Mattel challenged Kids in the Capital to surprise friends and family with a game time moment. They provided me with some new games and a Game On buzzer and encouraged me to play. I am so excited about this promotion - promoting games and playing is perfect for me and my family. My kids are 5 and 3.5 and games provide the opportunity not just to play, but to learn.

The day I received the games I eagerly opened the box, thinking of all the fun we could have. Could I invite friends over to play a game of Apples to Apples? What about bringing Uno with me to my parent's house? Unfortunately our whole house has been sick since we've had the games, so my game time moments haven't been very creative. But you really should check out what Mattel did in a Canadian mall - playing Pictionary and surprising shoppers with prizes! (Check it out on YouTube)

Over here, us sickies have been playing our new games pretty much non stop. The games from Mattel are all rated for 7+ years but I can assure you that my kids were able to play along with most of them.

Our absolute favourite has been Bounce Off. This game reminds me of a drinking game we used to play at the bar where you try and bounce a coin into your friend's beer. Basically there are two colours of balls and you have to bounce them onto the playing field and be the first to make a pattern. There are easy patterns and harder patterns. The kids had fun bouncing the balls all over the place. It's deceptively hard to create the patterns!

The other favourite around here is Uno.

I remember playing this with my family as a kid, and what I never considered back then, was how good this game was for teaching colours and number recognition. It also teaches taking turns, which isn't so easy when you're 3. With some gentle coaching we can have competitive games.