Gold Mine

Our family loves to play games. Lots of games. We have quite a few, too. However, it's harder to find games that are fun for the whole family to play together. With family game night happening every Sunday, we are always on the lookout for a good family game.

A few months back my brother in law brought to our attention a great game company he was working for. They are relatively new to the scene, but have handful of games on the market that look super fun! It can be a bit difficult to get into the game (get it? The gaming game. Bwahaha!). So, when Stratus Games held a kickstarter to fund one of it's games "Off Your Rocker" we decided it was a worthy cause to support. As a bonus we were given one of each of their games for helping fund the project. Woohoo!

We received our games just a few days ago. So, for date night Cameron and I played one of the games. Gold Mine looked like a relatively straight forward game, and one that had potential to be played with the kids. I am very pleased to let you know that we were totally right! Gold Mine is a relatively simple game that our kids can join in on with no problem. The basic idea is you lay out cards and "dig" a gold mine. Each player has a little man that can go through the mine collecting gold. The player that gets a certain number of gold nuggets and leaves the mine first wins. There are a few other aspects of the game that add some pizzazz. Overall, really fun.

For family game night tonight we pulled out our new game with much enthusiasm. Thankfully the kids mirrored that excitement. The game is labeled for ages 8+.  Maddy had no problem picking right up on how to play.  Also, as we got into the game we were happy to note that with a bit of guidance our 6 year old could probably play his own turn, too. This time around we had River on Cameron's team, and Britta on mine. That worked out fine, too.

One of the fun extras in the game is when you do a "bat challenge" to another player. You each roll a die three times and the person that wins the majority of the rolls is allowed to roll the die and move the losing player that many squares in whichever direction they desire. The best use of this, as we've discovered, is to prevent a player from reaching the exit once they have enough gold. Britta and River were very intent on winning the bat challenge. They made it very entertaining.

The game is definitely a great one. I totally recommend it. There's enough meat to the game to make it fun, but it's not so complex as to make it frustrating to learn. Perfect combination. It was also a plus that Britta and I WON! 

If you're looking for a good game, head on over to Stratus Games' website and pick this one up. I did notice that they offer free shipping anywhere in the US. Games are a great investment for family fun. I'm excited to play the other games as well. I hope to find another game or two I can introduce to the kids for Family Game night.

Fortunes

A couple of weeks back Cameron and I went to a dinner party for his team at Dell. It was a pot luck of sorts. One of his coworkers was making authentic Chinese food, and we were all supposed to bring something that complemented that.

The night before the party Cam and I were thinking of what to bring and we came up with the brilliant idea of making homemade fortune cookies. I had never made them before, and was frankly a bit nervous they would be difficult. However, after looking up a recipe or two, I had high hopes that I could do them without much trouble.

There was a bit of a learning curve. I did have to look up online how to fold them. The main difficulty was that I could only make them two at a time because you have to take them out of the oven, put the paper inside and fold them up within about 20 seconds. If you didn't do it quickly enough the cookie would harden before you were ready for it to. Thankfully I have two ovens so I was able to whip them out a bit more quickly than I would have otherwise been able to.

Cameron had a lot of fun coming up with random fortunes to put in the cookies. They got better as he went along, too.  That man cracks me up.

The cookies were a total hit at the party. The very first cookie was opened by the party hostess. Her fortune said, "You will be eaten by a bear." And hilarity ensued.

The kids were disappointed that I didn't have any leftovers for them, so after we got home that night I whipped up another batch just for them.

The actual cookies were delicious! There was almond extract in them and that made them extra yummy. They are really thin and crispy, and just overall a tasty cookie to eat. I had a few flops in the very beginning, but I wasn't very broken up over it because that meant I could eat the pieces.

I did notice that the cookies got a bit chewy the next day. The solution I found was to stick them all in the oven for just a few minutes. That seemed to evaporate some of the extra moisture and crisp up the cookies once more. That was my only disappointment. I wish they stored better. Cam and I think it would be hilarious for him to keep a jar of them on his desk at work. You never know when he would want to doom another coworker to an untimely death.