Halloween Games

   Halloween, a time of scaring people, parties, and all things monsters, is right around the corner. I decided I would do a little list of my favorite monster games that would be a great addition to any family party.

   Smash Up:
   Choose two factions to mix together in this fun card game. Use their special powers to try and out score your opponents. There is even a monster expansion for more monster goodness.

 

   Rampage:
   Use your monster to reek havoc on Meeple City. Who will capture the most meeples while flicking, throwing and blowing down a city?

 

   King of Tokyo:
   Monsters are taking over Tokyo and are fighting over who gets to be the king. Claw your way to the top in this fun family game. Just beware, you can only take so much before you need to heal or someone else will be the King of Tokyo.

   Gloom:
   Who can have the worst day before they die? In this card game, make your family as miserable as you can before they die while trying to cheer up your opponents family. The person with the lowest score is the winner of this game.

 

  Castle Panic:
   Can you defeat the monsters before they knock down the castle? In this co-op game, work together and try and take out the monsters before they take you out. It's a great game to play if you have younger kids since you work together.

 

   Monsters University Dice:
   Will you have the most monsters left at the end of this game? Pass them left, right, or place them in the center. Whoever has the last monster in the game wins this easy game. Fun for all ages, even my four year old understands this one.

 

  
   What are some of your favorite monster games?

Fun Farm Review

   Fun Farm Board Game is a little game for two to ten players ages six and up.

   When you open the box, you will see six foam animals, two dice and a deck of twenty five cards.

   Set up is simple. Place the animals in a circle in the middle of all players. You need to make sure that everyone that is playing can easily reach all of the animals. You will have one person be the Farmer.

   The Farmer will place the first card face up in the middle of the animals.

   Next, the Farmer rolls the dice. If either of the dice match the dice on the cards, players try to grab that animal first. Whoever does this gets the card that was activated by the dice roll.

   Place the card face down in front of you. This is how you score at the end of the game. Place the animal back in the circle and pass the deck of cards to the left. They are the new Farmer for the round.

   If the dice don't match a card in the middle. Leave that card there and place another card in the center. If someone grabs an animal that wasn't activated, they must randomly choose a card from their score pile and place it face up in the center. This card can now be activated again once the dice match the card.

   Make sure you can clearly see all of the cards in the center. They can now all be activated by the dice roll. If there are two cards that have a matching die on it, you can grab any animal that is activated by that roll. If the die roll activates two cards of the same animal, whoever grabs the animal first gets both cards. If cards are activated but are not grabbed before the Farmer adds a new card, the card stays in the middle. After the deck of cards is gone, the game is over. Add up your cards in front of you. Whoever has the most, wins!

   This game is a lot of fun to play as a family. It would be great for birthday parties since it can play up to ten people. I would think this game would be great for younger kids as well, as long as they are on about the same level. My youngest loves the animals. I enjoy playing simplified versions of games with him to help him with matching. This game is perfect for that and he loves being involved on family game nights. I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Felt Activities

   One thing my kids love to play with is felt boards. A couple of years ago, we were going to go on a 10 hour drive to my aunts house for vacation. Having three small boys, we needed ideas of how to keep them occupied so we would all survive the long drive. I started looking up ideas, and found someone that had done felt boards for their kids. I thought that was a wonderful idea, so I made some. They were a huge hit and the boys still play with them to this day. They are great for those days when you just need a little bit of quiet time.

   To begin, I searched online for a template of what I wanted to make. This time, I wanted to make a gumball machine to help my three year old count.

   You can either cut out the pieces of the template to trace, free hand it, or do what I do and tape the paper to a window so you can see through the felt and trace it that way.

   Once you have it all traced out, cut out the pieces. If you want to sew or glue them together, make sure you leave extra around your cut outs. For example, the white piece can be a complete circle and then sew or glue the red pieces onto it. I decided making the machine could be part of the fun.

   You now have a gumball machine.

   To make the gumballs, pick out the colors you'd like to use. I wanted to make twenty gumballs so I grabbed five colors. Scraps of felt are perfect for this part.

   Decide how big you want the gumballs. I used a soda lid to trace the circles.

   Cut out all of your gumballs

   Next, I printed off the numbers on a piece of card stock. This will help the numbers be a little more sturdy.

   Cut out out all of your numbers. If you have a straight edge cutter, it makes this job a lot easier.

   To get the numbers to stick, hot glue the numbers onto another piece of felt. The color doesn't really matter since you won't see it anyway. Be careful when doing this, hot glue on fingers is rather painful! Once they are all glued on, cut around the edges of the card stock.

   You now have a felt gumball machine to help with counting!

   Some other ideas you can do are:

   You can make a little city or even just a road with some cars. Cut out strips of black, add some yellow lines (I glued mine on for ease of play) and cut out however many different cars and trucks you'd like.

   My kids used to be really into potato heads. Cut out some brown potato shapes and then use your imagination.

   I don't know about your kids, but my oldest LOVES anything space right now. That includes Star Trek. So this summer, on a day when there was "nothing to do", I decided I would make him some new felt cutouts. He was beside himself with excitement. These didn't take too long to do and you can make them as detailed as you'd like. I cut him out a yellow circle he could use as either the sun or a planet and a couple of red circles. I added a little touch to the red circles so they would look a little more planet like.

