Family – Family and Games

Surprise!!

We had a wonderful holiday surprise this year!

That’s right! DISNEYLAND! Our first trip!! We did a road trip to California. The kids were over the moon excited. Honestly, so was I as I had never been before.
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Disney was an experience that is for sure! Here are a few pictures and clips from our trip.

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That wasn’t the only surprise! We also stop at Oceanside,Ca. So beautiful and peaceful!
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We are back!!

Hey guys. We had taken a few months to slow down. Spend some family time together! However, We are back full force by the end of this week! So happy to be back and play games more. A update on us. We are just a regular family who loves board games. However, we have had some huge events happening in our lives the past few months.

This Halloween, I convinced everyone to dress as TMNT. This was a win for me! I have tried many years to do a family theme.

Zayden had his first school performance ever! He played a Native American. So very proud of him for doing a good job and he nailed his line!

Zayden also had his first field trip. All the kids have been learning about the Sonoran Desert. As that is were we live.

Anyce performed in what may be her last ballet concert this December. She played a mouse in the Nutcracker. Anyce has been learning ballet since the age of 3. She did a wonderful job!

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However she found a new love and that is running. She has started a wonderful program called “Girls on the Run” She is now about to run a 5k a few times a week! I am so amazed at what she set’s her mind to.

Thank you for your support and for enjoying this ride with us!

Boo’ing!! What is it?

Boo’ing is our families favorite Halloween tradition. Boo’ing is all about doing something for someone else and making them feel special! You can make something or buy something a small or as big as you want. However, it needs to be Halloween themed. Which makes it even more fun!

After you get together your Halloween goodies for either your neighbors or friends. You will place a paper/sign explaining what Boo’ing is. Then you get to act like a spy… All stealth like drop your gift at their doorstop, ring the bell, and RUN!!! Try not to get caught! FYI we get caught like 80% of the time. Though it could be because we are in our car half the time listening to Halloween music, being silly and just having a good time. It’s still fun! We let each kid pick their best friends and we also do a few in our neighborhood to get the fun started. After you have been boo’ed your are then suppose to go out a boo 2 people! Keep it going till hopefully everyone around has been booed!

The joy it brings all the families and children involved makes it all worth it! Especially when you don’t get caught! Then the kids are wondering who left them a gift. Plus, every time we get caught Zayden will say. “That was an epic fail” it cracks me up! Let us know if you do boo bags or if you have been boo’ed before!

Here are some examples of our boo bags

Talk like a Pirate Party

Argh Matey’s, we had us ye party. All of me matey’s came aboard. We sailed the seven seas. We ate and we dueled with pirate games. Some of us didn’t make it. Those who lost had to walk the plank. We hope they will wash up on shore for next years pirate party.

WE ATE FROM THE SEA

Octopus Hotdogs
These were way easier than they look. I got this idea from Pinterest. So many people have post this idea. I have no idea who is the original. So 3 Cheers to who thought of these cute little guys. They were perfect for our party. I made my octopus smaller. I like easy to grab and eat foods for our parties. Having lots of kids over, you never know how much they will eat. Here’s how to make them.

STEP 1
Cut hotdog in half

STEP 2
Cut the legs. Leave 1 inch uncut for the head.

STEP 3
Boil hot dogs

STEP 4
Serve on a blue ocean plate or place on top of mac and cheese.

Fish -N- Chips

The easiest Pirate or ocean themed food item you can make! Layer or mix together gold fish and plain potato chips. Place a label on it. I did get this label printout for free. I will post a link down below for you.

Sparkling Ocean/Sea Punch

I love party punch. When I was younger every party had big huge punch bowl full of yumminess topped off with ice cream or sherbet. I would be hovering over the punch bowl every time. So, now that I am the one hosting, I like to include punch. Sorry I don’t measure.

Hawaiian Punch (blue)
Pineapple Juice
Sprite
Vanilla Ice Cream

Mix all the liquids together in punch bowl. Top with Ice cream.

Dead Man Fingers

This really are pigs in a blanket. We kept this party easy and simple.

Lil Smokies
Crescent Dough

Wrap dough around the lil smokies. Bake them @ 375* for 5-15 minutes.

Cannon Balls

Simply cheese puff balls with a label.

Parrot Food

Veggie tray with a label.

Scurvy Prevention

Oranges with a label.

FREE LABELS!

Thanks to Classyclutter Go say THANKS!

WE TOOK PICTURES FROM SEA

We set up a photo booth.

I hung this beautiful Pottery Barn Map on the wall and placed a Bench in front of it. Then I place a bowl of mustaches & a stack of photo booth props. I will say almost all of my parties have photo booth. We also hung up a Pottery Barn Pirate Photo Opp made out of canvas. It’s beautiful and fun. Plus, its like cheating for a photo opp. Hang it up and your done! The kids love taking silly pictures. Truthfully, so do the adults. It’s just fun to let go and act silly. We are like kids in this household.

