Yard Games Galore at the Cottage

The fact that the weather in the UP during July is usually beautiful means that we spend a lot of time outside. And if you know or have read anything about my kids, you know that they love playing all sorts of games.

Croquet was a staple from last summer that definitely carried over quite a bit when we first got there. It dwindled a bit during the few more humid days and never really recovered from that, but we still probably got in close to 10 games. Crosby is always the instigator of it, but he managed to pull in whatever adult was nearby to play along with him.

This year we stuck to a bit more of the normal course setup, but he still insisted on the fact that he needs a bonus hit every turn to level the playing field. On the plus side, that does mean that it does become a real challenge to beat him. However, I still did manage to do so a few times which he did not take well. Unfortunately, that meant some massive fits, which I’m really ready for him to be done with — even if I do understand where it’s coming from since I hate losing so much too.

“Kwisbee” or Frisbee for those of you that don’t speak 3 year old was easily Carlyn’s favorite way to spend time in the yard. This was another holdover from last year’s 5 Below shopping trip that has been well worth the $5. It’s a massive (~2 foot) padded fabric frisbee that throws surprisingly well. The vast majority of the time, it was just the two of us playing with it — though Crosby did get in on just a bit which never lasted too long.

Given that it was over half her size, I was amazed how well she could throw it. It wasn’t perfect every time, but more often that not, she could get it to me from about 20 feet away. She also got really good at catching it, though often times it was caught as part of a deflection off her chest, arm, or even face a few times. (Right in the kisser!)

When the good throws or catches happened, we started keeping count. As that first started, she would get sooooo excited. Being the kid at heart that I am, I’d join right in there with her. “Woo hoo! Woo hoo! We’ve got 3! Woo hoo! Woo hoo!” It was super cute to see.

She also found her own way to make up her own rules, so catching slowly turned into “blocking” — whether it was with her arm, body, or the pair of golf balls from ladder golf, she decided that often times blocking was better than catching. I’d pretend to be fake angry, so I’d chase after her, catch her, and tickle her as she was literally cackling with laughter. And then we’d do it again. That was certainly the thing that she and I did most together.

Ladder Golf Meets Pass the Pigs — Somehow we managed to lose a few pieces to ladder golf, so we only had enough for one complete tower, but that didn’t hold us back from having fun. Crosby and I played hours of various versions of games using the tower and balls. That was fun by itself, but the best was yet to come.

While we started off playing by the normal rules, using nearly solely Crosby’s ideas, we came up with a set of rules that borrowed the notion of a “pig out” from Pass the Pigs to make up some new rules. Honestly, I really liked the twist it added to the game and would strongly consider playing it that way again myself.

We picked an arbitrary score to play too. 100 took a loooooong time, but 50 was pretty manageable. Then we’d pick one ladder to be worth 3 points, another to be worth 2, and the last one was the “pig out” one. You could keep throwing as long as you got points from at least one of the 3 throws and you didn’t pig out. If you got one on the pig out bar, your turn was over and you lost all of the points from that round.  I think the part I liked most about it was it added a bit of strategy and unpredictability to game.

Sometimes Crosby’s made up rules can be pretty out there, but this one turned out to be a hit.

Baseball — If a real baseball game takes at least 18 people, what can you do as a dad with your creative 5 year old? Make up your own rules of course! So that once again is what we did. We had a big plastic bat and a 8 inch air filled ball, and that was all we needed. There was certainly an influence here from Water Baseball, but it was fun nonetheless.

We’d take turns with five batters a piece, and had imaginary bases set up about 20 feet apart from one another. Given all that, there were not surprisingly a lot of home runs! Towards the end of the time up there, this turned into his go to game. The baseball bat and ball were one of the last things that were put away because we had to squeeze in one more game in the dark the last night.

Sand Marble Races —Dad has bought dump trucks full of sand the last couple of years and the kids have absolutely loved it. Whether it’s used to make sand castles, birthday cakes or anything else, we always have fun in the sand.

This year we turned the sand castle into a massive marble race. We have a ton of old golf balls up there, and a few days of rain made the sand extremely moldable. We built towers and ramps, and Y’s, and splits, and who knows what else. This was definitely a time where Crosby’s imagination shined — and I got to be a little boy again. Tons of fun for sure.