Over the Kitchen Counter: Angie's Place for Cooking and Crafts

Play Nine - The Card Game of Golf

Since the beginning of the pandemic stay-at-home restrictions, we as a family (like many others) have returned to the old-fashioned pastime of playing games. Play Nine has become our obsession (dare I say, addiction!) and I wanted to share it with you in case you haven't heard of it. We have been gathering at the table every night to see who will have the best score and it has become such a competition that we are now keeping a tally.

Don't worry if you do not play or like golf, it is not really relevant to the game itself other than the names and theme. Two to six players are dealt 8 cards face down from the 108 total. Each card has a 'stroke' value range from 0 to 12, with 8 of each. There are also hole-in-one cards valued at -5 strokes. Those ones really help bring down your score!

Players turn over two cards and then take turns choosing a new card or one from the discard pile trying to match sets of cards. It sounds a little confusing but it only takes a hand or two to get the hang of it. I swear to you, it is so much fun! I am not much of a game player (choosing as some moms, to watch from the sidelines) but I cannot get enough of Play Nine. We are now even playing over lunch as some of the family are working from home.

Even though this is basically a simple matching game, there are plenty of strategic plays available to help lower your score. The more you play, the better you become at finding those ways to shave off strokes! It is highly satisfying to aim for a perfect hand or, to catch your opponents with a 'mitt-full'! Just like a real game of golf, sometimes you want to just throw your club into the water hazard!!!

I truly share my favourite items on this blog so if you like games, you can trust me on this one. My kids have been spreading the love of this game across the province, and now partner's families and extended families have their own Play Nine box at home. We have even had virtual game challenges over facetime and zoom!!! It is just that fun!

You can use my Amazon affiliate link* to the right of this post if you'd like to pick up your own copy of Play Nine. It is some of the most fun you'll have for under $20 bucks, I assure you! If you already are a Play Nine player, please let me know! Maybe we can set up a virtual game!!!

*This post contains affiliate links

Creative Kids

I have to brag share what my kids did for their dad's birthday.  None of them had ideas what to get him for a gift so I suggested that he would cherish a gift they had made or would love an outing they could experience together (eg. go for a bike ride to the local ice cream shop for a root beer float).

What they came up with made me so proud - and a little envious!  They created DADOPOLY: a completely, fully functional, and accurate rendition of Monopoly...customized to a 'this is your life' version for their father.

The kids came up with all the ideas first: 'coloured properties' in chronological order (parents, siblings, wife, in-laws, kids, teams, pets), as well as workplaces for the 'utilities' and cities of residence for the 'railroads'.  The Community Chest and Chance cards were named with means of communication (local newspaper & Blackberry messages), and had funny references to his personal life experiences (best composter, win $15, run a marathon, collect $100, etc.).  The taxes were related as well: "Don's run, pay $X.XX" (ie. McDonald's) and "You're Late, pay $x.xx (as hubby is ALWAYS tardy!)  Jail was replaced with an auto shop, (where their dear father spent some time this year after not once, but twice, hitting poor raccoons!).  They were all meaningful and funny and specific to their dad.

The crafty and creative part came in when assembling the board.  They prepared all the cards, hand-coloured in the borders, photo-shopped all the icons, laminated everything (with my laminator!!!) and decorated the box with photos.  It turned out SO well and was a real hoot to play!  (I won, after I got tired and hubby took over for me).  It was a great gift idea and meant so much.  I think we had as much fun creating the game and thinking of all the funny references to his life.  The kids did so well making Dadopoly and it was really fun to watch them team up and get it done on time.  It actually took quite a few hours of work and they sat in my workshop, cutting and pasting, colouring and laminating (son even learned about using a BRAYER!!!).

The Most Frustrating Toy in the World!

Have you ever seen this game?  It's called Perplexus Epic.  My nephew got the original one for Christmas and everyone was waiting their turn to have a go at guiding a little ball around the maze track - by shifting, flipping, and twisting the sphere to battle gravity and get through the barriers.  After the relatives went home we knew we had to pick up this highly addictive puzzle game.  We ended up getting the Epic version - more difficult and larger obstacles to conquer!  I swear it is the most frustrating thing to play with...it takes total concentration and a steady hand.  You think you are doing well and then, bam...the darn little marble just falls off the track and you have to start ALL OVER AGAIN AT THE BEGINNING!  I'm sure it is a good mental exercise and hopefully will ward of Alzheimer's.  Hopefully that makes the aggravation worth it.  And it totally got my son to put the Wii remote down!  You can find more information about Perplexus here.

Family Olympics

I was telling my friend about the silly, fun thing we did as a family over the weekend and decided I would share it here too, seeing as it involves healthy activity.  We were all sitting there watching the Olympics on t.v. and the snowboarding looked like so much fun to me.  Then I had an idea: we should have our own winter games and compete in different events, with score keeping and a medal ceremony at the end...and since we live in a pretty flat area...AND it's freezing outside...I thought the perfect challenges could be found right on our Wii Fit.  Well, I can't believe it, but everyone went along with the plan - DD even wrote up a tally sheet and suggested we all pick countries to represent and outfit ourselves accordingly.  We even got the boyfriend and granny in on the action.  It was hilarious: we competed in snowboarding, ski jumping, downhill slalom, and the penguin-fish eating-slide balance game, some with practice runs and some just "going for it"!    We ended up having a great time and it was a cute way to make the Olympics a little more relevant to the kids.  We have been enjoying watching the races on t.v. and I didn't think I would get so excited watching the snowboarding and downhill!  Man, they go fast!!  The boys are very excited about the men's hockey and we all watched some speed skating (and of course, the Opening Ceremonies - K.D. Lang is amazing!).  Well, I just thought maybe this idea would give you some inspiration on something you can try to organize for your family - whether it's food or sports, having a theme makes it easy to put together an afternoon or evening of (cheap) fun that everyone can participate in, young and old.  Oh, and those medals?  Made with the Cricut of course!  And there was a monetary incentive to win in the centre...(the Gold is actually gold paper, but it didn't show up too well in the photo)...and I know this well because...I WON the gold! :0)