SeanK

I know 3 couples in the midst of divorces. Hmm… More food for thought.

Each year our family looks forward to going to Hope Lodge up on Steven’s Pass to spend a weekend with 5-6 families composed of several dozen children. This year one of older boys brough his camcorder and put together this video. Aside from a hike on the Iron Goat trail (I didn’t check this website until after got home) What you see in the video is pretty much all we did all day long.

I came across a fun word game on the internet today.

Rules:

• Take a word and remove the first letter.
• Now make up a definition for your new word.

Examples:

FAMISHED

Hungering for a simpler way of life.

SHAMPOO

Soap for washing a pig.

SHAREHOLDER

Investor in a company that makes magician’s hats.

CHIPMUNK

Squirrel that digs jazz.

DIARRHEA

Running on about oneself.

PICKPOCKET

A place to put used Kleenex.

FRISKIES

Cat food made in China.

SUNRISE

Going back to bed in the morning.

FRANTIC

Desperately raving.

SOFTWARE

A program you use a lot.

TABLEWARE

Crockery that really does the job.

BLACKLIST

All the stuff you don’t have.

Saturday morning at a timely 5:59am, we welcomed our newest daughter. She showed up 3 weeks early weighing 6 pounds 12 ounces and was 18 inches long. This has probably been the most difficult pregnancy that Lisa has had and so this conclusion has been a bittersweet blessing.

So I come home from work yesterday evening. I’ve been working late this first week in Septemeber and probably will be for the next 6 weeks or so. Anyway, as I come through the garage door I see a curious sign posted over (yes over) our bathroom door downstairs. I mention this to my wife and she calmly explains that Lydia (our three year old) had zealously tried to help the family by cleaning the downstairs bathroom. In the process she half emptied an aerasol can of Lysol disinfectant spray. (this has instigated some serious training and retraining). Micah (my 11 year old) became concerned that exposure to such a high concentration (apparently it freshened the entire house for several hours) of chemicals might cause health concerns and so he posted this sign on his own initiative.

I saw this picture and immediately thought of my daughter Abigail. She is at that age where those cute pronunciations are starting to disappear and she is starting to sound more like an adult. Anyway, this is one of her more common mispronunciations.

The local McDonalds has remodeled their kids place.

The new climbing apparatus is much bigger, making it easier for larger children and even adults to get in on the fun.

They also have a set of hoops and plenty of balls for shotting.

They even have a computer game you play by peddling a bike. They also have a dancing game, but none of the kids here could figure out how to operate it.

Parenthacks had a post on Making up New Rules for Card and Board Games and it reminded me of a version of Uno we used to play with a group of teenagers back before my kids were born. Basically we added three simple rules, but the effect was to create a game that was fast a furious and very engaging.

Cummulative Draws

The first rule was that if someone played a Draw card on you, you could play another draw card of the same type and the efeect would accumulate to the next player. For example, if someone plays a Draw 2 on you, you could play another Draw 2 and the next player would either have to draw 4 cards or play a Draw 2 as well. Likewise with Draw 4. Some times shock and horror would ensue as all 4 "Draw 4" cards would come out and some unlucky whelp (usually me) would have to draw 16 cards.

Rapid Succession

The next rule was what really increased the pace of the game. If someone played a card and I had the exact same card, color and number, I could play it out of turn and play would continue as if it had been my turn. Say play is going clockwise and the person on my left plays a Blue 4, if I have a Blue 4 and can play it before the next player, play would continue as if it had been my turn and the same player would need to go again effectively skipping the rest of the players at the table.

Equalization

And last came the rule and leveled the playing feild and could change the tide of the game in one fell swoop. If you have a 1, no matter the color, and can legally play it, when you do you have the option of trading hands with any other player. Usually this took the form of one player calling "UNO" and another player playing a 1 and trading their pile of cards with the other person’s single card. Other times one players excitement of drawing some cool cards would turn into disappointment as another player traded hands with them. Sneaky players could sometimes bluff others into trading hands with them only to be disappointed with what they got.

Using just these three additional rules Uno became a wild game that would keep teenagers occupied late into the evening at the same time giving adults no chance to coast along. I personally wouldn’t recommend trying these rules with small children as they tend to get confused and frustrated. But my older kids (9 and 11) really enjoy the challenge.

Micah, Hannah, and I have been avidly reading the Warrior series by Erin Hunter. Hannah just started book #3 tonight. We check them out at the local library. Micah and Hannah finsih them in a couple of days. Its takes me considerably longer.

One of the things I enjoy alot is my time around the dinner table with my family. It seems like everyday, I come home with something interesting to talk about that I saw on the internet. Here is the list for tonight.

First, Tim Tucker has come up with a great idea. Merging the fun of play Tetirs, with the bored of regular exercise. Checkout Tetris Weightlifting. This is a lot more exciting that Dance Dance Revolution. Primarily, because I don’t have to put quarters dollars in a machine each time to exercise, and I love Tetris.

Schwinn has a line of electric bikes. The motors are in the front hub and the batteries are very small and very high power.

Finally, someone has slowed down Alvin and the Chimpmonks so you can hear how the real singers sound. This is almost a homeschool science and technology unit study in the making.