   And lastly, don't forget about games. Tic Tac Toe is a great game for kids. It's easy to learn and not hard to make. Just cut out four strips and a few squares in two different colors. Now you have a game for on the go.

   Felt activities are a lot of fun and you can take them anywhere! They are pretty easy to make depending on how detailed you want to get. The boards we made for in the car was just a piece of felt taped to some cardboard. You can get as fancy as you want with making a board. Sometimes my kids just play with them on the table without any felt under it at all. Use your imagination and most importantly, have fun with it!

Bugs in the Kitchen

The phrase "bugs in the kitchen" doesn't sound like any fun but if you are playing the game made by Ravensburger, you'll change your mind.  Bugs in the Kitchen is a fun and engaging game for all ages.  Let's learn how to play.

The box says that this game is for ages 6 and up and that  up to 4 people can play at a time.  Even younger kids could play (you could offer help if needed).  My 5 year old enjoyed playing this game without any help. Another great aspect of this game is that kids can play without adult help.  I had an 11 year old, 10 year old, 8 year old, and 5 year old playing recently and they were fine without me.  My kids love games (big surprise); sometimes they are frustrated when they want to play one and I am too busy.  This game solves that problem because they can play without me.  This game doesn't take very long to play (30 minutes or less) which is nice too!

Your game comes with a game board and a die.  The die's sides have 3 question marks, one fork, one spoon, and one knife.  It also has bug tokens.

The game also comes with a limited edition HEXBUG nano.

To set up the game, you will need to turn the utensils to create one of the following starting positions.  The utensils are attached to the board and turn.

The goal of the game is to get the bug to go into your trap.  You do this by turning the utensils to create a path to your trap.  There are 4 traps, one for each player.  The traps are the holes on either side of the game board.  One has a picture of cheese, another has sardines, another has a cookie, and the last a chocolate bar.  Each player chooses a specific trap for the duration of the game.  If less than four players are playing, you use one of the dividers to cover up the entrance to that trap.

The youngest player goes first.  Turn on the HEXBUG nano and the first player rolls the die.  If the player rolls a spoon, that player can then turn any utensil on the board that is a spoon.  

If the player rolls a fork, he can turn a fork and so on.  If a question mark is rolled, the player can choose any one utensil to turn. Make sure that when you turn the utensils that they end up horizontal or vertical.  They should never be diagonal.  Play continues in a clockwise direction.To be fair, do not to touch the HEXBUG while turning the utensils.  If the HEXBUG turns over, put it back on its feet.  

The HEXBUG adds an element of surprise to the game. Sometimes you make a great path for it and and it just won't travel to you trap.  This drives you crazy.  Other times, it gets so close to going in your trap and someone blocks it at the last minute!

When the HEXBUG  goes into a player's trap, that player gets a bug token.  The game board is reset to its original position and play begins again.  The first player with five bug tokens wins. 

My family really loves this fast paced game.  Both adults and kids can have fun while playing it.   Everyone was so excited when they had coerced the HEXBUG into their trap.   Give it a try--you might be surprise to learn how much fun it is to have Bugs in the Kitchen. 

Roll For It! Review

   Roll For It! (Red Edition) is a fun dice rolling, matching game by Calliope Games. Back on Table Top Day, we were lucky enough to get one of their boxes of goodies. In it, was a little promo game of Roll For It! It was a little different than the game in the box, but we looked more into it and it looked fun, so we bought it.

   When you open the box, there is a rule book, a deck of 30 cards and twenty four dice in four colors.

   To set up, shuffle the cards and deal three cards face up in the middle of the table. Each player chooses a color of dice.

   On your turn, roll the dice, only once, and try and match your dice up with the cards in the center. If you have a match, take the card from the center and put it in your scored pile. After you have placed all of the dice you are able to use, place a new card in the empty spot and take your dice from the scored card back for your next turn.

   Play continues, each player rolls once and matches the dice to the cards, trying to score. You can only roll the dice you have available so plan wisely. If you choose, you can take back ALL of your dice that are placed at the cards and then roll.

The first person that gets to forty points, or above, wins!

   What's that you say? This game would be awesome for game nights but you have more than four people in your group? Not to worry, there is also a  Roll For It! (Purple Edition).

   Both games come with a deck of cards and four sets of dice. You can shuffle both decks together when playing with up to eight people. The different color cards and dice makes it easy to sort back out at the end of the game as well. The purple deck comes with dice that look like marble. The red deck comes with more transparent dice. I love them all! I couldn't make up my mind which one I wanted because of the dice, so we got them both. The only difference when playing with more people is you  have four cards face up in the center instead of three.

   I LOVE this game! It's fast, easy to learn, and people who "don't like games" even enjoy this game. It is great as a filler game or you can play it multiple times. There is tons of re-playability in this game due to the different cards. There isn't much down time between turns, even when playing with a large group because you only get to roll once. This game is great to play with kids since there is more luck than strategy. It's small size also makes it easy to take if you are heading to a friends or on vacation. I highly recommend this game if you enjoy dice games. I know I do!