Four Days

We had a lovely weekend with my parents and sisters. The two extra days made it feel like a proper holiday - golf, tea, chocolate, church, Doctor Who, chats in our pyjamas, murder mysteries, computer games - and these highlights...

We had fun at home:

{Croissants and pain au chocolat, board games, birthday cake and craft.}
We walked around the garden:

{Flowers.}
We went out for a birthday lunch:

{Cheesecake, duck salad, creme brulee, fish and chips, sea view, lamb shank.}
We visited a ruined castle:

{Castle fun.}

Board Games

Some people like board games, some people hate them. In our house we have a whole cupboard dedicated to board games so we pretty much fall into the first set of people. Now, that said, I don't like all games. One of my particular dislikes is Scrabble - I'm not very patient and like a game to keep moving, while in Scrabble people often take a really long time to make their move.

But this is really about games I do like. In no particular order, here are some of my current favourites and why...
1. Puerto Rico - This is a five player game. It is reasonably fast paced, every game is different and there are a lot of different strategies to winning. It also looks nice which always helps.
2. San Juan - This is a slightly simpler version of Puerto Rico using just cards instead of lots of fiddly pieces. It is a bit more dependent on luck - you might pick up a great combination of cards, or you might keep missing one that would really help you. It's also really good for couples - it makes a good game even with just two of you.
3. Settlers of Catan - This game is really nice looking in all the forms I've seen and is pretty simple to pick up. You have towns and cities - they bring in resources, you spend resources on upgrades to earn more victory points. It's not too luck based, although there is some dice rolling. I would say you probably need at least three players for a good game.
4. Carcassonne - You build up the region of Carcassonne by laying tiles. You score points for roads, cities, farming and monastries. It's a bit complicated at first - the farming really floors some people but after a couple of games you get used to it. There are lots of expansions which keep the game fresh - my favourites are Inns and Cathedrals and Traders and Builders. For a wedding present Lulu gave us the fantastic Hunters and Gatherers version which is really good with two players and a bit simpler on the "farming" aspect.

In the spirit of linking this with kreativ-ity, one of the best things about board games is that although they come with rules you should never be afraid to adapt them or invent new ones. Or even whole new games - our latest one (an adaption and improvement on the game "Hey, That's My Fish!") has proved very popular with our friends and relatives. And look, we even got to make these cute penguins to play with. (This is them mid-creation. They're still missing white tummies and eyes.)

So what's your favourite game?

A Lovely Weekend

Six people filled up our little house this weekend. We spent Saturday enjoying some beautiful weather and scenery with a long walk around the park...


We had a late lunch and dropped by a local artists exhibition. We were a bit late so we only got a quick glance at the paintings before they started to clear up, but it was fun anyway. The girls had some school work to do so T and I introduced Mum and Dad to our 3D Settlers of Catan set (a wedding present from some friends). We had Chinese takeaway for dinner. On Sunday we went to church and then came back for roast dinner and an afternoon of playing games.

It was lovely to spend a whole weekend with my family, just relaxing. Last year when we'd see them there was often wedding planning/discussion to be done - this year we don't have anything to do but catch up and enjoy ourselves. It really felt like a holiday, a very lovely weekend...

Today we are back to work after the Easter holidays. I'll drop by Besom before I have to go to my first afternoon session of playgroup. It's a beautifully sunny day, and as we only have a week at work before we're off on holiday again I'm feeling very relaxed.

Kreativ Blogging

The Beautiful Intellectual has passed this award onto me, which was lovely of her. I've never had a blogging award before so I am (of course) going to break the rules which are...

"List seven things that you love and then pass the award on to seven bloggers that you love! Be sure to tag them and let them know they have won. You can copy the picture of the award and paste it on your sideboard letting the whole world know...you are Kreativ!"

I got a bit stuck trying to do this post. Which is silly because really it's just a list of things I love. But the things I love are the things I want to talk about most. Obviously. And I got so torn between trying to make my post interesting and detailed but concise enough not to bore the pants off you all that I have decided to start over. I'm going to give you my list now and then over then next week (or three) I'll post about each one separately - and I'll tag them all with "Kreativ Blogger".

Also, because I'm breaking the rules and if you're going to do that you should really do it properly - I'm not going to tag anyone else. If you're reading this, consider yourself Kreativ (whatever that means) - post this on your blog if you want, if not just let me know what your thoughts are in the comments sections! Deal? Good. Thank you.

So - seven things I love...

• Books
• T
• My Family
• Cooking
• God
• Board Games
• Friends

And to break another rule I'll do a surprise eighth post - prizes if you can guess what it will be about...

All Over the Place

This weekend has been a bit mad. We were supposed to go to a "pub quiz" at church on Friday night but had to miss it after I spent the afternoon being ill. That was a bit rubbish as we'd been looking forward to it. Also we found out that our team were doing brilliantly until the Dingbats round which T rocks. I'm terrible at them - any answers from you guys for these...?

Anyway, they came third out of eight teams in the end which is pretty good. On Saturday we went to the wedding of two people T went to school with. It was lovely and considering I barely knew anyone I enjoyed it more than I expected. Although I loved planning our wedding and the actual day was even more perfect than I'd imagined, I wouldn't want to repeat it. On the other hand I'd love it if we could have another "honeymoon" - a two week holiday for just us would be wonderful. This week/month/year is feeling very full - we're rushing around a lot seeing people and doing things, and while that is lovely I'm feeling pretty worn out this last week! A holiday would be nice...so I'm looking forward to a couple of family weekends we have planned and then the Easter holidays.

On Sunday it was beautifully sunny when we woke up, grey when we dashed out of church (after hugs and a quick chat with last weekend's newlyweds) and pouring with rain as we went off to see some university friends who are now married and living about an hour away. We haven't seen them since before Christmas and it was our first visit to their new house so it was lovely if a bit short as one of them had a concert to go to. On the way back we dropped in on T's parents for a delicious roast dinner. We also played a new game called San Juan (which was a Christmas present for T from his aunt and uncle) - it's quite like Puerto Rico but simpler to set up as its just a card game.

So that explains where I have been and how I managed to go a whole week without filling you in on my life (for those of you who were wondering!). As a general update on today, I have been at playgroup-work in the morning (one of the kids made me laugh but I'll tell you about that tomorrow) and Besom-work this afternoon (eek, the van has broken down, lots of prayer needed!). Tonight we will be having plaice for dinner which I have never cooked before (this recipe looks good to me) and the church prayer meeting is this evening.

And by the way I was tempted to make a terrible place/plaice joke in the title of this blog but I resisted. You're welcome.

A weekend with the folks...

We had a lovely time visiting my parents (and sisters) this weekend. It was pretty overcast all the time so we stayed inside, playing games and eating goodies. We introduced them all to our new favourite game, Puerto Rico. This game was an instant hit with both sides of our family and we played it three times this weekend.

We also ate lots of yummy food and watched the rugby. It was just a really good weekend of catching up and spending time together. Mum and I spent Saturday afternoon playing with her extensive craft collection and making cards. She really does have a huge amount of stuff and (bonus!) she gave me a whole box of card, paper, decorations and ribbon to take home. This is the card I made, for a couple whose wedding we're going to in three weeks.