TableTop Fun: Village

Designers: Inka and Markus Brand
Publisher: eggertspiele/Pegasus Spiele/TMG

From BoardGameGeek:

Life in the village is hard – but life here also allows the inhabitants to grow and prosper as they please. One villager might want to become a friar. Another might feel ambitious and strive for a career in public office. A third one might want to seek his luck in distant lands. Each player will take the reins of a family and have them find fame and glory in many different ways. There is one thing you must not forget, however: Time will not stop for anyone and with time people will vanish. Those who will find themselves immortalized in the village chronicles will bring honor to their family and be one step closer to victory.

Set Collection. Worker Placement. Medieval Times. I love Village! I really appreciate games that have many paths to victory and Village is one of them. You can focus on getting your family deep into the church. You can make sure your family is entrenched in the council. I tend to go the farming route and fill market orders for lots of points (I currently share the most victories with Ian... that's pretty good considering Ian is crazy good at all board games.) The best part is that you control time in your family's life. You score points when your members pass away and, if applicable, get placed in the village chronicle. At a certain point, you might want to start advancing the clock in big leaps to essentially/sadly kill off your oldest members. :D It sounds worse than it actually is... but it's a ton of fun and big thumbs up from me. 

"Hi.."

Happy girl...

Uh oh... 

Don't Remind Me

I can't wait until we are past this football season. The horrible Super Bowl will fade from everyone's recent memory because I'm reminded at least weekly that the Seahawks should have run it. I even have a bunch of banned topics posted at work that include the Patriots, Cheating and Super Bowl 49. The only good thing to come out of it was this picture. 

Low Key Weekend

We mostly stayed home this weekend. But that just means we got a TON of stuff done. Lawn mowed, pantry moth infestation dealt with, garage cleaned out, fridge cleaned out, patio maintained(?), Baby 2.0 Summit attended, master bedroom deep cleaned. I think Emma had a little fun here and there. 

It started on Friday with Ian covertly tickle attacking Emma. 

We dragged her to run errands that night and she got a little tired on us... When we left the grocery store the moon was pretty big. This was her face after seeing it. I think it might have been the first time of her really seeing the moon fully at night. 

Saturday, she wore a super cute outfit made out of 3 random pieces. Score!

She was super silly with Ian.

On Sunday, I played with her hair and made a little ponytail out of her curls.

After her nap, she was still super sleepy so she laid in my arms watching Bubble Guppies.

For dinner, we had a minor Kitchen Adventure with this Spiced Pork Tenderloin and Sauteed Apples recipe. It was super delicious and Emma enjoyed it... especially the baked broccoli and garlic smashed potatoes we had with it. :)

All in all, a good fall weekend The ivy has started to change colors... I'm hoping next weekend we can get a good picture of it. 

It's Fall

Whether people like it or not.. it is fall. Yeah yeah yeah... so the weather is going to be really hot this week... still. It was freezing this last weekend and football has started. IT'S FALL! 

Ian and Em on our Sunday walk. It was low 60s with a cold wind that made us realize that Em needs new gloves!

Cooper Turned 7!

As usual, our trip to Virginia was wonderful. I can't wait until we go back for Christmas! Here are a few of my favorite pictures and a link to the Google Story. 

I'm Ready, Are You?

....FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!!

Thanks Aunt Kam! Ian's having a lot of fun with it.. and Emma too!

TableTop Fun: The Front Nine

Designer: Nick Case
Publisher: Self-Published

From BoardGameGeek:

The Royal Golf Association are running their annual competition to judge the best new nine hole course of the year. Will you finish all nine holes before the judges carry out their inspection? If not will stunning scenery and design excellence be enough to beat off the opposition?

We first saw this game on Rahdo Runs Through and loved the idea of it. Right before I got pregnant with Emma, Ian and I got a little into golf. The golf course construction concept was interesting. I was lucky enough to catch a 2nd print run of the game. You are able to build your different par holes through the buying and selling of resources. The object is to build a 36 par course and make sure it loops back to your clubhouse. I'm a big of tile placement games and this hits the spot for its spatial aspect. After we got the rules down, games last about an hour. Since it is a self-published game, it is a little "rough" - pun intended. The rulebook needs a complete overhaul. It's very hard to learn the game correctly with its current state. While on maternity leave, I had some extra time and was able to trick out the game a little bit. I created a resource tracker card and mini golf ball markers. Cute! 

Emma was surprisingly calm for this photo shoot back in January. 

Spaghetti Petty Family Style

I was going through some pictures from January and found Emma's first time eating spaghetti. It was done Petty Family Style - shirts off. :) Look at those chubs! 

The Swing Incident

Last Saturday, we stopped at the park outside the pool since we were a little early. Emma pointed to the swings so Ian put her in one and started pushing her. It's hard to describe the look on her face... sheer terror? I've never seen her look that way and I never want to again! She turned bright red as Drew and I told Ian to stop. Emma then let out a very slow long breath. So sad! She's been on swings before. I'm not sure what the issue was - maybe it was just too fast? Ian slowly pushed her after that and she was fine. So strange! Here's Em after we told Ian to stop.

She relaxed though and was smiling at the end.

Point Farms Trip

It's been 2 years in a row that we've been disappointed in our beach trip. Last year it was too early in the summer and the water was cold... this year it might have been too late. It was overcast and the water was chilly once again. Booooo. It's hard to convince Emma to stay in the water and have fun when we are freezing our buns off! Maybe we will time it right next year... :|