we love board games!

Have I ever told you that Rory loves to create board games? I just went through my pictures and found just a sampling of the games he has created throughout our marriage. There were pictures of us playing a card game he created with our own set of playing cards made out of index cards and taped icons on each one. That was back when we lived in Nebraska. Then he created another game called Sojourners that we played a lot.

Most of the games he has created have been tested on our nieces and nephews. I imagine it has become a bit expected by our family that Rory will want to test out a new version of his latest game. It's so fun and creative, and they always offer back awesome, helpful feedback.

Four years ago we went to learn about tree tapping at Murphy's Landing, and on the drive home we brainstormed what a board game could be like that centers on tapping maple trees. We loved the idea and Rory went home and drew up the first version of Sugar Maple. This week we got a package in the mail...his first printed game. He created every playing card, token and even the box cover. He created many of the graphics himself and designed the entire game board from scratch using photoshop. I am so proud of this one. Because the game is gorgeous. But not only is it really nicely designed, it is also super fun to play. At the moment I am working on an educators guide that would be included with each game so that a teacher could use this game as a part of a unit on tapping trees for maple syrup. Our imagination is flying with more games with this same vision. Our name is Grovestead Games and the tagline is: Always Educational. Oh, I love it so much! 

Rory wrote about Sugar Maple over on his blog, with pictures of the final design. It was so exciting when that box was delivered. We opened it up and played the game right away. And this game is awesome. It's the right pace, there is strategy but we had no idea who was going to win. Elsie and Ivar could play easily with our assistance to help with the math. It's so fun. And fun to see a vision become something so finished. Hooray for Sugar Maple!