September 2021

 Playing a little catch up and uploading really old pictures finally!

April 2022

 Just playing some catch up on life!

Pictopia

Today's game is one we have owned for so many years I can't believe we haven't made it through all the cards yet. Or... we've made it through the cards and have just forgotten!! It's called Disney Pictopia.

Gameplay:

This game is really easy to play. Lay out the game board, pick a moving and make sure you grab a matching answer dial and five wager coins.

On your turn, roll the die. Advance that number of spaces. When you land on a space it will tell you which category to read from for your question. All other players wager a coin by placing it face down on the game board. Read the question out loud. For most of the questions, the players work together to decide the final answer. Once the final answer is decided (whether in a group or individual category), if the answer is correct, players flip over their wager coins and advance that number of spaces. Move on to the next player and continue the game.

How to Win:

Get to the castle space and answer the Final Challenge question correctly.

Verdict:
Thumbs up! We definitely know a lot about Disney, so this is a fun trivia game for us. There are some tougher ones about the Disney parks and some older movies, and there are some opinion questions thrown in for fun as well, so there's a lot of variety.

Outburst Jr.

Today's game is an OLDIE, but a GOODIE!! It's Outburst Junior!

Gameplay:

Divide the players into two teams. Do not worry if there are an odd number of players.

Select a colored Scoring Glide for each team and attach it to the scorecard.

Slide a card into the card viewer, if you are not the guessing team. Ensure that all of the sliding tabs are hiding the checkmarks.

Read the topic to the guessing team. Flip the timer to begin the guessing team’s turn.

Shout out answers if you are the guessing team, the louder the better. All players guess at the same time so make sure you are heard. If your guess is correct, the player holding the card viewer will say “yes” and slide the sliding tab over. Your team has one minute to guess as many answers as possible.

Read out the answers that the guessing team did not guess correctly. On the scoreboard, slide your team’s marker one space for each correct answer. 

Play now passes to the other team.

Win the game by being the first team to reach 50 points.

Verdict:
I absolutely love this game! I loved it when I was a kid, and I love playing it with my kids now! We do also have the adult version of this game, and there aren't many categories we have to skip over with the kids. So, I think this is a game for the whole family no matter which version you have! Also, a lot of times we like to help each other out with hints of the clue words we are missing, so that can be a lot of fun as well!

Great for Learning:
Reaction time, brainstorming, vocabulary words

Avocado Smash

Today's game is called Avocado Smash. This is a great game that my friend Kandace got for me because she knows I'm as obsessed with new games as she is!

Gameplay:

Shuffle the deck and deal all of the cards face down, giving an equal number of cards to each player.

Take the top card from your pile and place it face up in the center.The next player should then take the top card from their pile and place it on top of the center card, and so on.

If both cards have the same number of avocados on them, it is a smash! All players must smash their hands down in the center. The last player to react loses the round and takes all of the cards from the center, adding them to the bottom of their pile.

The losing player then begins the next round by placing their next card face up in the center.

While turning over your card, you must also count avocados aloud-so the first player always begins with "one avocado".The next player must follow in sequence, saying "two avocados", and so on. Players continue up to "15 avocados" and then return to "one avocado" as they reveal the cards.

If a card matches the number said aloud on that turn, it is a smash! As before, all players must smash their hands down in the center, and the losing player takes the cards from the center.

When you reveal a Smash! Card, it is an automatic smash!When you reveal a Guacamole Card, all players must shout, "Guacamole!" and the last player to react loses the round. However, if anybody erroneously smashes their hand down in the center on a Guacamole Card, then they are the loser for that round, regardless of who shouted last.

Verdict:
We love this game! I will suggest clipping your fingernails before playing, haha!

Great for Learning:
Multi-level thinking (you are playing one number, saying another number out loud, and trying to remember if it matches the number card you are playing on top of!), reaction time, reflexes