The Games we Play

When I was growing up my sister and I invented all kinds of games to play to keep ourselves entertained. I especially remember three games that we played quite often and that kept us entertained for hours. Our favorite by far would have to be 'Waitress'. We would find as many toys and objects that could be used as food and one person would be the waitress and the other the cook. The waitress would go around to tables and write down orders on a piece of paper. The paper would then get handed to the cook who had to assemble the taken order. Then the waitress delivered the order. As the game progressed the orders came in faster and faster and the food came out faster and faster. I don't quite know why, but we loved this game.

Close behind 'Waitress' would have to be 'Spider Web'. Preparation for this game required a thorough search of our house for any string like items. Once a big pile a webbing was acquired we became spiders and began spinning a web all over our room. We would leave some space in the back that was our lair so that we could melt crayons on a lamp or do other things we didn't want our parents seeing. We made sure we could get quickly back to our lair, but made the web dense enough that an adult could not. Very cool game.

Another top favorite would have to be 'Blind Chase'. Now this sounds pretty dangerous, but actually it was quite safe. My Grandmother had made these little pillows for us that had a pocket on the front for putting stuffed animals inside. This pocket happened to fit over a child sized head perfectly, thus the invention of 'Blind Chase'. My sister and I would put these pillows on our heads so we couldn't see and would wander around the house trying to find/hide from each other. We would also carry long sticks so we could feel our way around. The pillows acted as a blindfold and cushioning in case we walked into a wall.These were just a few of our favorites, we probably invented hundreds.

Now that my boys are getting older they are starting to invent games of their own. I love it when they do this because not only it is fun the watch, they have so much fun doing it. Yesterday my bed was covered in three loads of clean laundry and the game 'Laundry Diving' was invented. Using colored pencils as diving sticks the boys would throw their stick into the waves of clothing and then dive in and retrieve the sticks. Who knew unfolded laundry could be so much fun?

It will be fun to see all the crazy and fun games Daniel and Sammy come up with in the future. Hopefully it won't involve any of my craft stuff. I will definitely have to keep the 'Spider Web' game under wraps. Since they are boys, I know that their invented games will probably lead to more bumps and bruises than my sister and I, but hopefully they will look back and remember these times with fond memories.