a peek inside the fishbowl

This dog is crazy about poofy cheese snacks. Not that we ever feed them to her, no sirrreee. But there is a history here. Once upon a time a Cheezie fell on the floor and she swooped down to nab it even before you could stop and say “HEY I DROPPED A CHEEZIE.”

I don’t think she’s ever forgotten that heavenly moment. She always looks so hopeful when we open a bag.

p.s. Piper has been known to lick the inside of the bag once or twice.

This was the scene when the other night when I played a solo game of Bananagrams:

As soon as Piper saw me on the floor she immediately picked up her favourite “foxy” and decided she wanted to play something too. (In fact it quickly escalated to THIS.) Anyway, that is neither here nor there. This is about Bananagrams!

This game is pretty simple. Players make words out of 144 available tiles. It’s sort of like Scrabble, but there’s no board and the letters don’t have point values, and you get to make words and re-make words as it suits you. (Ok, I guess it’s not like Scrabble at all, is it?) There’s a bit more to it. You can read the complete Bananagram rules if you want to get a better idea of how it is played.

We’ve had Bananagrams for a few years but it’s recently made a resurgence here at Casa Fishbowl. I really enjoyed playing it with Mark when we first got it, but I only just recently realized that you can play it solo too. It’s fun, it’s portable, and it’s a great brain game. It’s also highly satisfying, and kind of peaceful in a way.

After I shot the photo above I got smart and started using a big piece of solid white foam board as a playing surface:

It makes it easier to move from place to place if needed, and prevents the dog from walking all over the tiles (er, most of the time).

I was finishing another solo round last night when lo and behold, our youngest joined me and helped me finish the board OF HER OWN FREE WILL. (!) It was tag team solo play, and it was nice. We looked at the board together, placing words here and there, and quietly chatted. It did my heart good.

I have a thing for old mason jars, and acorns, so when I’m able to find an opportunity to put them together… WATCH OUT. These jars are are sitting on our front stairs at the moment, waiting for Halloween night to arrive.

It doesn’t look very exciting at the moment, but picture them illuminating our scarrrry bowls of candy, mini-pumpkins, and a friendly skeleton or two! Bwa ha ha!

This is a versatile little craft. You can tie a yellow ribbon around the lip of the jar to make give it a fall flavour, and once Christmas rolls around you can switch it out for red and green.

We spray-painted some of our acorns gold, just because.

Pro tips:

• Get your kids involved in acorn collection. Your knees will thank you.
• Kids and spray paint don’t mix. I suggest spray painting your acorns (although it is totally up to you whether do choose to do so) in the garage or some other very well ventilated area.
• Use chopsticks to position the candle in place. The acorns don’t exactly provide an even surface for your tea light.
• Use long fireplace matches or BBQ lighters to light the candles lest you burn your fingers.