Playtime

My siblings and I were encouraged to be creative, such as drawing, coloring books, board games, and lots of playing outside. We would play what we called "pretend" and we would play house, school, doctor, etc. with us acting out the roles and using ordinary household items to accessorize our pretend worlds. Our china cabinet would become the kitchen; we would raid my mother's Tupperware and wooden spoons, prepare pretend meals and then serve them to our children/siblings. I took things further by occasionally writing small plays and creating costumes for my younger siblings, then we would perform for our parents--our acting troupe was always well received. (Thanks Mom and Dad!)

In 1976, I was captivated by the Summer Olympic Games. It was amazing--all the different sports I had never seen and all the different countries I had never heard of before! I loved watching the games and cheering on the athletes, so much so that I decided we should have our own Olympics. My brothers, sisters, and some of our neighborhood friends competed in events that I created to mimic the real ones. One of the events was an obstacle course that included jumping over a stone bench! I wanted our Olympics be as real as possible, so of course I made medals. Lacking precious metals but not creativity, the medals were made out of cardboard, crayons, and crepe paper.

I think, in the hopes of keeping her sanity intact, my mother often encouraged us to play outside. When the TV volume and kids talking (screaming) would reach a certain level we could count on Mom calling out, "Go outside and play!". So we would troupe outside and play. Play included jump rope games, Tag, Red Rover, hopscotch, Dodge ball, Red Light-Green Light, baseball, football, badmiton, volleyball, Cops and Robbers with twigs for guns, Lawn Jarts-the ones with sharp metal ends-we never got hurt!, Slip and Slide, making snowmen, snowball fights, snow mazes, riding bikes and skateboards, Monkey in the Middle, and a summertime favorite Ghosts in the Graveyard. We didn't get to play Ghosts often because of our bedtime during the school year was 8:00 pm, but during the summer we could stay outside a little later and when it became dark enough, it was time for Ghosts in the Graveyard!

Childhood playtime, such great fun and memories!

Wii Wee!

A recent purchase of Summer Sports - Paradise Island for the Wii system has been entertaining my family quite a bit. As I have mentioned in a previous post, my family has a bit of a competitive streak.

So far we have played Lawn Darts, Basketball/Horse, Horseshoes, Miniature Golf, and Croquet all set in a tropical setting. The graphics are good and the control functions aren't too complicated. I have had some successes in Horse like making a Trick Shot from behind the basket! I have also had some notable losses in Lawn Darts and Horseshoes to my brothers Glenn and Scott. My sister Renee and I teamed up in Horseshoes to play Scott and Renee's finance Larry, I was less than stellar leaving Renee to carry our team. But her work was in vain and we lost to the guys.

The most contested game was the Croquet game between Scott, Glenn and myself. We were doing fairly well, we thought we all had good control of our mallet swings--then things got crazy! Suddenly we all had trouble hitting the croquet balls; too hard, not hard enough, bouncing off the wickets. We started hitting a competitor's croquet ball to gain extra strokes to advance in the game. The game has a Taunt function where you can harass competitors with annoying sound effects, which we did, but Taunts really didn't compare to our own verbal insults and rants at the game when play didn't go our way. I thoroughly enjoyed croquet, especially since I came from behind and won the game!

I look forward to some re-match games as well as playing the other sports. Badminton anyone?

Word Power

My brother Scott asked if I wanted to play Scrabble last night. Big deal, you might say. But in my competitive family it is a big deal, and I have a bit of a way with words, and I have won many Scrabble games. So my uber-competitive brothers started to say that I cheat at Scrabble. (gasp!)

My mom, sister-in-law, and several of my brothers are all good Scrabble players. We enjoy bantering about the easy words or interesting words that each other manages to play. But when I am lucky enough to get some good tiles and I am fortunate enough to play a high scoring word on a Triple Word Score...well...my brothers will begin saying, "Sue cheats!" or call out, "Mom! Sue's cheating again!". Suddenly, the taunts of childhood play are renewed. As a mature adult, I eloquently respond, "Am not!"

So it was quite lovely when Scott asked me to play Scrabble, just the two of us. I started out strong with several good words and utilized extra point squares. Unfortunately, Scott floundered, bemoaning his poor tile acquisitions. At one point, I had a 100 point lead. Scott made a comeback, closing the points gap. However, in the end the comeback was not enough and "the cheater" won again! Scrabble anyone?

What? Who? Why? When? Where?

Did I hear you right young man?! Just who do you think you're talking to? Do you think you can backtalk me?

It might look like a confrontation, but alas it is only Becca putting on an act in a vain attempt to take her son, Jake, down in a family game of "Questions Only".

Too bad! Becca fell as many before her fell and it was left up to Grandma to dethrone Jake and ultimately win the entire game. Go Grandma!