In honor of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’s release earlier this summer, Cinco and The Princess had a few days full of all thing Jurassic Park and World related.
Photo by Mikes Photos on Pexels.com
Over the course of three days we watched all three of the Jurassic Park films AND the first Jurassic World movie.
We also “hatched” our own mini dinos, which I purchase in the Target dollar section. (NB: The Target dollar section is responsible for at least $200 a year in dumb purchases of junk I do NOT need.) While at Target we also purchased Cinco the full set of Jurassic World, dino themed, Hot Wheels. (Because, you know everyone needs a Triceratops shaped Hot Wheel.)
The best part of our Dino Days was Cinco’s idea to make our own Dino themed board game!!!! Drawing the game board was Cinco’s project while The Princess and I worked on the game board pieces. Each player chooses a tiny dino egg which she and I hand painted.
The basic rules are as follows:
- The oldest person goes first and rolls the dice. (Get doubles and roll again!)
- Depending on which square you land on, you choose a corresponding card. (Red=Danger, Yellow=Challenge, Green=Lucky Day, White=No Card).
- Then you follow the directions on the card.
- When your turn is over the next person rolls.
- First person to escape wins!
As you can imagine, the Danger cards are bad luck, Challenge could go either way, and Lucky Day is, of course, something good. Here are a few of the cards the kids came up with:
Danger:
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Rescue mission gone wrong. You are forced to move back a space. |
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Eat a poisonous plant and skip a turn. |
Challenge:
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Power goes out. All dino cages open. Roll the dice. 4 or better move forward 1 space. 3 or lower go back to start. |
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Who can make the loudest roar? 1st places gets a Lucky Day Card. Last place gets a Danger Card. |
Lucky Day:
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You found a map of the island. Move forward 3 spaces. |
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Catch a ride on a Triceratops. Move forward 3 spaces. |
All of us worked on coloring the board and typing the cards. Then it was time to play…
We recruited The Captain to join us. And, in an intense game I WON!!!!
Pretty sure The Princess earned her games Fun patch! 
Cinco and I went to catch a development scrimmage for the Las Vegas Knights! In true Mom fashion, I drove straight to CityNational Arena after band camp and of course wound up being about 45 min early for the event. And yes we did get good seats.
As an added bonus, ‘cousin’ Jack Dugan took the ice!
This is a childhood favorite and it turns out that Cinco really likes the game, too. Plus,he won twice!
I did know anything about this game until a few month’s ago when Cinco’s aunt sent it to him. It’s two players and pretty simple. Cinco and The Princess played against each other for several rounds.
Both Cinco and The Princess were able to play the game and get just about every answer correct!
I brought our water proof UNO cards to keep up the game day theme. I was told by Cinco that technically card games did not count as a board game— after all there is no board. Still, I was trying.
You may recall this film from the 80s. It was based on the board game and was filmed and released with three different endings. The audience got to vote on an ending and which ever ending got the most votes was played in the theater. I actually real going to the movie and voting on the ending in my childhood. Sadly, the kids might have been young for the show–even though it is only PG– they couldn’t get into it.
A few Christmas’ ago Jillian gave me Bookopoly (I mean really what else would Bookymom play?) I got it out and we set it up. Each person was supposed to play on their own. We also played the fast version–you randomly deal out the properties (this significantly reduces the playing time!). The Captain had never heard of the quicky version, which I thought was strange. 
We also took some time to play Mad Libs! I always LOVED Mad Libs as a kid and Cinco and The Princess were laughing like mad… Plus, it’s a great way to work on the parts of speech without the kids realizing that they are learning something!
This was Cinco’s reading for today as well.
This activity book worked out really well for us. It was more than just a coloring book, because heaven knows we DO NOT NEED ANOTHER COLORING BOOK. Instead, this offers mazes, puzzles, codes, and even a simple math problem or two. What I really loved about this little book is that worked for both the 4 and 7 year-old. It offers games and puzzles with three levels of difficulty, so both kids used the book!
“Play-doh” style Angry Bird kit was hit with both kids. It comes with three cans of “doh”, two molds, and some heavy cardboard panels. The kids were able to construct their own angry bird sets and had a blast trying to knock them down. Plus, I really liked the consistency of the Softee dough better than “play-doh”.
Cinco loved this book. Like the Star Wars Lego books, this one has pages where you have to find the right sticker and fit onto a certain page. There are also pages with scenes that your fill out with stickers. It has tons of character stickers, Darth Maul, Darth Vader, Luke, Leia, Han… It is very much like the Lego sticker books–so if you like them, you will like this.
The Booky Mom 
