! It's great because you don't have to know tons of Trivia...which is a good thing for our family since we don't watch TV, just movies.

The second one, In A Pickle was easier but still a mind bender. It also requires some thinking, but leads to a lot of absurdity..which had us all in stitches. This one is more of a card game with words on the cards. Four cards are placed on the table and like dominoes you have to 'play' off that card.

Whatever card you lay down has to either 'encompass' or enclose the item  or concept on the previous card, or be inside that item.

 This isn't restricted to physical objects but also to ideas.  We really stretched the limits of believability on some of the plays but if the group votes thumbs up on your play..then you can do it.

Christian just can't believe that you can't put a book in a giraffe..what if it's stuffed...what if it's a really big giraffe?? 

Sorry..we all voted thumbs down on that one.  But his friends might have approved, so who's to say?

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/dawnvgilmore/

Anyway, we had a great time the other night learning new games..and after all this talk about having fun..I think we better plan to break out the popcorn and lemonade tonight! How about you? What are your family favorites?

We're always 'game' for a new game!  Have Fun!