2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten ~ Favorite Fridays

There are so many parks in Mt. Horeb that I can’t even begin to tell you about all of them.  In fact, I can honestly say that there are likely some parks that I don’t know about and haven’t visited.  Still, on this Favorite Friday, I would like to write about a few of my favorite parks.

One of my favorites is Grandma Foster Park on Main Street.  

There was one summer that Grandma Foster’s was our park of choice.  There wasn’t a huge hill to go up or down and that was beneficial considering Evie was riding in a wagon at that point in time.  The slide was often in the shade, and that helped it stay cool as opposed to heating up in the late afternoon sun.  There weren’t too many challenging ladders or bridges at Grandma Foster’s as there were at other parks, and that helped considering Evie’s delayed walking and unpredictable clumsiness.  Grandma Foster’s was a simple solution for the days when we just needed to “get out” and break up the monotony of a day.

Another of our favorite parks is Boeck’s Park by the Mt. Horeb pool.

When Evie was REALLY little we called this park Green Park because the play structure has a lot of green parts to it.  There is a steering wheel atop the structure and Evie used to pretend she was driving a bus.  We would sing either “The Wheels on the Bus” or “Get on the Bus” (by the Dooblebops) as she steered her way through her town. 

There’s also a little “window” with a ledge underneath the play structure; we’d often pretend we were shopping and checking out at that window, or we’d pretend it was the window at a fast food restaurant.  We stopped going to Green Park once Evie got old enough to want to swim at the pool.  It was just too difficult a fight everyday to be at the park and have her want to be in the pool.

Of course, our number one park in Mt. Horeb is the ever popular Grundahl Park.

Not only is it the largest park in Mt. Horeb, but it boasts some of the greatest summer activities.  Relay for Life is at Grundahl each year, our family reunion is always at Grundahl, Summer Frolic takes place there, and I’ve held many a birthday party for Evie at Grundahl Park over the years.  Another awesome activity at Grundahl is the Wednesday Night live music in July.  It’s like a mini-version of Concerts in the Square at the Capitol in Madison, only without the crowds and without the parking nightmare. 

 

In addition to the large play structure (complete with a twirly-whirly slide), Grundahl also has an AWESOME couple of hills to roll down, and enough wide open space that we could fly kites there without too much danger of getting our kites caught in trees.  Sometimes, when we had enough energy to do so, we would even “run the bases” at the softball diamond.

I know that Reno, (and the suburb we will live in called Sparks) will have parks.   

Somehow, though, I know that they won’t seem as wonderful because they won’t have the memories attached to them of flying Sesame Street kites and watching all of Evie’s first “independent” climbs up ladders and stairs.  If I weren’t opposed to defacing public property, I would gladly carve into each of the play structures at our favorite Mt. Horeb parks:

2 good 2 be 4 gotten

Favorite Fridays~Eureka!!!

Even though I have been writing about my "favorite things" that I'll miss about Wisconsin when we move to Nevada, today I've decided to write about one of our favorite card games. I can't take credit for this game; we learned it from my mom who learned it from a friend of hers.  But, I think it's a game that everyone should know about because it enables ANYONE to play.  There's no speed involved, no strategy, and that makes it easier for those who are younger, older, or may have a disability which prevents them from performing well in other games.  

Eureka~the rules:

• You need two full decks of cards with the jokers removed.
• One deck of cards is the deck used to "call" the cards; the other deck is dealt out into piles according to the number of players until ALL CARDS ARE DEALT.  (A player or two may end up with more cards than the others; but that doesn't matter.)
• The person who is calling the cards may or may not also choose to play.
• The CALLER flips over the first card on the top of the "call" deck, and calls out the first card; for example:
• The Queen of Hearts!
• Whoever has the Queen of Hearts will say, "I got it" or "Woot woot" or "Boo-yah"  (you can choose to tailor your response to your own personality.)
• Then the Queen of Hearts is thrown into the center to start the discard pile.
• The CALLER will continue to flip the cards in the calling deck over and will continue to call out the card that is flipped.  The PLAYERS will continue to shout out when their card has been called and will throw their cards into the discard pile.
• The first PLAYER who runs out of cards (because the caller has called out all of his or her cards) will shout EUREKA!!!!

That is where the game may normally stop.  However, our family (and other friends have contributed to the fun "Hefty Rules" of the game) we've made up some other additional fun "antics" for Eureka.  We continue to call out all the cards until everyone has thrown all of their cards in. 

When a player has only one card left, and no one has called EUREKA yet, we start a drum roll on the table. (It adds to the excitement of waiting for that first person to go out.)  If we have a LOT of players, or if someone may be sensitive to loud noises, we may only drum roll using our pointer fingers to muffle the noise.

Once the first person goes out, we then start chanting "SECOND PLACE", until the next player goes out, and so on and so forth.

We also will say that the LAST person to go our wins a NAP.  (That was added by my friend Jessica T...I think she really wanted a nap...)  Needless to say, the parents are always holding out hope that they will be the last one out.

We call the Ace of Spades the "Prettiest Card in the Deck".  Have you ever noticed that before?  The Ace of Spades is always a little fancier than the rest.  So, when we have all the players dealt out, Evie will say, "Who has the prettiest card in the deck?"  As you can tell, it doesn't matter if we know what cards everyone has, because, again, there isn't any strategy to the game; it is, quite literally, the luck of the draw.

Well, that's the game we know and love called Eureka.  It is definitely one of our favorite things.  I'm so glad my mom's friend taught her to play it, and glad my mom taught us.  We even play it over FACETIME!  It just takes a wee bit more coordinating, but when you have the hang of it, it's no trouble at all. 

I'm hoping this gives all of you a great new idea for playing on those rainy days, snowy days, and every day in between!