Easter, eggs and rolls

We had a wonderful Easter Holiday at our house.  It’s the past 3 years it had been a little crazy and last minute when we were planning on egg dying and all the fun stuff with Spencer.  We did have enough fore thought to ask the Easter Bunny to come visit our house on the Saturday before Easter so we can focus more on the Savior on Easter Sunday.

We dyed Easter eggs on the Thursday before Easter so they would have enough time to dry before they got hidden around our house.  Spencer has gotten really good with his hand eye coordination and was able to dye the eggs with little to no help from us.

We had a great time when the Easter Bunny came on Saturday too. Of course Mommy’s camera wasn’t set quite right and the pictures came out dark of the Easter basket opening, but the Egg Hunt pictures are great fun. 🙂 Both boys had the best time.

Later that evening, we shifted our focus from Bunnies, eggs and candy to Christ. We made Resurrection rolls. A lot of people have done these before, but we thought it would be a nice illustration for Spenc. I didn’t take pictures, I was busy participating. 🙂 I’ll tell you about them though.

We took crescent roll dough and spread a triangle out on the table. The roll represents the tomb Christ was buried in. Then we took a big marshmallow, which represents Christ, rolled it in butter and cinnamon sugar, which represent the spices used to prepare his body for burial. Then we placed the marshmallow in middle of the crescent triangle and folded it up around the marshmallow and sealed the edges (the best we could).

We baked the rolls as directed (10 minutes at 350), which represented the 3 days he laid in the tomb. Then we took them out and opened the rolls (after letting them sit for a couple minutes the marshmallows make those things HOT). The marshmallow was gone when we opened them up, which represents the Resurrection. Spencer totally loved it and understood the point. We were so glad he did. And the rolls are quite tasty, so it makes an excellent lesson for Easter.

We had a great Easter and are so grateful Spencer is willing and anxious to learn about our Savior. It was an awesome, low key holiday for us.

Have you heard? I’m sure you have.

We’re runners.

I haven’t actually posted about Adam and my latest habit, running. I’ve mentioned in my Chiari 2 year review post, but that’s about it. 🙂

Starting about 6 weeks before Matthew was born, Adam decided he needed to lose some weight and get healthy.  As part of the changes he made, he took up running and started couch to 5K.  He’s been going strong and getting faster ever since.

In September, my post baby weight-loss was slowing down a little bit and I wasn’t thrilled about that so I started walking to help boast my calorie expenditure each day.  I worked into running more slowly than Adam did, but I also started couch to 5K, and ran my very first 5K (not race, just distance) on my 29th birthday.

Feeling pretty awesome about that, I saw there was a 5K race on January 1, 2013 and I wanted to do it.  I asked Adam if he would do it with me, and we ran our very first race together and ever on January 1, 2013 in 29 degree weather with freezing Oklahoma wind.

TIME: 35:57

Not long after that I wanted to run another race and both Adam and I signed up to run the Creek Classic 10K race.  Adam was already at a place where he could go out and do that, but I had to train for it.  And train I did.  I developed trocanteric bursitis (basically a continually sore hip joint that got better with rest, but flared back up after a run), and we went on a cruise.  Even on our cruise, we ran on both sea days at least 3 miles.

When race day came, it was the first time I had ever run the 6.2 miles that is a 10K.  And I met my goal. I wanted to finish in under 70 minutes. I had a great pace for me. My best pace yet for such a distance.  Adam made great time.  Here are his results:

 

 

TIME: 57:05
OVERALL: 41st of 113
MALE: 30 of 54
AGE: 4 of 5 (M30-34)

 

 

 

 

TIME: 1:07:09
OVERALL: 86th of 113
FEMALE: 40 of 59
AGE GROUP: 10 of 10 (F25-29)

After the 10K, I was put on a week of rest along with an ibuprofen regimen to help the swelling in my hip go down.  I’ve since gotten sick and had to take another week of rest after only 4 runs back from my rest.  I’m back on it next week though.

Not long after signing up for the Creek Classic, Adam signed up to run a half Marathon at the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon on April 28th.  He’s been training hard, and he got sick too.  It really didn’t help either of us.  I’m excited to go to the race to support him.  He’s gonna do great!