WE DUELED WITH YE FATES IN YE PIRATE GAMES

Reviews of all of these games will be up soon along with pictures!

KINGS GOLD
DON’T ROCK THE BOAT

School is Here!

Well It’s officially both of our kids are in school! Anyce is in 3rd grade. Zayden is starting Kindergarten! Yes, let’s let the panic attacks start. Zayden is my youngest. My super babied child is in Kindergarten! It’s absolute crazy. How did this happen? Time flew by! I swear, I should at least have one more year with him at the house. We cuddle, read books and play games on the daily. What I am going to do without him?

At this point, Anyce is a pro at school. Seriously, she takes after my husband. She is the quite, smart, angelic student. She does everything she is told and has never had any behavior issues at school. I know I sound like I am bragging. However, I am not. This is due to her being so shy. She doesn’t talk to most people at school. So my biggest issue with her is getting her to open up and make friends. Anyce was excited that her BFF, Bella, is in her class again this year! I am happy she at least has her in her class.

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Holy cow, that boy was more ready than I thought! We’ve been working the past year on socializing & etc. He walked up to almost every kid. He introduced himself & asked them if they wanted to be his friend. I got a hug, kiss and a goodbye as he ran into his class. He absolutely loves his teacher. He hugged her and gave her high fives. For Zayden this is amazing. He doesn’t warm up to people easily. Still, I am heartbroken that my kids are growing too fast. I had to hold back my tears until I got to my car. .

I am very proud of my kids. This year is going to be full of ups and downs, but I foresee them making amazing progress and learning so much. I am happy they are both enjoying school.

Georgia Visit, Circus and New Games

I am officially back from Georgia! It’s summer time and we have been busy like most families. I (Amber) just returned home from a visit to Georgia. I got to surprise my BFF since middle school for her birthday! Her lovely husband flew me out as her birthday surprise! It was wonderful hanging out and playing tourist in Savannah. It was absolutely beautiful and a nice change from our desert. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from my trip!

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While I was gone, Trevor and kids spent the week playing board games and video games. We have a few new games of course! We received Kings Gold & Color Clash from BlueOrange Games. We are loving Kings Gold and have been playing everyday! Our video & review blog will be up very soon.

We also bought Dinorace. Which is adorable! Zayden has been wanting this game for awhile. He earned it being well behaved in Phoenix when we went to see the circus. It was our first time at the Circus and we loved it. Here are our favorite pictures. Yes, I included the animals as we did enjoy seeing them as well. Sorry, if this offends anyone.

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Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Happy 4th of July! Keep an eye out lots of post will be happening!

New games & Father’s Day Weekend.

We have been busy lately. Having some family summer fun and playing games. It’s that time of year new games are coming out like crazy! What new games are you enjoying or wanting to check out?

We have recently bought a few new and not so new games. I have been dying to play Gloom for a long time now. When I heard about the Fairytale Gloom. I knew it was finally time for me to pick it up. Excitingly, I found it in Phoenix. While visiting some family, we checked out a local game store. It should be at your favorite local game store by the 30th of this month.This game is so much fun, creative and beautiful! We will be doing a full review on it. Hopefully, later this week. For now here is a picture.

We also picked up Love Letter Batman Edition last week. Seriously, Its a cute quick game that is Batman themed. It was a must for our collection. I am obsessed with Batman. Trust me you will know this fact if you follow our blog :P. A full review will be coming soon as well. I am sure most of you have already played, but if not it’s a great game. Here’s a picture.

Hopefully, everyone enjoyed their Father’s Day weekend. Trevor’s car as been having problems so he spend Saturday working on his car trying to get it to run before Father’s Day. The kids and I went to Phoenix to visit our cousins. It was a fun, but very hot, weekend. We enjoyed cooling down at the Sea life Aquarium. We had fun. We got to see the Aquanauts and some cute sea creatures. If you haven’t been, I would recommend it. Try to find discount tickets or purchase tickets on their site ahead of time to make it cheaper.

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On Fathers Day, Trevor got to enjoy his day playing his Witcher 3 game. Along with being showered with gifts. Seriously, this guy is loved. He does so much for our family. We try to make him feel special on his day. He made out with board games (of course) for his gifts. The kids even made him a Cleveland Browns game! They did an amazing job. We all played and Trevor must have had Father’s Day luck, because he beat us all!

Here are the other games he received. Expect reviews, pictures and some videos on these games soon! Hopefully, you enjoyed your weekend. What games did you play or get?