Clothespins and Needles

***WINNER PICKED 8/28 WITH RANDOM.ORG***

***CONGRATULATIONS, lilyk!!!***

her comment...
I love the Animal Soup There's Always One Game! My favorite childhood game was Scrabble.


I have never been much of a board game player (aside from Scrabble, which is super-duper awesome in my book), so Roo hasn't been exposed to very many games in her four years. I'd say my lack of interest in board games comes from being an only child so I never had anyone to play them with as a kid, but probably has more to do with the fact that I'm a massive design snob. I've never understood why kids' games have to look like… kids' games. I like the old vintage games you can ferret out of attics or garage sales but the ones on the shelves at stores tend to shout at me with their primary colored sludge and horrific typography. Why would any child in their right mind want to play with those plasticky boxes of ick?! Umm, probably because most adults don't bat an eye at drop shadowed, multi-font, all-caps ads. But I digress…



Briarpatch is an award-winning company that makes games kids actually want to play. As an added bonus, their games are lovely to look at, with illustrations worthy of your favorite picture books. They offer Good Night, Moon, Fancy Nancy and a whole list of I Spy games, as well as the one I am coveting: A Little Golden Book Circle of Friends Tin, which features the Saggy, Baggy Elephant along with several other old friends of mine… It's sort of a matching game with a board and a spinner, which I totally adore.



We were lucky enough to try one of Briarpatch's newest games, Clothespins!, a rummy-styled game in which players try to complete rows of laundry cards, either by matching prints or garment styles. It helps encourage attention span, memory and also the concept that different patterns don't necessarily go together– something I keep trying to tell Roo, with varying levels of success. I was surprised at how quickly Roo learned the rules, even catching on with the tricky bird cards that allow you to steal from other players' clotheslines.



Roo's favorite part was using the bird cards, can you tell? She's a total card shark.



We all had a blast playing Clothespins! and played it about ten times in a row. Willingly. Here are all the cards out in the open…



To enter and win Clothespins!, please comment on this post with your favorite game from Briarpatch and what your favorite childhood game was.


Entries will be accepted through August 27th and I'll pick the winner using Random.org. US readers are eligible. Only one entry/comment per person, please.


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