As for my next race, I am currently toying with the idea of training for a sprint Triathlon in September.  Who would have thought. Certainly not me. 🙂

Choose the Right

Tonight, we were talking about choosing the right, since Spencer got his first CTR ring at church today. This is how his conversation with Dad went:

Dad: Spencer, how do you choose the right
Spencer: Like this ::points to his right with a rather matter of factly::

It was hilarious!

December Round Up

Our December was awesome until we got sick

On December 1 went to Chickasha to see the lights like we do every year. It was crazy since it was only in the 60s. We had light jackets for the boys and that was it. We are used to having to bundle up with scarves, hats and gloves. We also went to Dairy Queen, since Chickasha has the closest one to us.

During December, Spencer has an elf friend named Christopher Popinkins who comes to visit. He’s a hide and seek elf like the elf on the shelf but MUCH less creepy looking. Spencer LOVES getting to find him every morning. It was such a fun thing to do every day.

Matthew, darling boy, mastered sitting up this month. We thought he would have learned to crawl by Christmas since he was really trying, but he hasn’t done that yet. He gave us a break in his teething until shortly before Christmas. And now he has got one of his canine teeth and has 5 teeth and is working on 6. Matthew LOVES to eat. We’ve nicknamed him Chow Hound. He seems to like everything we’ve ever given him to try. He’s reacted most negatively to avocado (Spencer’s fav as a baby) and most positively to Oatmeal baby cereal and applesauce.

The weekend of December 8th, Adam and I pawned the boys off on my parents and a friend of ours (later in the night since my parents had a party to be at), and went to a Lord of the Rings Extended edition marathon. We watched all 3 movies from 10am to 11pm. We had an hour between each movie. It was along day but a great day.

Alas, that’s about when we started getting sick. Spencer started the weekend of the 8th with yucky puffy eyes and just kept being sick until a few days after Christmas when Matthew started. Adam and I got it shortly after that. As of January 6, we are just getting to the tail end of all the sick.

The next weekend was my birthday! So, for Friday night dinner, we treked everyone down to the south side of town to my favorite Mexican restaurant. The next day, I completed my first 5K run and finished the Couch to 5K program. Then, Adam as a birthday present to me, sent me off to get my hair cut and a mani-pedi while he hung out with the kids and cleaned the house for me. It was awesome. That night, we went over to a friend’s house to play our favorite board game, Arkham Horror, dressed as our investigators. Crazy fun!

In the above pictures, Adam is dress as Wilson Richards, the Handy Man.  I am Ursula Downs, the explorer.  Then a few minutes after being admitted into our friends house, Justin comes knocking on the door dress was Ashcan Pete, the drifter, with his dog Duke (he’s really named Pugsley though).  🙂  In the group picture, you also see Jaidi dressed as Kate Winthrop, the scientist.  She even has her white coat labeled as Miskatonic University where Kate works.  Justin and Jaidi’s kids even had their blankets draped over their heads like the cloak of a cultist.   It was pretty fun.

The next week was crazy for us. On the 18th, Spencer had his very first Christmas program. We were so nervous how it would turn out. And it turned out about like we expected. He was completely over stimulated (so much noise, too bright lights and a little pressure) and didn’t want to sing. He cried and hide and basically threw a fit. Adam actually calmed him down enough to get him to go on stage for the last 2 songs (with Adam) but not sing. I know Spencer knew the words and the actions. His teachers told me on the days that he surprised them and actually sang with the class.

On the 20th of December, Adam basically left us to spend the next 3 days rehearsing and performing the Joy to the World choir concert. Thursday night, he went to the South Stake Center to rehearse from 6 to 10 with Craig Jessop for the first time. The next day, they were at the Civic Center Music Hall for their “dress rehearsals” from 2 to 5 and then from 6 to 10. They preformed 2 shows on Saturday. It was an amazing experience that was very well received by the community.

My brothers and their wives came on Saturday, and we had a great week with them. Christmas was really great, and we had a wonderful time hanging out together.  there were lots of pictures taken, but they made it all the way back to Provo before anyone thought to do anything with them.  So, those will have to be a separate post.

We’ve had a great month, an awesome year and are excited to see what 2013 holds for us.

