It's Game Night!

 

What family doesn’t enjoy a little game night now and then?  But at the same time who doesn’t dread a Monopoly Game that just. won’t. end?   Our family enjoys an assortment of games but can also get a little competitive resulting in our evenings not being as fun as we had anticipated.  I am very guilty of just wanting a fun game night with no scores. 

Recently we’ve been striving to make more designated family time for us to all spend some quality time doing things together as opposed to just being in the same house together.  We’ve found a few rounds of Dutch Blitz to be a great evening of “loving” name calling and fun.  Our 10-year-old daughter can’t say no to a game of Uno-any version will do, but she is partial to “Uno-Flip” at the moment.

I just picked up the old classic “BOGGLE” and have had fun playing it with just the hubby and I (of course once he gets in the groove, he kicks my butt).  We did find that the 90-second timer isn’t enough, so we do the 3-minute version of the game.

In my craft supply cupboard are a dozen boxes of Dollar Tree “Tumbling Tower Games” (aka Dollar Tree Jenga) that I have on hand to make holiday decorations and gifts (lots of fun and I’m sure I’ll post about them sometime).  Last week our daughter asked for permission to have a box to play with and off she went to play a game by herself and then to building towers and houses on the kitchen table. 

Getting the blocks out had reminded me of some fun jenga game twists I had seen in my Pinterest meanderings and prompted me to get another box of “tumbling tower” blocks out of the craft cupboard.   Hubby and I have been married for close to 18 years, have two teenage boys, a tween daughter, work in ministry, I manage one of our family’s multi-generational businesses, and sadly our personal relationship with each other isn’t always focused on like it should be. So, we've been trying to be more intentional with our time spent together.

I took to (carefully) scouring the internet for some fun idea/prompts to turn a simple game of “jenga” into a lot more fun for Hubby and I to play together….alone….when the kiddos are sound asleep, or at Grammas, or school, or just somewhere else…..   I got out my ink, poured the box of blocks on my desk, and stamped a pair of hearts on each end of every block so that this box of blocks is very easily distinguishable from any others, and then spent an evening brainstorming and looking up fun prompts, ideas, etc…. to write on each block. 

Hubby picked about my silly craft night as I concealed what exactly I was writing and looking up.  When I finished my creation and teased him by showing him a few blocks he suddenly was a touch more interested in this future game of “Jenga” between the two of us. I've shared a photo of our "Couples Tower Game", showing just the mildest prompt I included-creating this game allowed me to push aside the "ho-hums" of an evening spent together while still having control over what the prompts and ideas are going to be - unlike if we were to purchase a ready made "couples game" that we may find ourselves partially or fully uncomfortable playing.  

After finishing the creation of our ”2 player only-Couples Tower Game” (which is clearly labeled and stored safely in our bedroom) I took out another box of blocks to create a Family set.  Looking up prompts for this tower was fun and challenging as I want it to be fun for a 10-year-old girl, two teen boys, and us ol’ parents.  Hopefully I’ve succeeded.  I got the ink out again and divided the blocks into five piles, stamping a “v” on either end of each block in each of our favorite colors.  With a combination of physical activities, some brainy questions, a few open-ended questions, and a handful of animal sounds it should be a fun game to play around the kitchen table this summer.  

Even if our new tower game gets boring over the summer, it was a simple $1.25 purchase for some time spent with each other being silly and laughing together.  What are some fun things you do to intentionally spend time together with your family people?