Family Video Game Night

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So, looking for something fun to do cheaply with the kids, we decided on Pizza and Video Game Night!

For only about the 2nd time ever, we got an XBox game that all 4 of us could play at the same time: Shrek 2!

For almost 2 hours, we all sat in the living room laughing, occasionally bickering, but giggling at the silliness of running around as Shrek, Donkey, Fiona and either Little Red Riding Hood or The Gingerbread Man (who, by the way, wields a pretty deadly candy cane!).

It was hilarious, we all kept trading controllers, and when there was too much going on onscreen you could barely tell who/where you were, so it was total fun chaos! Two 37 year olds, an 8 year old and 5 year old…and we sounded like this:

“Aaah, somebody help!”
“Where are you!?”
“Down here!!”
“Down where?!”
“Down, down, with the snails!!!”
“Where am I?! I can’t find me anymore!”
“RUN! RUN! It’s the PITCHFORK GUYS!!”
“AAHHH!”
“AAHHH!”
“AAHHH!”
“AAHHH!”
“I’m dead.”
“Me too.”
“Yep.”
“I’m not! I’m…oh, now I’m dead!”

It was even funnier, though, listening to the conversations we were having – things you (almost) never say in real life:

“Where’d the stupid fairy go?”
“Jeanne, throw your candy cane at the big target!”
“Maggie, I’m going to punch you right off this box.” (Which is even funnier when she then gets punched off the box!)
“Everybody find an eyeball.”
“Protect the princess. PROTECT HER!!”
“Well YOU fell off the bridge!!”
“Max, go kick that big trap.”
“Who am I? I don’t know who I am.”
“Dad! You’re on top of me! And now we’re both dead.”

Ah, good clean fun.
Reminds me of a book I started writing a while ago…”Things you never expected to hear said out loud…”
It’s all about the bizarre things you find yourself saying, and the bizarre things you hear your kids saying, after you become a parent.
But that’ll be another entry.

8 thoughts on “Family Video Game Night”

  1. I loved reading this.
    It reminded me of our family nights like that.
    I remember the time we all stayed up late one summer night and watched George Carlin on the Tonight Show.
    We were all laughing so hard that we could barely breathe.
    You’re making memories for your babies!
    I love it.

    • You’re right, those specific memories are great, aren’t they?! I sure hope that the kids have as many as I do, when they’re my age. How fun to think that last night’s video games might be one.
      Now that you’ve got me thinking about those memories, I’ll probably spend all day sifting through them! That’s a good thing, though.

      • I also remember listening to my dad’s Smothers Brothers records.
        They made me laugh so hard!!!
        The whole family used to sit around and listen to them.
        Funny, all of the memories that are coming up for me have something to do with comedy.
        Hmmm…I wonder if those events shaped the path of my life or if the path of my life shaped what I remember.

  2. It’s so great when video games can be a shared experience instead on an anti-social one. I was reminded of the time my dad and I stayed up until 1am on New Years Eve to beat Rampage on the ole’ Nintendo.
    Something I had been thinking about: I don’t know much you and your kids read, but there are a couple books by Neil Gaiman that seem right up your alley. They’re “Wolves in the Walls” and “The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish.”

    • I agree – I love it when you get 2 or 3 or 4 people playing together! One of my big complaints about XBox and Playstation and the like is that there are SO MANY 1 player games and not nearly as many 3 or 4 player. Don’t get me wrong, I will sit for hours and play a single player game, cuz I’m like that, but I wish there were far more games for groups of people. I was really happy to find Shrek2 was for 4 people – it turned out to be perfect for us right now!
      I know Neil Gaiman’s work, but I don’t know those stories. I’ll have to look for them – thanks for the suggestion! We do a ton of reading, and something fun and new would be great!

  3. Oh man….
    That’s normal conversation in our Ventrillo (It’s a voice chat)guild chat on UO….
    I can remember a similar conversation with my guildies that went very much like your “Hey, are you still alive? Yeah! Oh..no..not anymore.” on a few occasions.
    Mind you…these are people of all ages….15-86. It’s really funny when our “Resident Godfather” from NYC gets on and starts cussing up a storm….in Italian.

    • Awww…cussing up a storm in Italian…all of my older Italian relatives have passed away, or are close, and I never get to hear a good storm of Italian vitriol anymore…I miss it like you wouldn’t believe!

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