A Year in Board Gaming – Mage Knight, 2013.1

So, I’m going to attempt something ambitious this year. I will write a session report of all our board game plays that we have this year. I normally don’t write these or log my plays on boardgamegeek.com which has an extensive database of just that from thousands of people. I will cross post these there, but my main motivation will simply be to keep track of everything we play.

I know this won’t be of much value to anyone who visits our blog, and that’s ok. Our blog is just as much a historical record of our family as much as an information portal for others to the goings-on of the Jeppson clan. Board games have become very important for Jessica and I as a couple. They have moved on from simply a means of entertainment and a way to pass to time. Now, we learn about each other through them. We work together on common goals in some games. We learn how to better engage in conflict with each other. And we simply, well, learn together. Well-designed games will teach you something. Whether it be math, economics, game-theory, or whatever, we are learning together, and that is wonderful.

Ok, so our first game of the year was Mage Knight on Jan. 4.

4 years old and 6 months old for nearly a month!

So, I’ve been a little bit of a slacker about getting these things posted and getting pictures taken of my darling boys, but with the help of my mom and my husband.  I was able to get some good pictures of both boys over a couple weeks.

Let’s start with the big ole birthday boy Spencer.  He turned 4 this month!!  It’s seems to crazy that I have a 4 year old, but I do.  He is crazy funny, and sometimes a little frustrating.  He is the best big brother and most of the time his a great helper for his mommy.

Some important things that have happened to Spencer this last year:

• He learned how to use the potty. Yeah!
• He was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome
• He became a big brother
• He rode a roller coaster for the first time
• He started school (Pre-Pre-K)

His 4 year old well child check up results:

• Height: 3’8″ (44 inches) – 99%
• Weight: 40.6 lbs – 82%

We recently did a little interview.  Here are his answers:

What is your name: Spencer
How old are you? (holds up 4 fingers and after some prodding) 4
What is your favorite color? slimy things (our most recent batch of slime is green, but I’m pretty sure his favorite color is orange).
Who is your best friend? Nehemiah (a new friend from school)
Favorite animal? sheep
What do you want to be when you’re all grown up? a dragon
What is your favorite movie? [Curious] George, the show not the movie. The George movie is scary.
What is your favorite book? the dragon book (not sure what book this is, but I’m pretty sure his favorites are Curious George books).
What makes you happy? Curious George
What makes you sad? the spinning thing at Crest (a Christmas inflatable that has a spinning bar type thing)
What is your favorite food? sandwich (plain peanut butter with not jelly or crust, cut into 2 rectangles or triangles)
What is your favorite song? a pretend song (he’s not really a fan of singing or other singing. But has been making up nonsense songs that entertain Matthew)
What games do you like? the teleporter one (It’s called Jetpacks. He also is rather good at Bad Piggies and Where’s my Water)

Here’s some pictures from his birthday:

He got a marble track which is LOVES and some Imaginets (shaped magnets that you build pictures out of).  He also got plenty of clothes, but we were trying to only get him a couple toys that we knew he’d like and actually play with.  It seems to have worked this time.

Now on to my little cutie, Matthew.  He’s six months only now.  It’s  a little crazy how he just fits and it seems like he’s always been here.  When I think about the time before we had Matthew, it almost feels like something is missing, ALMOST.  It wasn’t at that point, but anyway.

At six months, Matthew is a really happy kid. Some important things that have happened to him recently:

• He’s learned how to roll over
• He prefers to sleep on his tummy
• He loves to jump in his jumper or play in his exersaucer
• He LOVES to eat. We like to call him a Chow Hound
• His favorite foods include: Pears, Bananas, Sweet Potato, Oatmeal and Momma Milk
• Started November with no teeth, but finished it with 4!

Matthew’s Six Month Statics
Height: 28 inches – 92%
Weight: 19lbs 1/2oz – 75%
Head size: 43.5 cm – 50%

And for the best part. More pictures of the little cutie.

I thought this would be interesting to see side by side. Brothers. Aren’t they cute?

30 in 45 – Games amid the quest for the ring

While we were playing the Lord of the Rings card game, we did take some breaks and play other games, especially on nights when the kids got to be late or we had other things going on.

