Family Game Night

We're big on games.  We love game shows, athletic events, card games and board games.  In the winter we have family game nights and every spring and summer we relish the warm nights, playing family baseball and kickball until it's time to go in for bed.

It's tough to find time to reconnect as a family, and we like games because everyone (usually) has a great time.  We also get to teach valuable lessons about playing fair and learning not to be a sore loser. 

The Game Show Network (GSN) is bringing back the family fun game, "Minute to Win It" June 25th at 8/7c.  The new episodes will be hosted by speed skating champion Apolo Anton Ohno.  We're thrilled because we're huge game show fans.  Game shows are fabulous because our whole family can watch together, and I have no worries about suggestive or questionable content.  We can all kick back and enjoy, cheering on players or playing along.

A few nights ago, to kick off summer vacation, we setup our own Minute to Win It challenge, "Ka-Broom."  We needed a fairly easy challenge since we have younger kids, and we wanted everyone to be able to play.  "Ka-Broom" is a level 1 challenge, which was perfect for us.  Even better, we had everything we needed to setup the game right in our house.  To add to the fun we added prizes, winner choosing first and so on.

Kids love a good prize table.

For Ka-Broom, we setup a folding table with 10 paper plates.  On each plate we put a marshmallow toward the inside of the plate (the side closer to the inside of the table), and the outside rim of each plate had to hang a few inches over the table.

Using a broom, players have to catapult the marshmallows into a cup, catching at least 3 in one minute.  After we practiced with the broom, we realized the kids had trouble maneuvering it so we tried a baseball bat. 

And then we got to work.

Here is Hubby, happily challenging all the kids to "Ka-Broom."  He may have caught the most marshmallows in his cup, but he was not eligible for a prize.  Kit Kats and Hershey bars were for the munchkins only.

 

This summer, try your own family game night and consider using games from GSN's Minute to Win It.  My kids were excited to try new games and even more excited to be involved in the setup of our challenges.

Break down of our set was another story.  But cleanup is never as exciting as setup, and this time I did let it slide.

All new episodes of Minute to Win it hosted by Apolo Ohno premieres June 25th at 8/7c only on GSN. For more information, connect with Minute to Win It on Facebook and Twitter and visit the GSN website.

Happy summer everyone!

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