Day 327: Rummy chances

Jamin wasn't home early enough to rock out with Bryan and Renee and I to Rock Band, but we still managed to get in a game of Rummy Cube before bedtime. We both pulled tiles to find out who should go first, and we both ended up pulling the red nines. What are the chances of that happening?

Day 233: Fun visitors

Zaria's Grandma Marla came over to visit this morning, and though Zaria needed a short morning nap, we made it for a little bit of the early childhood playtime at the library and Marla got to show off her block-building skills. Then Cassie and Kami came over to play croquette outside as it was a beautiful 75 degree day today. So Kami, who is not always fond of learning new games, learned both croquette and Mexican Train Dominoes with us this evening. We were very proud of her. Also, today is my sister-in-law's birthday. Happy Birthday Jennie!

Day 138: Visiting grandma

Today was a tough day and I never did get a picture taken. Jamin worked an extra long day, and I went to Mom and Dave's house to play Mexican Train Dominoes, and then we got a call from my aunt Judy saying we should get to the hospital to see my grandma. She had surgery on her sciatic nerve earlier this week, and I guess it's a very tough recovery. The drugs they gave her to get off of the narcotics caused her to be apneic-- so we had to remind her to breathe and keep her up. I grabbed the above photo from last year for my picture today, with Grandma Victoria holding Zaria. Hopefully she'll recover enough to hold Zaria again soon. I've joked that she's bound to get better with all her out-of-town sons coming to see her, and it was fun to see some relatives at the hospital, though we sort of overcrowded the room. Judd came from Arizona, Jim from Colorado, John from South Dakota and Jerry from Virginia.

Day 130: Mai and Isaac come to play

I didn't make it to FNG this week, and last minute decided to invite Cassie over for dinner and games, who then invited our old friend Sarah and her two kids, Isaac and Mai to come over. So we had a full house! Isaac helped watch the girls a little bit, but Mai and Zaria had fun playing with various musical toys while us grown-up girls played a game of Hoopla. Good food, good fellowship, and a fun game even though we were often distracted. Earlier in the day I took Zaria, Jen and Maria to see the Model Railroad Museum in St. Paul-- today is Jen's birthday! The museum was really cool and kid-friendly, one of those free museum pass places you can check out at the library. Next time I need to remember to bring my camera.

Day 118: Dictionary

Yes, we do feel free to use the dictionary while playing Scrabble, or in this case Upwords. I feel it's more educational if you get to learn new words, although it's taken some practice for Jamin to recognize the value of using normal words in Upwords so that it's easier to build up from them.

Day 100: Baby games with Grandma Glenna

Zaria had so much fun with Cassie's Grandma Glenna, who came to the condo late last night to join us. She came right before dinner, and the boys all left after dinner, so it was just the girls today. I taught Grandma and Cassie to play Mexican Train Dominoes while Zaria tried to sleep--she had some bad teething pain today, so didn't nap real well. There sure were a lot of baby things to haul into the car before we left in the evening, but we did have a lot of fun.

Day 99: Christmas wordfind

It's easier to read on the above photo-- Cassie and I did a Boggle-type word find out of the Upwords board with all Christmas words. Some of them are more of a stretch, like bud and neck, but all of the words are supposed to be related to Christmas. Some to look for: Emanuel, Mary, Bethlehem, Vixon, Jingle Bells, Comit, Cozy. Like the cozy fireplace we sat by.

Day 45: Yahtzee!

Jamin and I played Yahtzee last night, and maybe we'll finish our second round this evening. If he's around in the evenings, it's fairly common for us to play games like this, but we haven't played Yahtzee since we moved back to Minnesota. My great grandma Ethel was (and maybe still is at 102) really, really good at Yahtzee. I don't know how she did it, but she was nearly impossible to beat.