October 4 – Way of the Dragon
Results:
A: 5
J: 7 -> WIN!

Report:
This is a fun, take-along dice game that we explain is “Chinese Yathzee.” You move your pieces along a track in conjunction with the number of that symbol. It’s fun and can be pretty strategic as far as dice games go.

Adam started out strong with this game rolling one of every symbol on the very first try which got all his pieces on the board in a hurry. He actually rolled that 4 or 5 times during the game, but it wasn’t nearly as beneficial as the first one.

I just played my game, and managed to roll all of one symbol (which we hadn’t done yet). I ended up just getting all my pieces into the score rows before Adam could get more than a couple in the scoring zone. So, I won out.

October 11th – Dungeon Lords
Results:
A: 20 <–WIN
J: 8

Report:
Adam was the more fearful Dungeon Lord by a LONG shot this game. While Jessica was the Lord of Dark Deeds (was the highest in the evil-meter), Adam claimed more single titles than her making him the be winner. He had a room in his dungeon that increased the number of points he got for single titles.

Jessica played a respectable game. She let her evil level go unchecked early in the game and attracted the attention of the first year Paladin. While she defeated the Paladin and two other adventurers, one scrapped away with his life barely intact. And it left her dungeon with a few too many conquered tiles and made for a rough second year.

October 12th – Elder Sign
Results:
Investigators: WIN!
A: Jenny Barnes
Je: Amanda Sharp
Ju: Ashcan Pete
Ja: Bob Jenkins

Report:
Elder Sign is a dice rolling game that is set in our favorite universe of Arkham. Our investigators are in a museum trying to collect enough elder signs to prevent an ancient one from awaking and taking over the world. You roll dice and use the results to complete adventures and gain items and elder signs.

We were fortunate enough to be able to play this when we were having game night with our friends Justin and Jaidi.

We really had this game easily in hand the whole time. The doom track only had 3 or 4 tokens on it. We all seemed to have really hot dice this game and just cranked it out. So, we decided to plan another game too.

October 12th – Tobago
Results:
A: Yellow ATV: 17
Je: Blue ATV: 25
Ju: Red ATV: 23
Ja: Green ATV: 26

Report:
We all played a really good game tonight. This victory came down to the very last treasure that Adam and Justin had absolutely NO part in. Jaidi knew there were 2 treasures with 6 points each in the pool and she had 2 shots at time. So, she waited and passed on a 5 point treasure that Jessica got. It was a very good thing too since she won by 1 point. 🙂

So the days in between these games were actually game free. We had a lot of life and other things needing our attention that we couldn’t find time to play. So our end is a little anti-climatic, but we did finish. It feels a little forced though, but fun.

October 18th – Can’t Stop -iOS (2 rounds)
Results:

Round 1
Adam WON!

Round 2
Jessica WON!

Report:
This is a new iPad game we got that is based on the board game Can’t Stop. It’s a dice rolling, press your luck kind of game. The goal is to get 3 of your pieces from one side of the board to the other. You move your pieces based on the way you roll and pair the dice. Some of the rows in the board are smaller since getting those results are a lot less likely. It’s a great game for parties since it is easy to pick up and plays quickly. Since it is a game of almost total luck, it’s easy to lose and fun to win.

October 20th – Ticket To Ride iOS
Results:
Adam: 153 Jessica: 85

Report:
Adam totally knocked it out of the park. He got a bunch of routes that were crazy high scoring. When he laid down the train that marked the final round, he left Jessica in the cold needing one more purple car that would have completed 2 of her high scoring routes, which would have been a MUCH closer final score.

October 21st – Forbidden Island iOS
Results: WIN!

Report:
I honestly don’t remember much about this game in particular. But I do remember that we did find all the treasure, and we escaped from the island as it feel apart around us feeling a little bit like Indiana Jones. I also remember us saying the world should thank us for recovering these priceless artifacts from being lost forever.

October 21 – Elder Sign iOS
Results: Win

Report:
We won this one, but at a cost. We battled with Cthulhu and this is the first time we have one it. The way Cthulhu plays is a little different than other ancient ones. After obtaining a certain number (I don’t remember what it was), we traveled by boat around the sea until we had enough investigation icons to raise Cthulhu and battle him. We got it done, but Adam lost his life in the process. I was able to pull it out in the end thanks to Jenny Barnes awesome ability to get both bonus dice when using items instead of just one.

