Kids of Gluten-Free Catan

With Matt's car temporarily out of comission, and Matt driving the van to work everyday, I have been unusually homebound and bored. After an evening playing Settlers of Catan with some family, it occured to me that it might be both fun and educational for my girls and I to play this game together. Unfortunately the game costs roughly as much as a new car, so we decided to make one instead.

Yup, I had a lot of time on my hands and some kids who love to help with craft projects. So we spent a day and a half cutting hexagons from old cereal boxes and contruction paper, cutting out cards and buildings and cities and roads, coloring with markers, and "laminating" it all with packaging tape. I estimate the cost was about $1.50 in paper and tape, plus roughly 11 hours labor. Naomi and I agreed that it was well worth the expense. And, since we made it ourselves we were able to make a gluten-free island, with rice as the grain instead of wheat. The game turned out quite well, and the girls and I played our first game this afternoon while Toby napped. I won, but they're getting the hang of it and can't wait to play again.

We rounded out the evening with some fresh-from-the-fields sweet corn, and couldn't wait to tell Daddy about our day! Most importantly the girls got a lesson in creativity and spent a whole day working with Mom. It doesn't get much sweeter than that.