Fun and Games

Have you heard of this game, "Apples to Apples"? It's a blast.
Last night we had friends over for dinner -- a family of four, made up of Kim and Tom and their two sons, ages 10 and 13 -- and we played this game after dinner. We all had a great time. It's pretty amaing to find a game that kids and adults can play together and be on the same playing field, if you know what I mean.
The game has two typies of cards. The red cards have nouns: specific people (like "Elvis" or "Richard Nixon" and things like "my parents" and "cold pizza." The green cards contain one adjective...say, "Exotic," with a definition of the word. You go around the table and each person takes turn being "judge." The judge picks a green card and announces the adjective for that round...Let's say "Crazy." Each person looks at the 7 red cards in his/her hand and chooses one that the judge is likely to think is a good example of "crazy." (I won this round last night by playing my card "Jim Carrey." Each player puts one red card on the pile, and the judge sorts through the options and chooses which, to him or her, is most "crazy." The trick (and the thing that makes it great with kids) is that each judge gets to define the adjective in his/her own way. So what's best for "crazy" to an adult might not be the same for a kid. The player whose red card is selected by the judge gets the green adjective card to keep...and at the end, the one with the most green cards wins.
It's silly and fun and good for vocabulary building, too. We had a lot of laughs and fun discussions -- what's "creepier," a "crawl space," a spider, or the school cafeteria? The adults would have voted for the crawl space, but 10 year old Conor chose the school cafeteria as that round's winner!
A good time was had by all.