Again, we felt like the world should thank us for saving it from the unspeakable horrors. World, you’re welcome. 😀

Days Left: 0 Games Played: 30

Living with an Aspie: Primary Programs and routines

This is Spencer helping me out by posing for me. Doesn’t really apply to the topic at hand, but I wanted to include a picture of my silly guy.

We recently had our Primary Program, and boy was it an experience.  It is nerve wracking for all the Sunbeam (3 year old, first timers) parents, but there is a whole other level for us.  So, we had been practicing Spencer’s part for a month!  He learned it the first Sunday we got it, and he had it down.

We would ask him what his part was in the Primary program randomly throughout the weeks leading up to it, and he totally knew it and it wouldn’t be a shock to be asked to say it.  What didn’t occur to us (or at least to me, Jessica) was that when he was asked to go up to the stand, and participate in the program during Sacrament meeting would be a SERIOUS disruption in his routine.  Apparently, we had one that I wasn’t consciously aware of.

When it was time to go up with the rest of the kids, Adam took Spencer with him since Adam is the Primary pianist and had to be there too.  Adam handed Spencer off to his teacher, and Spencer proceeded to meltdown and cry.  I was a little surprised since I had prepared myself for a different reaction completely.  After some convincing, his wonderful teacher got him to sit down by her and distracted him with her cell phone and various other things throughout the program.

Spencer didn’t participate at all.  He didn’t stand up when the other kids did to sing, he didn’t do anything.  When it was his turn to give his part (Grandpa recorded it on the sly), he got up and needed help from the Primary President who was right by him with the script.  And you couldn’t understand a word he said.

He said, “I can be kind to others by sharing the bad guy car.”

After this though, he had gotten a taste of being in the spotlight, and boy he liked it.  After this point, he settled into full on performance mode.  He was up in the front whenever it was time to sing and he lead the music with the song leaders, which is a VAST improvement over shooting bad guys and throwing bombs which he has done in the past.  He also got a little wild and it was terribly difficult for him to want to sit down after that.  Thankfully, his part was at the end (ish) of the program.

I noticed in the week following a rather major disruption of the normal routine (the primary program), he was thrown off in other places.  He had a harder week at school, especially the first day, and he fought with us a lot more.  It just goes to show me how incredibly important all the little routines we have are important.

I always felt like I needed to be more structured at home to establish really set routines, but apparently we have patterns that we follow all the time just to keep the peace.  And if your throw part of it off balance, he has a hard time recovering.

30 in 45 – Tales from Middle-Earth Edition; wherein we meet TROLL

We’re going to try to play this in rapid succession each night and build some quality decks. We’ve purchased the first four expansions, and if we get good enough and enjoy it, maybe we’ll continue buying the mini expansions. It has a lot of potential, so I hope it works out.

Lord of the Rings The Card Game
Scenario: The Old Forest Road
Results:
A: Lore and Tatics -> Win
J: Spirit and Leadership -> Win

Report: This is a co-operative deck building game. Think Magic: The Gathering goes on a field trip to Middle Earth and everyone gets scared by Sauron and bands together instead of playing against each other. You get a few heroes (like Aragorn, Bilbo, Boromir, etc.) from four different spheres of influence (we each played two spheres as noted in the results). I played with Legolas (tactics), Denethor (yes, the coward is a hero in this game), and a made-up elf named Beravor (lore). Jessica played Aragorn (leadership), Prince Imrahil (leadership), and Eowyn (spirit).

Since we hadn’t played this in a LONG time, we decided to do the easiest quest to reacquaint ourselves. It was pretty non-eventful and easy, but my favorite part of my group was when I put a Burning Brand attachment on Denethor. It effectually made him untouchable when defending such that he was able to tame the Beastmaster (a real thing). Legolas picked off many, many enemies from afar. Jessica’s Eowyn was Caught in a Web for nearly the whole game but still managed to navigate us through the locations with ease.

Our game set up after a particularly devastating loss.

