Who knew Monopoly was a long game?

I am a huge game lover. I have always love a night filled with drunken versions of Life and Pictionary and Clue. Really, you haven't lived until you've tried to make a drinking game out of Dominoes.

Oh wait, I don't think this was what I planned on talking about. I digress.

As a kid, we had a closet full of games. Playing board games was something that we did on a regular basis. We had normal games and then all these weird ones. Like Songburst 70's & 80's edition, have you ever seen that one? You have to be able to sing the end of a song. My step-mom loved that game, because she always won.

I'll tell you something funny. I never knew a Monopoly game could last for hours. In our house the game always ended, every single time, when my brother Adam overturned the board. When I was fifteen and played it on a school trip, I was shocked that the game could go on forever. Who knew? I mean really, didn't everyone have a family member who would get so flustered with the counting of money that they'd overturn the board? I'd never played Monopoly longer than fifty minutes in my entire childhood.

The only game I ever cheated on as a kid was Monopoly. No correlation between that and Adam being a sore loser. I'm pretty sure, anyway. I just heard that the makers of Monopoly are taking away the money and using credit cards. I swear, that version will never make its way into my game closet. My kids will always have to play with the real money. Every kid should have to learn how to cheat on Monopoly properly.

We've always been big on games around here. We, just as both of our families did, have a closet full of games. Some the kids can play by themselves, some we play as a family and some we play when we get together with friends. In the last year though, we've moved past the Hi Ho Cheerio and Candyland sort of games with the girls. Which is a relief really, because there is only so much Chutes and Ladders and Candyland one person can play in their lifetime. We've moved onto the Junior versions of all my favorite games. Outburst Jr. being the favorite of the moment. Sometimes we even play the regular version in teams. Either way, games are a big part of our family.

Which is really why I've written this post.

The Parentbloggers are doing a little giveaway with EA games. A big giveaway actually; Wii games, in fact. Our whole family is a big fan of the Wii. I bought it for Logan last year for Christmas and it hasn't worn out it's welcome yet. Where as the babies in this house rarely get played with anymore, the Littlest Pet shop death traps are pretty ignored and the Play-doh has all dried out; the Wii has not gotten old. If any of you want to enter to win, go check it out HERE. I think you have until Sunday to enter.

PS. Morgan's seventh birthday is tomorrow, so I'll be posting at some point tomorrow as well.