1) Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga video game
I have a deep affection for this video game and that's not something I would say about any other video game. The prequels portion (episode I-III) came out the summer 2005, the same time as Revenge of the Sith and I actually bought it for Matt as an engagement gift after he gave me a diamond ring. Equal exchange. We played that game so many times and when we recently started to replay it with Luke I told Matt on pretty much every single level: "This is a fantastic level". The original trilogy part came out in Fall 2006, when we had been married for 4 months. We spent many a happy Saturday that fall, with our couch pulled closer to the tv so the cords would reach, playing that video game and eating caramel Crunch bars. We had both games for the Playstation 2 and at some point that was bumped the basement and we hadn't played this game in YEARS. Then Matt found it on Steam, to get a digital copy, last winter for about $6 and we jumped on that. We introduced Luke to the magic of it in December and he loves it too.
It's fun, it's easy enough for Luke & myself, there's no blood, and it has greatly informed my knowledge of the original Star Wars movie. To the point that when we watch the movie I associate the music with the video game and not the movies. I don't play many video games, pretty much this and the Wii sport games, and the newer Lego video games are much more complicated. This is the perfect blend of playable and video game-challenging without being confusing. We've played this with Luke on many "family movie night" since December and we're all happy doing so. (Although I still think the prequels have the best levels.)
Keeping up the Lego theme with a tv show that we started DVR-ing in maybe February but didn't get to watching with Luke until a couple weeks into quarantine. We're all fans of Legos and watching these people build magnificent creations without instructions is mind-boggling. I know I wouldn't be able to do it. There aren't many tv shows we watch with Luke - pretty much this and American Ninja Warrior (which, sadly, I don't think we'll get this summer) and it's nice to have something all three of us can enjoy for a bit after Sam is in bed.
My love of The Office runs deeps (and is strangely tied to my love of Lego Star Wars since I fell into both about the same time - summer-fall 2006) and when John Krasinski posted about his good news quarantine show on social media, teasing a reunion with Steve Carell, I was going to watch that. It took me a few days to get to it because, homeschooling-quarantine life, but each episode has been a delight. There are a lot of bad and scary things happening right now and it's so reassuring to step away from the real news and focus on all the good that is also happening. I usually end up laughing and getting choked up, which is not what happens when I watch/read real news!
4) Picasso Tiles
Our library had these as a rotating play thing a couple months ago and I always had to tear Luke away from them when it was time to leave. I think all the rest of sister-moms (sisters who are Moms) had these or similar ones for their kids and often sung their praises. So for Sam's & Luke's recent March birthdays, we bought a set of these as a joint gift for them. It's is a super small window where we can give them joint gifts, much less find anything that appeals to them both but I think these fit the bill. Sam is more interested in throwing them or wrecking them right now but he'll grow into them. Especially with constant time at home, it's nice to have something else for Luke to play with on colder/wet days where he can't go outside. We gave these to them between their birthdays, literally the day after school closed and it was perfect timing.
Keeping up a theme of "things to entertain/do with Luke" (week 6 of him home from school and barely leaving our property, we need options!). My parents gave this to Luke when we celebrated his birthday shortly before quarantine hit and it has been well played already. Luke can play on his own (with a tiny bit of guidance from us) and it can get a little competitive. We generally do movie night with the boys on Fridays and then have been playing this (or another game) with Luke on Saturday nights and it's fun! We even got to bedtime one Saturday with all three of us so evenly matched that we set the game aside to finish Sunday (I won). It's easy enough for kids and fun enough for adults and generally quick enough to play a full game in under an hour.
A few things I've liked lately, making quarantine time more fun/interesting/tolerable! What have you been liking?
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