Our custom built box insert to organize our questing

Storage for tokens made out of legos

It’s made to look like the All Seeing Eye

The ensuing games
9/27 The Old Forest Road: Win
9/28 Down the River Anduin: Loss
10/1 Down the River Anduin: Loss
10/2 Down the River Anduin: Loss, but a win after consulting the rules
10/5 Escape from the Dead Marshes: Win
10/5 Hills of Emyn Muil: Loss
10/8 Hills of Emyn Muil: Win

The games started to flow together in our minds after the first one, so here is a summary of what has happened to us thus far. For all the remaining games, Jessica played her Spirit/Leadership deck with some minor changes along the way, and I played the Lore/Tactics deck. I love me some eagles.

Anyway, we played The Old Forest Road to get a feel for some deck adjustments and new heroes and won handily again. After all, it’s just an Old Forest Road after all. How badly can things go just walking down a road?

Down the River Anduin was another story altogether. The plot of the scenario is such that it continues where the previous scenario (Old Forest Road) left off. We were carrying a message to Lothlorien, and we came to the banks of the river Anduin. The plan was simple: Get in some boats, float to Lothlorien and deliver the message. Yeah, it’s funny how naive Middle-Earth people can be. Before we even got to the banks of the river, a TROLL ambushed us. Please notice I capitalized TROLL because there is nothing lower-case about him. No problems right? We’d just throw everyone at him and be on our way. That would work just fine except for when the TROLL invited his friend Chieftain Ufthak (of the Morgul Orcs) and a Marsh Adder. The three hardest enemy cards in the deck. Yay. We died a quick death.

Isn’t he cute?

Ok, Down the River Anduin, take two. Heading towards the bank, and a wild TROLL appears! Not a surprise because that is how the scenario always starts.  What is a surprise is that he brought his twin BROTHER.  TROLL and BROTHER TROLL beat upon us but Gimli and company were able to fight them off and get into the boats.  Unfortunately, the crew was so beaten down that they could not withstand the harrying of the enemies on the riverbanks.  We were so pitiful.

TAKE THREE!  You know how it goes by now: River bank, TROLL and then, well, that’s it.  No one else helped the troll this time, and we were able to get onto the river much faster.  Without many enemies on the banks, we moved quickly down the river. When we reached our destination, we found a welcoming party of a less-than-friendly demeanor.  We found their numbers to be too great and did not successfully break through. Woe was us. Much despair was found in House Jeppson.

But alas, after putting away the game, I (Adam) was not satisfied with the rules interpretation that led to so many enemies at our destination. I won’t bore you with the details of play-order and how certain abilities prevented other abilities, but the end result was that we should have prevented the last two enemies from appearing. They also happened to be the hardest enemies.  We would have been able to handle the others easily, so we counted it a win. I know, I know, the cowards way out. Better a coward than facing TROLL again.

Next Scenario! The Hills of Emyn Muil.  We actually skipped the next few scenarios in the plot order because we wanted to play some we hadn’t played before. Basically, we spent a few scenarios hunting Gollum, and it led us to the Hills of Emyn Muil. This scenario required us to explore a LOT of locations. The challenge is that you can’t leave many of your characters available to handle enemies.  Our first try at this became far too challenging. My Tactics-heavy deck didn’t have enough power to explore locations, and Gollum got away.

Our next playthrough found me revamping my deck to feature a lot more Lore cards with the power to make exploration easier.  Jessica also did the same with her Spirit deck, and we knocked this one down quickly.  Her Rohan riders were all over the country side, and I found a ton of Secret Paths that let us move more quickly.  Gollum didn’t stand a chance against our speed.  We showed him “the meaning of haste”.  (Sadly, Shadowfax is not yet a card we can play. <crossing fingers>)

Ok, last scenario, Escape from the Dead Marshes! We sort of caught Gollum in the Dead Marshes but were now tasked with finding our way out. Not an easy (or pleasant) task. You might remember the Dead Marshes from the The Two Towers with all the dead soldier bodies. Anyway, we had to move quickly, and we did. It was pretty anti-climactic because we just threw everything we had at exploration and got really, really lucky. Two turns was all it took us.  About 10 minutes, and we had done it. I can see how this scenario could be difficult, but it wasn’t for us this time.

