Family Game Time—Day 1

Last weekend Husband announced that we were going to start structuring our evenings a bit more and spend more family time together. (What?! You mean I don’t get to watch you play Call of Duty anymore? Say it isn’t so!)

His plan: supper, then family game time, then family clean-up time, then bedtime. If this plan survives the first week, I’ll be one happy woman. But I’m not getting my hopes up quite YET.

So yesterday was Day 1 of the plan. Supper? Check. And I actually cooked after being stabbed with guilt when Boy #1 asked, “Can we have a real meal tonight, Mom?” Ouch. It was easy—chicken breast tenderloins and wild rice with cream of mushroom soup, along with a salad that I dumped out of a bag. But still . . . it fit the definition of “real meal” in our family.

After clearing the table off (which is still that little slanty-legged craft table from our basement after Husband stepped right through ours in a near-tragic “painting accident”), we got ready to play a game. Boy #3 kept insisting we play that game where you fling monkeys into a tree, but Husband made the executive decision that we would play Pictureka. If you haven’t played it, it’s a great game for families because you don’t have to be able to read (or in my case, do math) and it’s a lot of fun. Basically, you have to find pictures on these squares filled with tons of different graphics and images that fit a certain category or that match a card. Sometimes you’re on your own, and sometimes you go head-to-head with family members.

Of course, it’s not game night unless Mom is getting made fun of, and last night was no different. My anxiety works overtime during those head-to-head rounds, and I get so worked up that I can’t remember to yell out “Pictureka!” once I see something. Instead, I scream. I also scream whenever anyone else yells “Pictureka!” Basically, I just scream throughout the entire game. It’s almost as bad as when I play Perfection. That game is my nemesis. I swear one day I will actually go into cardiac arrest while anticipating when those stupid shapes are going to pop up. (Oh, and if you haven’t guessed, I don’t do Jack-in-the-boxes either. Especially if they involve clowns.) I always seem to give my family plenty of material to work with when it comes to making fun of me.

While Husband, Boy #1, Boy #2, and I played Pictureka, Boy #3, who was not to be deterred from playing the game he wanted to play, sat on the floor playing practice rounds of his monkey game, which then turned into using the dustpan as some sort of catapult for the monkeys as they flew through the air and fought each other. Because everything in our house eventually fights.

After two games of Pictureka (in which I won the first game, thank you very much!), I asked Husband to set up my new Your Shape Wii game so I could get ready for the Fun, Fit, and Guilt-Free House Party I’m hosting tonight. (And which I should really be cleaning for at this very moment.) I think I gave my ab muscles a good workout just from laughing at Husband as he tried to do the fitness test so he could set up his profile. It’s funny enough to watch him try to copy Jenny McCarthy’s avatar’s moves live, but since the game uses a camera as well, we also got to watch him on the screen. Which was superhilarious until it was my turn to do the fitness test, and I found out how hard it was to get the moves right. Oh, and also until I peed my pants doing the jumping jacks. I’m pretty sure Jenny’s avatar didn’t pee HER pants during that portion of the test. Dang kids, look what you’ve done to your mom!!

So after I completed my fitness test and I went upstairs to change my pants, it was bedtime. I’m not saying it went without a hitch, but it was a bit easier than it usually is. (Except for the fact that Boy #3 STILL won’t go to bed in his own bed.)

Tonight’s game will probably be Wii Bowling since we’ll already have the Wii warmed up for my party. After that? Not sure, but we own about a gazillion board games, so we should be able to rotate them enough so we never get bored. That is, if we make it past the first week . . .


Disclosure: I’m an Amazon Affiliate, and if you click on the above links and order something, I might make a few cents. Just so ya know.
Image courtesy of NickF

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

7 Comments

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge