Favorite Kids Games

I may not have children, but that doesn't mean I can't act like one sometimes!

Saturday night some friends were over and we were playing cards, but then we decided to play an old game that Mike and I had picked up at a yard sale a few years back. Pass the Pigs is a hilariously silly game, where you roll two little rubber piggies and then score based on how they land.

We had the BEST time, yelling at the little piggies, jumping up to see if they were touching, it was just a blast. I guess sometimes its good to play like a kid again! It got me thinking of what other games I loved, maybe I'll keep an eye out for these ones at yard sales as well:

1. Connect Four
2. Don't Break the Ice
3. Guess Who?
4. Chutes & Ladders
5. Mastermind (probably not really a kids game, but I loved playing it when I was kid)

I'm sure there were many others, but those are the ones that popped into my head when I thought of kids games I liked!

Haven't Posted in a While!

Wow! I didn’t realize that I hadn’t posted since February 6^th until I logged on to post my Happy St. Patrick’s Day post! So, what have we been up to?

Mike’s been studying – A LOT. I’ve been working. It’s a good thing that he has been studying too, because they decided to save the Physic’s program! So we are safe!

We’ve been playing a lot of Rock Bank on our neighbor’s Nintendo Wii. So now, Mike plays guitar and fake Rock Band guitar! But it’s a lot of fun.

For my mom’s birthday we went up to Coeur d’Alene for the day. It was absolutely beautiful! I would recommend visiting there to anyone. We had lunch at the Coeur d’Alene resort, up on the 7^th floor overlooking the lake, it was so nice. I’ve only been in the winter, so we are going to try and head up there sometime this summer so we can actually use the lake.

I went to a lot of University of Idaho Basketball games, both men’s and women’s. Last year both of our teams where really bad. But this year they got new coaches and turning things around. They both were picked by the preseason coaches’ poll to finish last in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), but they both finished 3^rd. So it was a lot of fun going to watch a team who was actually winning a game now and then. And the men’s coach is actually from the Auburn area, and went to Del Oro High School, which was our big high school rival. I had read that he actually coached at my high school while I was there but I don’t remember him.

My mom and I volunteered at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival one day. That was a lot of fun, but boy I was TIRED after that. During the days, schools come and perform and compete and then they are critiqued by other professional musicians. It’s just an amazing opportunity for elementary, high school, and college performers. They have workshops all week. At our site, mid-sized high school’s jazz bands were performing. Since my musical ability consists of playing Rock Band, I’m so amazed when any group can string a few notes together a

nd I can recognize it as music. Lots of fun! And we went and some Brazilian and Cuban jazz performed by the professionals at one of the main performance. So much fun!

So, that’s pretty much what we’ve been up to. Oh, last Friday I saw a lecture by Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Roberts. Well, I sorta saw it. I was in an overflow room watching it on the screen because the main lecture hall was already full. That was pretty cool! Getting to see current Chief Justice here at the University of Idaho… unbelievable for this politics/history junky. That's him and President Obama 'redoing' the Oath of Office.

Hope everyone is doing well! I may have some news next week as well! (Not baby news, just life in general!) -- Niki & Miki

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day – A day late!

Our St. Patrick’s Day started in true Idaho fashion, it snowed! Now, as a California girl it is hard for me to accept that we could have a white St. Patrick’s Day, at least most of the snow melted by the afternoon. Mike is on Spring Break this week, and since we are old and I have to work, he spring break has consisted of computer games, laundry, cooking dinner, and cleaning the house. Poor Guy!! But I am sooooooo very thankful.

Growing up, St. Patrick’s Day was always a pretty big deal for Mike’s family. Not only did it involve green clothing, but it mean corned beef & cabbage for dinner. Guess it has something to do with being Irish. So, I have had to learn how to cook corned beef and cabbage, I’ve had my successes and failures over the years so yesterday was a little bit nerve racking. Mike started the brisket yesterday, I rushed home and pealed potatoes and carrots and got those started.

We had some of our neighbor’s over for dinner. Our friend Jeremy had never had corned beef and he was a little bit hesitant because he thought just based on the name it sounded pretty awful. It turned out great though! Nice and tender, I guess the slow cooker method was a good idea after all. So, we sat, enjoyed our corned beef & cabbage (well, some of us did, I’m not a huge cabbage eater!), listened to some Celtic Music had a couple of Guinness Pints and had a really nice evening.

Hope yours was good as well!