Next time, we will attempt to bring Gollum back to Mirkwood for interrogation. Will we succeed? Will we meet TROLL again? Tune in next time to Tales from Middle-Earth!

Days Left: 13 Games Played: 22

30 in 45 – We’re all tied up

It seems that Adam and I are all tied up with our win -loss records.  Quite an accomplishment for me since I seem to lose a lot, but apparently that’s not entirely true anymore.  I am getting better at some of the strategy games, and since Adam and my brains work very differently, he has a hard time figuring out what I’m going to do next.  I have the same problem, but always have so it doesn’t play as much to my disadvantage.  🙂

September 17th – Small World

Results:
Jessica: 80
Adam: 93

Report:
Since we learned we had been playing this incorrectly for a while now, we were excited to play it correctly.  It turned out to be a little more balanced.  Well, that is until yon Dragon Master Trolls came and squished everybody in their path and left behind a trail of fortresses that spelled utter DOOM to anyone trying to conquer them.

I hope that conveyed the despair that Jessica felt after I played my trolls because I don’t think she was very happy with me.  I gave her permission to weep.  Still, her Wealthy Wizards bolstered her end-game scoring to a respectable scoring gap.  Ah, yes, it’s good to be a troll.

Thursday, September 20th – Forbidden Island iOS version
Results:
A & J –> Lost

Report: Our goal here is to get all the treasures and get off the Island before it all washes into the sea.  We can prevent some of this by shoring up flooded areas, but if a flooded area is flooded again, it washes away.  We thought we were doing really well.  We had gotten two of the treasures we sought, and were almost set to claim another when we drew a waters rise card.  It reshuffled an already flooded Fool’s Landing (our way in and out of the Island) into the flood deck.  The first card that came up in the flood phase was Fool’s Landing.  Thus washing it away and leaving us stranded on the Island as it sunk all around us.

Thursday, September 20th – Ingenious iOS version
Results:
A: Lose
J: WIN

Report: The goal of this game is to match colored tiles in such a way that you gain points.  You have 5 colors you are managing.  You want each on to be as high as possible.  The person who has the least amount (in any color) is the one who loses in the end.  You really have to play it to understand, but it’s fun.  This is Jessica’s game that she can usually count on for a win.  She plays it in her spare time while watching TV.  So, she’s pretty good at it.  This round of the game was no exception.

Monday, September 24th – Tobago
Results:
A: 61 – Win
J: 51

Report: Adam here.  Wow, 4 days since our last play.  We are going to need to ramp up the pace.  Ok, so you say Tobago, I say Tobago.  I guess that works better out loud.  This is a game of treasure hunting and movement optimization with a little set theory thrown in.  Since at least one of those things is incredibly interesting to me, I love this game.  It was a little slow starting because we had sort of forgotten the rules. When familiar, it would play quickly.  I think I found the first treasure and we swapped back and forth after that with an exclusionary treasure for each of us.  Jessica got cursed once and lost some serious points.  That and a little luck bumped me to the top, and Mr. Red Jeep won the day!

Lord of the Rings – The Card Game (9/25, 27, 28, 10/1, 2 thus far)
We are playing a lot of this game. Look for the LOTR Edition coming up

September 30th – Unity

Results:
Adam -Orange –
Jessica- Purple – WIN!

Report:
The point of UNITY is the get all the pieces you have on the board in a collection together by strategically picking up and moving pieces around the board. Jessica was still grasping the concepts of this game. It had been frustrating to her in the past, but it seems that she’s got it figured out. It was a rather handy win for her. It did help that when Adam set up the board he let Jessica chose the color she wanted to play, and she chose the group that already had the most unified group to start with. So, it was easier to deal with the rest.

September 30th – Issac

Results:
Adam: 52
Jessica: 77

Report:
Man alive was Jessica on a winning streak tonight! Issac is a game about strategically laying down varying lengths (and point valued) sticks, and picking up said sticks in such a fashion that gains you the most points. Personally, I think I just got lucky and made some excellent blocks and pick ups that really put Adam in a position to gain fewer points. In the end, I got to pick up at least 3 or 4 more sticks, which resulted in a larger victory. After that win though, Adam didn’t want to play anymore games with me that night. 🙂

Days Left: 19   Games Played: 18