Exploding Kittens & Kitten Games Tryazon Party!!

 

    

  We began our "Gameschooling" Journey in December of 2019 and it has been such a joy!  One of our favorite brands has been Exploding Kittens!  Our first Exploding Kittens game was the original, namesake and we love it! It's an awesome family friendly party game!  Then Lucas got Throw Throw Burrito, after he GAVE it as a Secret Santa gift.  We had so much fun playing those two originals with our friends and family, that when Tryazon offered an opportunity for the new Kitten Games line I knew we wanted to be a part of that!  

    We received "Hurry Up Chicken Butt", "A Hot-Potato game with jumping, laughing, and lots of animal noises! (And secretly...a little bit of exercise)."

This game encourages:

▪ Physical activity ▪ Quick thinking ▪ Creativity ▪ Family bonding

How to Play: 

Each player has a "nest" for the chicken to land on.  When it comes to you, shake the Chicken to reveal your activity, then quickly perform it before passing the Chicken Shaker to the next player. Don’t get caught holding the Chicken when the timer goes off! 

Some activities include, singing the ABCs, clapping your feet together, hopping on one foot, and other silliness.  If you roll a pink you have to find the chicken butt and touch it!  

This game is fast, funny and it’s different every time. Plus, everyone has an equal chance to win...especially the little ones! It's perfect for family game night or encouraging groups of kids to play together. You’ll laugh your butt off!

AGE 4+ ● 2-6 players ● 2 Min

We also received, "The Best Worst Ice Cream", a logic and matching game where you match delightfully DISGUSTING ice cream flavors (and secretly...learn a little bit of strategy)!"

Encourages:
▪ Reasoning skills. ▪ Flexible thinking. ▪ Pattern recognition ▪ Family bonding

How to Play: 

Each player will use reasoning and creative thinking to match flavors and fill their IceCream Cone.   Parents and older siblings will have fun playing along. It’s easy to learn and fast to play with funky flavors that spark creative conversations.  Each card has three potential ice cream flavors on it, the clues to the flavor are shown on the back.  Players guess which flavor they think the card will reveal based on the cards already played and how many cards are left in the game.  If they guess correctly, players add all of the exposed cards in that flavor to their ice cream cone card.  If they guess wrong, the flavor goes on the tabletop for someone else to collect later!  

AGE 4+ ● 2-5 players ● 10 Min

After opening these two new Kitten Games and checking them out, I ran out to Target and bought "I Want My Teeth Back" too!  I knew these games would all be a hit with our family and friends!  

Even though the box says for ages 4 and up, my big kids really enjoyed this game a lot!  

The way Tryazon works is that they send you products and then you host an event with your friends and family to share that product!  You get to keep the product in exchange for your HONEST reviews and promotion!  I've never had a product that I didn't truly love and I will happily share about things that work for our family!  

We decided to theme our party around The Best Worst Ice Cream game, and hosted an ice cream sundae party!  I found gummy worms, gummy hot dogs, gummy pizzas, and candy eyes to use as toppings to coordinate with the "disgusting" flavors found in the game.  We also made green slime as snail slime!  

    After everybody had enjoyed their ice cream sundaes, we broke out the games and took turns trying them out!  

    The boys were a little rowdy with the Hurry Up Chicken Butt game, but they had a lot of fun.  We played round after round until only 2 players remained!  

I liked that we could choose the 3 activities that the colors represented or leave it up to chance and just flip a card.  The children enjoyed being silly and racing to sing their ABCs or hop around the circle on one foot.  The many options will make this game a winner time and time again, because the game play won't ever be exactly the same!  Even the adults got in on the silly actions and stretched their creative muscles!  

Another thing that I appreciated was that the chicken's cluck and "scream" aren't too loud.  With kids on the autism spectrum and with sensory processing disorder that is a definite concern for us!  

After that, we moved to the table to play some "Best Worst Ice Cream".  

This game is so cute and easy for the kids to pick up.  They can play with as much or as little attempt at strategy as they are able and still have just as much chance at winning.  Our four year old players did great with minimal help.  

As the pictures show the kids really did have a great time playing!  All three of the Kitten Games that we tried out will be regulars in our household.  

If you'd like to check out any of the amazing offerings from Exploding Kittens you can use this code: KGBOGO for buy 2 get one free on the Exploding Kittens webpage! The games are also available for purchase at Target retailers.  

Baby Shower Gift Sewing!

    I haven't been around many babies since Covid took over the world.  I did get to snuggle a little baby not too long ago and I've of course got my baby, Percy, but I haven't been to a baby shower or any other

get-together's like that since March 2020.  

All that is about to change!  Our Sensei at the dojo, is having her first biological baby and it's a girl!  Of course I knew off the bat I wanted to make something adorable for her but wasn't sure what.  After checking out her registry and chatting with her I had my inspiration!  She registered for BOYS clothes.  A little back-story, she has two sons from her husband's first relationship and they are awesome.  I asked her about the boy clothes on her registry and she said it was because they were dinosaurs and everybody loves dinosaurs! (so true!). 

Of course, I knew that girly Dino things were out there...so with her blessing that was my theme!  

I found an adorable pink and purple dinosaur baby dress and cardigan on Amazon. Bonus-there was also a matching set of headbands and socks!  I also ordered a purple dinosaur baby crinkle toy from Amazon.  Then I headed to the fabric store.  Jo-Ann had flannel fabric that coordinated with the dress perfectly!  I bought some of that and then began looking for inspiration on what to make!

JoAnn also had this pink Dino fleece so the boy and Tim worked together to make a tie blanket!

I searched online and found this bib tutorial.  Flannel bibs are so soft and perfect for cleaning up baby dribble.  So, I made a couple of those from the flannels I had bought.  I changed the bottom shape a little on each of them, but I think they will be great for the baby.  

I also found this amazing dinosaur stuffed animal pattern for free.  I printed it out and made one.  I did ribbon loops instead of the spikes on the back and may not have read the entire pattern instructions before jumping into the project.  So, my feet are done a little differently than the pattern.  I also had a bit of a hard time with the neck and a then of course there were a few spots I didn't double check well and missed all the fabric layers, so it required quite a bit of hand sewing to finish it up.  It was cute, but I was bummed that it wasn't perfect.  

So, the next day, I went online to figure out how to enlarge the already printed pattern and found a tutorial that helped a ton!  With my new, 70% larger pattern I sat down and made a second dinosaur!  I even added ribbon loops on the head of this one!  I'm so pleased with how the second one came together!  

I can't wait to give them to Sensei and I hope that their entire family enjoys spoiling their baby girl with sweet girly dinosaur stuff!