Friday, April 29, 2011

What a Weekend this will Be-And Do your Kids Play Video Games?

First off, I have to say a big Happy, Happy Birthday to my son!  Bubbalicious turned a whopping 9 years old yesterday!!  Like my hubby said, he has one year left til he is a "double digit midget"!! ha!



With that, brings me to the title of this post.  What a Weekend!  This weekend will be fun and probably pure chaos.  This year, with our budget, we could not afford to do a big birthday and a big gift, both.  So we gave Bubbs the choice of choosing one or the other.  Let me clarify "big".  A big party is what we have done just about every year.  He always invites his whole class, plus other friends and family and we book a party somewhere, like at a skating rink, play palace, or something like that.  It costs easily a couple hundred or more just for the party.  For the "big" present, now that he is a little older, he wants cool gadgets, electronics, and video game systems for gifts.  So we try to get him one big present and a few smaller ticket gifts.

So this year, he had to choose on either a big party, or a big gift.  He had a hard time deciding, and finally chose the big gift.  So, he will be getting either a handheld video game system, or maybe a mini laptop if I can find one for a good price. 

Since we won't be having a huge party this year, I told him that he could invite a couple friends over for a sleepover, and the next day we would go to Chuck E. Cheese's and hang out, and the family could come there to celebrate with him.  So come Saturday night, I'll have my 2 kids, plus 3 other 3rd grade boys, all hanging out in my little house!  I love having my kids' friends over, and all the kids are really great.  Miss Sassy tries to hang out with the boys, but they aren't so cool with a 4 year old girl wanting to play, lol.

I know they will want to watch movies and play video games.  Who has some ideas on other activities I can do on a budget to keep them entertained?  Of course, it's going to rain all weekend, so that counts that out.  I want to hear your ideas and tips on making sure these boys have fun.

Do your kids play video games?  It has become a regular thing for my son, and it's to the point where I'm going to have start putting limits on how much time is spent playing.  We have already put restrictions on video games that are rated M, and some of the teen games.  M rated games are not allowed, and the teen games we check them out first and decide which ones are ok and which are not.

Our whole family, including me, lol, all love to play video games.  We have a Playstation 3, an old DS, an older PSP, and a Wii.  Personally, the only one Miss Sassy and I ever play is the Wii.  I got the Wii Fit Plus to go with it, and I love it!  I also recently bought Zumba for Wii.  I haven't really tried all of it yet, but plan on it soon.  I'll keep you updated on that.  I think it might be something really awesome!  I really only play with the Wii to help me "work out" because it makes it more like a game, instead of work.  I hate working out.   The game that comes with the Wii Fit Plus is all fitness based, but are really fun and even kind of addicting.  It really makes me want to keep doing it.  My hubby loves watching me do the hula hoop game, but what he doesn't realize is that it's much more funny watching him do it, than me!  hehehe!

Miss Sassy actually just started playing the Wii.  She recently got the Sesame Street Elmo Wii game, and she loves it!  It is an educational game, and teaches her letters, numbers, and more.  She had to have a little help with some of the actions of the remote, but after I showed her how, she caught right on.  She also got sent a Hello Kitty game, but we haven't tried it yet.  There are a couple more games I would really like to get her, like the Nick Jr. Fitness game.  Is has lots of the Nick Jr. characters, like Dora and the Backyardigans and they do fun exercises.  Have any of you tried this game?  I'd love to hear more about it.  Or do you have other fun suggestions for a preschooler?

Bubbalicious and the Hubs both play PS3.  A lot.  Bubbs loves games like Star Wars and Lost Planet 2.  He likes fighting games the best, but it is definitely hard to find them without them being rated M.  I actually was shocked when I saw a game that was rated M.  I wondered if it was just violence to get that rating, so Hubs showed me exactly why it got that Mature rating.  When I started hearing "moans" and bow chicka wow wow music, I looked over and they were even showing boobies!  Ummm....hell no!  And that, my friends, is why there will be no rated M games for my kids.  To be honest, I don't even like hubby playing it.  But whatever.  He mostly plays the popular games like God of War, Modern Warfare, and Infamous.  He's also a kid at heart and plays Batman and Superman games, too, haha!

Tell me about video games in your home.  Which ones do you like?  What rules do you have for your kids?

1 comment:

  1. Hope he has a special birthday!!! We don't do much video games... we have the Wii that we hardly ever use, a Leap Frog learning game and a kid's camera with games on it. He wishes I let him play more!!
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