That Darn Scottish Blood

It showed itself in my boys today. With the temps being in the sub zero range for most of the day the kids had absolutely no outlet for their high levels of energy. So when they were done playing upstairs and had finished a snack, we needed to find something for them to do. So at about 10:30am we got out a few board games and gave them a go. They had gotten several new ones for Christmas and have been dying to play them.

First was Mouse Trap. Yeah, that was interesting. I played game master and kept the game moving. The boys are VERY competitive. It begins before we even start the game with who is going to go first and who is NOT going to be last. The game went smoothly for a while until Jacob got sent back to the start, twice. Grace moved ahead quickly, but stalled out in the loop waiting for the trap to be built. We quickly realized a roll of six just puts you right back where you were, once in the loop. With the trap finally completed Nathan was set to trap Grace, but the contraption didn't work. The hand, thing a ma jig and tub didn't want to work right. The ball kept falling off the back of the thing a ma jig and although the game allows for "misses" I think this was just poor balance and construction on our part. So I "helped"it along. In the end, Nathan won having captured all the other mice.

Our next attempt at a game was Monopoly, Jr. This faster paced game uses a carnival theme. The kids have to set up token booths on their property. The first one out of money is out and the winner is the one with the most money. Jacob and Grace quickly caught on that the more booths they had the more money they made, regardless of how many they had on each color, although that helps. Nathan got stuck trying to get a chance card to bump Grace's booth off of one of his properties so that he would have both and thus double the money he collected each time someone landed on those spaces. He never did. Daniel went out first and Grace won.

Let me just say that it will be a few weeks before we play anymore board games!! Competition is stiff in our house!!! Doug says it is their Scottish blood. I would have to agree.

PS -- Jacob has become victim number three to the stomach bug we have been passing around. Instead of going to the chili cook off tonight, we stayed home while Jacob hung out in the bathroom. We have figured there is about a 4-5 day incubation period for this thing. So next week ought to be loads of fun. One at a time is good, except that it drags out giving the first person a chance to get it again at the end. If they all went at the same time I could sanitize and hopefully be rid of the thing, it just means for crowed, busy bathrooms!! Never a dull moment here!!!!