Fun in Florida

What to do with yet another day in sunny Florida? Usually our time in Florida is spent swimming in the pool, going to the beach, playing games, reading and crafting. Once in a blue moon we'll go orange picking. So, yesterday after two days of playing on the beach, we went to the beach for a shell scavenger hunt. 

The list of shells is a little difficult to see here, but I drew simple pictures of each type of shell we sometimes see here on the Gulf Coast and assigned each one a certain number of points. 

• One point for any type of scallop 
• 2 points for a spiny slipper shell (or jewelry box shell)
• 5 points for an olive shell
• 10 points for any type of conch shell
• 50 points for a sand dollar
• 5 points for a "curly-Q" shell (or Florida worm shell)
• 5 points for any two "attached" shells

Here are their findings all laid out.

Counting up his points.

Looking everything over with Grandmama.

The other thing that we love to do in Florida is to play "Take Two". Now, there has been a 'copy-cat' game called "Gone Bananas" or something like that, that you can purchase in a toy store. But, if you already have a scrabble game, you are all set. I learned this game from my very competitive pastor of 8 years from my last church (I moved from southern R.I.). That was about ten years ago long before the silly banana game. I don't know who came up with it, but it's NOT JUST FOR KIDS. As a matter of fact, I would say it's best suited for adults, but good for kids ages 9 and up. This game is cut throat, fast paced and F-U-N! You don't have to be a fabulous speller of large flowery words (although that doesn't hurt) because it's a fast game (unlike your typical scrabble game) you don't have a lot of time to ponder over long words. This is how you play: 

You put the whole pile of scrabble tiles in the middle of the table, face down.

• 1-4 people can use one set of scrabble tiles, more than that use 2 sets of scrabble tiles.
• Each player starts with four tiles, faced down in front of them. 
• On the word "GO!" all the players flip over the tiles and begin to build their OWN individual scrabble grid. 
• The first person to build a scrabble puzzle out of the four letters says "Take Two!" which means that all players take two more scrabble tiles out of the center pile and add on to your growing puzzle. Obviously, with only four letters, sometimes no one can create words. In that case, everyone has to agree to "Take Two".
  
• Here is an example of what each person's scrabble puzzle should start to look like. 

• You continue building your puzzles until all of the tiles have been used up. Whenever a player uses up all of their tiles, they say "TAKE TWO!" and every one must take two tiles.
• The first person to use up all of their tiles WINS that round. 
• You go around and check everyone's work. Any errors need to be removed from the puzzle.
• Each person is scored using the letters they haven't used, against them. Add up the numbers listed on the tiles. 
• Then, you start another round. Play as many rounds as you like.
• The person with the lowest score, wins. 

Here is Grandmama and Benjamin checking the spelling of a word. You can challenge the spelling of a word, but the tally of that word will count against you if your challenge is incorrect. If the word was misspelled the 'owner' of the puzzle has to remove that word from their puzzle and any other connecting words and count those totals against them in their score. 

Benjamin is doing the tallying.

This was one of Benjamin's puzzles, isn't it impressive? He is still "in training" but in short order he will be a force to be reckoned with! I'm sorry to report that my mother won this game. I was holding my own for awhile, but then got stuck with a 'Z' (10 points) and several other letters. Drat!

Did I mention this game is also fabulous over a glass of wine?

If you have any questions on how to play, please feel free to email me! It is sooooo FUN!