Some of our favourite games

These are some of our favourite games and we've lucked out on some of them by finding them at thrift stores or at the Reuse Centre, which basically gives away other people's "junk", saving it from the landfill.  I quite like that place although the finds vary each time. 

Some of these were unknown to us, but a couple are classics.  

Probe:  It's basically a version of hangman, but it works even for kids who aren't great spellers because you don't lose if your word is guessed right away (for instance, if your name is Alice and you like to use your own name for your word, or get more adventurous and use the name of the stuffy you are holding at that exact moment).   You win by guessing the most letters of everyone else's words.  It's turned out well for us, in spite of our mixed abilities.  We found this one at the Reuse Centre.  I hadn't heard of it, but for free you can take chances.  This was a good/no risk. 

Scrabble:  Obviously.  An old classic that never gets too old or outdated.

Life:  Another classic.  My parents gave us their's, the one I played as a kid.  The kids would like an updated one but this still works.  You can't choose a realistic career like the new version (such as a movie star or rock star), you have to accept your fate as a journalist or teacher and it's fun.   I wonder if the dollar amounts were ever realistic.  $15,000 for a small house.  That'd be nice.

Tuba Ruba:  I'd never heard of this until this week and we've already gotten our $2 worth.  The idea is that you wrap your body in intricate and compromising ways in the long tubing, attaching it to your legs and arms to secure it.  Then you drop a marble in one open end and play twister with yourself to get the marble to travel through the whole length of tubing and come out the other end.  You can also twist the tube around you and your closest friend or sister and contort and lift and somersault as a team.  It's amusing to watch.  

Jewels in the Attic:  I'd never heard of this one either, but it's fun and you can find it in second hand stores.  I've seen it once since finding our game.  It's an interactive team game and the goal is to find the jewels in the attic of an old house.  It's hard to explain, but you have to physically go to different rooms in your house and try to open the doors with your keys and with special gifts and tools that each player has. 

Say you try to open the door with your "gift of gab" and you might have to drop your tool (and can't use it again), or maybe the troll guarding the door lets you in.  It depends on how the circular tools and gifts line up with the marks on the door.  Sometimes you have to hop on one foot until one of your teammates successfully opens the door. 

We're looking for the Settlers of Catan at a reasonable price, but until then we'll keep playing with these games.  What are some of your favourites?