games we play

Thanks to my cousin Julie who gathered about 50 pages of documents from multiple sources over the past few days and endured maybe 30 emails from me (?!?!)  as we got it all figured out for the last time.... our immigration application is mailed and the final round of the waiting game for John Paul is underway.  Of course, there were unexpected snags (misspelling on a document from China that needs to be re-issued, and something that needed translation into English) but the remaining issues are fairly minor and should be cleared up by early next week.

This morning the big kids (I now call them "the bigs" - meaning Julianna, Lydia and Isaac) all whipped up some special pieces of art to send along to John Paul.  I'm pretty sure he's gonna be impressed.... and pretty soon he'll be doing some crafts of his own.  Julianna totally sets the pace for our family on the craft scene, that girl LOVES to create and amazes me with what she comes up with.  She could write an idea book called "perfect crafts for six year olds".  It seems creative ideas involving paper, scissors, glue sticks and yarn are forever popping into her head.

Anyways, in addition to creating drawings for our newest little brother we've been playing lots of games, especially in the late afternoons before I start dinner.  I've been trying to take photos too...

Rat-a-tat-Cat is a great one....  Lydia's all time favorite and there was a season (that lasted several months) when I'm pretty sure we played this game at least five days a week. 

In Candyland Isaac has finally figured out that he not only draws a color card and moves his man but he moves his man in the right direction the correct number of spaces!  Watch out competition, Isaac is now a legitimate potential winner here!

Speaking of Isaac, his latest "most frequently requested" game is Zingo!  I like Zingo! but not nearly as much as Isaac does.  Yesterday I talked him out of it and we played Memory instead.  I love Memory cause I always win - ha ha ha :) 

We also play a lot of Uno, some Old Maid, Chutes & Ladders, Go Fish. 

I've got an almost 5 year old with a birthday on the horizon.  Any good game suggestions?