Beanbags, Games, and January Blahs.

I believe the mid-January funk has hit our house. New toys are not-so-new anymore, bad weather is keeping the kids cooped up, and Mommy just can't handle one more round of Candyland...!

So the other night after dinner dishes were done and while the kids changed into pj's, I invented a little beanbag toss game for an hour of family fun before bed. It was super easy and not all that creative, but it was NEW and my kids loved it!

I took 4 metal cake pans, the 4 mini-beanbags from our Hopscotch game, and had my son make 4 papers with point values of 10, 25, 50, and 100. We arranged the pans on the floor with the different point papers inside, and then set a couple of lines to stand and throw the beanbags. (Try rolled up socks if you don't have beanbags).

Our new art easel made a perfect scoreboard--and my 4-year-old loved the number printing practice. It was great that our 2-year-old could play too (he chose to stand directly beside the cake pans and drop the beanbags in), and the game was excellent practice for him in taking turns.

After a couple of rounds, the kids changed up the cake pan arrangement.

And the next day they came up with the twist of Mystery points by placing the papers UNDER the pans, only to be revealed after the 4 beanbags were thrown. You can imagine this new level of excitement!

They kept changing things up and played repeatedly for 3 days. It's always amazing how old things can become new again--we would love to hear what little game or competition you come up with using what you already have around!