Taking the Scenic Route

Cabbage Patch Kids “Touching Tunes”

17th January 2011

Cabbage Patch Kids “Touching Tunes”

Eilysh gave Zora the Cabbage Patch Touching Tunes Kids game for her Birthday.  It was a vintage game they had found at a second hand store.   There were a bunch of different games with the one system, and it featured a thing where you had to each touch a spot on the playing field, and touch the other person for the tune to play.  Zora loved it.  (not a game I want to play a lot, but she loved it, and that is what is important).  It was a cute game, good for the preschool set.  This one kept getting stuck on the “Happy Birthday” song, which delighted Zora, but made the grown-ups want to use a hammer on the thing after a while. lol.

a picture I found of the whole thing online:

posted in Board/Card Games, Zora | Comments Off

16th January 2011

Mario Yahtzee

Trying out one of the Christmas gifts from Dawn.  Mario-themed Yahtzee.  The kids both loved it.  I do understand the comments I saw online after playing it.  The pictures start rubbing off in the first playing, so I am going to have to take some clear fingernail polish to cover all the sides of the die before we play it again.  I also took some foam and lined the box so it wasn’t as loud.  That seemed to work really well.  Then, after trying it once, we discovered that the little score card was too tiny for Zane’s ability to write, so for this time, I scanned it in and enlarged it.  Later, after discovering some misprints that unnerved Zane, I remade the scorecard on my computer and printed it out in a full page version.  Seems like a lot of work, but worth it for a game that we all enjoy.

The new scorecard in .pdf, for anybody who ran into the same issues:

MarioBrosYahtzeeScorecard

Zane took the game very seriously.

After playing a few rounds, Zora got more interested in drawing pictures than playing the game. lol.

posted in Autistic Life, Board/Card Games, The Kids | Comments Off

29th October 2010

Quiet Days

Most weeks my mom comes up and takes Zora out for the day.  It is a win-win for the kids…Zora gets some much needed social interaction, Grandma gets to create a lot of memories, Zane gets some Grandma time (we usually meet up for a meal), and Zane gets some time where it is quiet in the house and the attention of both parents.  Without Zora in the house, it is a lot easier to play more complicated games, and that is often what Zane wants to do.

This week it was the Star Wars themed Stratego.

posted in Autistic Life, Board/Card Games, Zane | Comments Off

27th September 2010

Learning new things

Zach doing a lesson with Zane.

Zane suddenly developed an interest in chess. YAY!    He took the cheaper chess set (the “No Stress Chess Game”) and set it up next to his computer, ran a computer chess game that we have had on there for a while, mirroring the moves on the chessboard next to him.  After doing that for several hours, he asked his Dad to play a game with him.  Then Zora heard “play a game” and wanted to also join, so we went into storage and dug out our nice chess set, from Zach’s mom.  Zach ended up playing with both of them at once, Zane an actual game, and Zora a pretend game.

I am SO excited to see him be interested in chess.  When he gets a little better it would be a great social outlet for him, besides the obvious brain building benefits.

posted in Board/Card Games, Homeschool, Zach, Zane | Comments Off

29th August 2010

Geekery in training

I love the fact that Zane requests some of our nerdy games, like the “Star Wars” themed Monopoly.  I have to help Zora (for both game play, and because her attention span is MUCH shorter than Zane’s is), but it is fun to be playing “real” games finally, after years of Candyland and Memory.

posted in Board/Card Games, The Kids | Comments Off

13th June 2010

Family Game Night

After our weekly family meeting, we let the kids pick a game each (and do everything we can to dissuade them from Mousetrap, because that game is torture for adults) and play.  Zora chose the Dora Candy Land game, but since we only have one surviving original piece (Boots with Balloons) they raided the toy box to find other characters to play.

Zane chose Uno.  (and the adults cheer!).  Since both kids lack the hand size and motor planning that Uno often requires, I ran downstairs to my “don’t want to throw this away just in case I need it” pile and grabbed a piece of styrofoam.  A few slices with a knife across the top and you have handy dandy card holders.  I have seen these made out of those foam florist bricks wrapped in packing tape and it worked a little nicer, but this was successful, and FREE. (although the styrofoam snow was a tad annoying to me, it didn’t really bother anything).  The original idea was passed on by a local OT designing something to hold cards for stroke patients.  I thought it was pretty clever.

Oh, and Zach lost.  By a lot.

posted in Autistic Life, Board/Card Games, Giggle, OT/Sensory, The Kids | 1 Comment

6th June 2009

Carcasonne expansions rock

#157 Carcassonne expansions really add a lot to the game play. The dragon kept throwing wrenches into things.

posted in Board/Card Games, Friends | Comments Off

4th June 2009

Robert’s family, the next day

#155 Friends.

the focus wasn’t quite right, but I still like this one too…

One more game of Carcassonne with the kids today. It was a lot of fun.

Zane playing wii with the boys

posted in Board/Card Games, Friends, The Kids, project 365 | Comments Off

1st June 2009

Settlers of Catan!

#151 The Knight Token for the win.

The Catan Card game is SO much fun.  We were saving it to play in Germany, but that’s not happening, so we broke it out tonight.  It is for two players, unlike the regular Catan game (which is for a group), and is a nice combination of (some) luck and (mostly) strategy.  It moves fairly fast once you get the hang of it.  You have to get 12 “victory points” and if you earn the knight token (by having the strongest knights) it is worth one of the 12 points.

Here is the winning hand of the evening.

posted in Board/Card Games, Zach & Jennifer, project 365 | Comments Off

23rd May 2009

Mario Bros. Monopoly

#143 Nintendo Monopoly fun while Zora naps.  I was pleased that he was able to figure out how to pay for a property without helping him.  (the math part)

posted in Autistic Life, Board/Card Games, Zane, project 365 | Comments Off

  • Subscribe


 Log in