Backseat Drawing

I found this game online the other day (click here) and am convinced that my kids will LOVE this!

One player instructs another player to draw something, using only basic clues. The cluegiver cannot reveal what is being drawn. Everyone has to guess what the object is before time runs out!

In the regular version... the cards with the items to be drawn are just listed. In the junior version, the cards have simple drawings of things that look pretty easy to explain!

Addicting Games

Free activity?

Supreme time waster?

Fun summer activity??

Skill builder?

Educational?

Addicting?

Yes... to all of the above!!!

Check out Addicting Games for some fun games. I found a game on the site that helped my daughter learn the locations of the 50 states... that is why this is an educational site. But don't tell her it is educational... she (we) had a great time checking out the fun games on this site.

Fact or Crap

We got this fun game for Christmas this year. It is an interesting way to play a trivia game. I love trivia, but hate looking like an idiot when I don't know something that everyone else knows. This is a perfect solution for me.

In a nutshell... to play, one player is the reader and reads bits of trivia to the other players. Each player indicates, with a card, if they believe the trivia to be fact or crap. You get more points if you guess correctly and guess first. You also lose points if you guess incorrectly. It was a fun, fast paced game.

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Sample trivia statements:

Tom Thumb's coffin was only 3 feet and 10 inches long. Fact or Crap?

Karlsbad, Bad Ragaz and Baden Baden are all family health spa locations. Fact or Crap?

Queen Elizabeth's great grandmother, the Duchess of Teck, was heiress to a toothbrush manufacturing fortune. Fact or Crap?

The Schwimmwagen was an amphibious model of the Volkswagen Beetle. Fact or Crap?

Leonardo da Vinci produced a blueprint for a machine gun? Fact or Crap?

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Answers:

All are fact, except for the Queen Elizabeth statement, which is crap!

Armored Penguin

If you are like me and you have a difficult person to shop for on your list...

YOU MUST SEE THIS WEBSITE

http://www.armoredpenguin.com/

Armored Penguin can generate puzzles, with clues YOU give it. For free! They have generators for crossword puzzles, word search puzzles and word scrambles. I love the idea of creating a booklet for teachers, grandparents, siblings, etc., with personalized puzzles!! What a great idea!

I created my first word search puzzle this morning, saved it to my computer, edited it in Word and printed it out. It'll be a fun activity for my girls after school today!

Also, on this website there are some fun logic puzzles... I played the Bagels game and am hooked! I've marked the site as a favorite.

Did you know...

I recently read three interesting tidbits that made me smile...

Try it, You'll Like It What gives you the urge to experiment with new things, like an exotic food or a different hair color? Research from University College London shows that taking chances fires up the same part of the brain that is activated when we eat chocolate or win money.

Need Help? Just Ask The next time you need a helping hand, don't be shy about asking. Researchers at Columbia University found that people are twice as likely to help as you'd expect. In part, that's because it's awkward to say no, says study author Frank Flynn, Ph.D., now an associate professor of organizational behavior at Standford University. But most of the time people actually like being asked. "The truth is, helping others feels good," says Dr. Flynn.

Fight Stress with Fun Video games aren't just for kids anymore. It turns out they're actually good stress relievers for grown-ups. Playing puzzle-based video games, such as the kind that sometimes come pre-programmed in your cell phone for just 15 minutes may ease tension and improve mood, say researchers from East Carolina University.

My take on all of this... anyone want to come over and help me with laundry?? I'll provide the chocolate and a wicked game of Wii tennis?

Monopoly Mania!

After a brief search on-line, it appears that there are almost 100 different varieties of the Monopoly game.

Here are some editions that I find intriguing and interesting...

Qrazy Quandaries

Take Your Pick between two tough choices! Would you prefer to wake up with floppy dog ears or a fuzzy bunny tail? Wear the same outfit or eat the same meal for a year? Have one wish granted today or three granted in ten years? Packed with 125 questions, this game will have your family and friends "Qracking" each other up!

• Our family loves this game. And I love to give it as a gift. In my opinion, it makes a great graduation gift, wedding gift or birthday gift. We play it in the car, or sometimes we play it for a few minutes before we tackle homework. It never grows old... it is always funny and enlightening to hear what the kids come up with to justify their answers.

• Simply Fun has great games. We love them because they are easy to learn to play and quick to play!!

• Leave a comment by midnight Tuesday September 9 to enter the drawing for a free Qrazy Quandaries game. One person will be randomly selected on Wednesday morning!!! Good luck!!!

Linkity

I have been blessed with a family that loves to play games. Here is one of our current favorites from SimplyFun.

It is called Linkity and the object of the game is to be the first player to play all of your cards through word association links. For example, if player 1 plays a letter "T" and starts the link with the word "table" the remaining players race to play one of their letter cards by coming up with a word that can be linked to "table." A "P" card could be played for "placemat" or a "C" for coffee, etc.

It is a fun, fast-paced game. I love it. Click here for more information.