Car Games

We are approaching Spring Break around here.  That means we will be spending lots of family time in the car together.  That also means I am trying to think of ways to keep the peace in the car.  The best method is usually a movie or a good book on tape.  Got any good book on tape suggestions?  Send them my way please!  It's hard to find something that is appealing to all the age groups in my family.  Strangely, Beverly Cleary and Laura Ingalls Wilder have both been able to captivate my teen aged boys before.

No matter what videos or books I bring I know that there will be the car games that we always play during a drive.  I don't know why we do it every. single. time. but even on the shortest trip to the school we play this game where-in we spot flags and call out the word "mem!" Let me explain.  I guess the mem game started back in our Iowa days.  So like 11 years ago.  It was Memorial Day and there were flags out everywhere in celebration of our dead war heroes.  Iowa has got some patriotic spirit and goes all out for this day.  My kids were noticing the flags, and I was explaining why they were there.  Somehow that evolved into shouting out "memorial day!" at every flag sighting.  Then it shortened to "memorial!" and then "mem!" We have not yet shortened to me or mm (so far).  But the game has now extended to so many things that we spot that it is verging on the ridiculous.  If we see a random flag like a holiday themed flag or an advertising banner-type flag or even the small orange ones they put up for marking a construction dig, we yell out "ran!" (short for random...  we like to shorten things for efficiency).  If there are a lot of rans we say "rans-a-lot" and it makes me think of Camelot every time.  We say "fore" for a foreign flag.  If we see a really BIG mem we say M.O.M. for mother of all mems.  If there is a Maryland state flag we yell out "Mare"  If there is a cemetery we say "I see dead people." (self explanatory)

Now if we see something really odd, we say "odd."  Examples of odd things are a garbage can in a tree or a flying mannequin witch stuck to a pole, or a cow mailbox, a tennis racket hanging in the yard, or say...a white ceramic head with matching hands peeking over a fence, (all of which are seen on our routine drives).  It's the odd things that usually spur on the biggest fights in our car.  Classifying "odd" seems particularly hard for my youngest boy.  He confuses unique for odd.  Just because there isn't another one like it doesn't make it odd.  What makes it odd is the fact that your eyes pop a bit when you see it, and you have to do a double take.  The other stimulus for contention is the question of who said it first.  The second person can also cause friction by playing dumb and calling it for themselves (repeat this several times and it makes for a lot of fighting).  There is a certain low hanging tree/bush that we call a "creepy tree" I couldn't find one online to show you but I did find this...

I can't decide if its more odd or more creepy...

My Middle Boy has the best skills for this game.  He has memorized every flag within a 3 mile radius of our home and says them with the exact timing required to claim it was in view.  The only time I was able to beat him was when he was doped up after dental surgery.  Yet the competitive side in him still shined through and he moaned out mems from under his gauze stuffed mouth.  

Yes to say our family is competitive would be like saying the tsunami in Japan was inconvenient for them.  I don't really know how to stop this monster.  I am thinking they get the competitive nature from me because I can't help but play along when they start, dancing victory shoulder dances in my seat.  One thing I refuse to do is let them add any more items to the list.  That is forbidden because my brain and eyes can't handle it anymore.  A parent can only do so much for their children.