Pleasant Ridge Trail Lodge

Serving

• Toss the ball up from an open palm, then hit it so it bounces once on your side and once on your opponent's.
• Each player serves 2 points in a row, then the serve switches.
• A serve that clips the net and still lands in is a let: serve it again.

Scoring

• Every rally scores a point, whoever served.
• You lose the point if you miss, hit it into the net, or it doesn't land on the other side.

Winning

First to 11 wins, but you have to win by 2. At 10-10, serve alternates every point.

Goal

Be the last player to place a block on top without knocking the tower over.

How to Play

• Build the tower first: 3 blocks per layer, each layer turned 90 degrees from the one below (18 layers).
• On your turn, remove one block from any level below the top and place it on the topmost layer.
• Only one hand on the tower at a time. You can tap blocks to find a loose one and slide a stuck one back.
• Finish a full 3-block top layer before starting a new one, and never take from the highest completed layer.

Winning

Whoever makes the tower fall loses. The last person to place a block successfully wins.

Level 1 - Words & Pictures (ages 5-6)

• Use the colorful picture side of the board. Each player draws 7 tiles face-up.
• On your turn, place up to 2 tiles on the matching letters of any word on the board.
• Complete a word and collect a scoring chip (two words at once earns two chips).
• When all tiles are played, the most chips wins.

Level 2 - Advanced (ages 7+)

• Flip to the blank grid side. Each player draws 7 tiles.
• Build words crossword-style in straight lines that connect to words already on the board.
• Score 1 point per letter in the words you make (including connected letters already down).
• When the tiles run out, highest score wins.

Goal

Collect one wedge of each of the 6 colors, then reach the center and answer a final question.

How to Play

• Roll the die and move along the track (either direction, but no reversing mid-turn).
• Land on a color and the player to your left reads a matching question. Right answer = roll again.
• Land on a Category Headquarters (a spoke space) and answer correctly to earn that color's wedge.
• With all 6 wedges, head to the center; the others pick your final category. Answer it to win.

Tip

Always guess - you can't be wrong if you don't answer. Go easy on the little ones' wording.

Setup

• Two teams, each with a scoring marker on the board at 0.
• The non-playing team picks a Topic Card and loads it in the viewer with the answers hidden.

Each Round

• The playing team rolls the die for a bonus number, then has 60 seconds.
• The opposing team reads the topic aloud and keeps score.
• The whole playing team shouts out answers at once - 1 point for each answer that's on the card.
• Guess the answer matching your rolled bonus number for 3 extra points.

Winning

Play passes back and forth. First team to 60 points wins.

How to Play

• Split into teams. One player on your team draws a card and gets one minute on the timer to sketch the word for their teammates.
• No letters, numbers, talking, or acting it out. Just the drawing.
• Guess it in time and your team rolls and moves ahead, then keeps the turn. Miss it and play passes.
• On an All Play card, one drawer from every team sketches the same word at once, and the first team to shout it out takes the turn.

Winning

First team to reach the final square and guess a word correctly wins.

How to Play

• Plays just like Monopoly, with local landmarks on the board.
• Roll and move. Buy any unowned space you land on, and pay rent when you land on someone else's.
• Own a full color group to start building and charging bigger rent.

Winning

Last player who isn't bankrupt wins. Full rules are inside the box.

How to Play

• Each player has 4 pawns. Roll both dice and use each die to move a pawn (one pawn or two).
• You need a 5 to bring a pawn out of your start: a 5 on one die, or both dice adding up to 5.
• Land on an opponent's pawn (off a safe space) to send it back to start, and move any pawn 20 bonus spaces.
• Two of your pawns on one space form a blockade that nobody can pass.
• Doubles means roll again, but a third doubles in a row sends your lead pawn back to start.

Winning

Every pawn you get home earns 10 bonus spaces. First player with all 4 pawns home wins.

How to Play

• Each player has 15 checkers racing around the board in opposite directions toward their own home corner.
• Roll two dice and move by each number separately. Doubles means you play that number four times.
• You can't land on a point holding 2 or more of your opponent's checkers.
• Land on a single opponent checker to hit it. It goes to the bar and has to re-enter from the start before they move anything else.

Winning

Once all 15 of your checkers are in your home corner, start bearing them off the board. First to bear off all 15 wins.

How to Play

• Each player starts with 10 marbles in one point of the star. Play with 2, 3, 4, or 6 players.
• On your turn, move one marble a single step into an empty hole, or hop it over one marble (any color) into the empty hole right behind.
• You can chain hops together in one turn, but you can't mix a step and a hop.

Winning

First player to move all 10 marbles into the point directly across the star wins.

How to Play

• Two players. Put 4 stones in each of the 12 small pits. Your store is the big pit on your right.
• Pick up every stone in one of your pits and drop them one at a time into each pit counterclockwise, including your own store (skip your opponent's).
• If your last stone lands in your store, go again.
• If your last stone lands in an empty pit on your side, capture it plus everything in the pit across from it.

Winning

When one side runs out of stones, the other player banks what's left on their side. Most stones in the store wins.

How to Play

• Roll the die and move that many squares.
• Land at the bottom of a ladder and climb up it. Land on a snake's head and slide down to its tail.

Winning

First player to reach the last square wins.

Goal

Collect one wedge in each of the 6 categories, then reach the center hub and answer a final question.

How to Play

• Roll the die and move in any direction along the track.
• The player to your left reads a question from the category you land on. Answer it right and you roll again.
• Land on a category headquarters and answer correctly to earn that category's wedge.
• Play in teams if you have a crowd. It's more fun to argue over answers together.

Winning

With all 6 wedges, head to the hub. The other players pick your final category, and getting it right wins the game.

Setup

• Two players, each with a game unit and a fleet of 5 ships.
• Secretly place your ships on your lower grid, across or up and down, without your opponent seeing.

How to Play

• Take turns calling out a target, like B-7.
• Your opponent answers hit or miss. Mark it on your upper grid: red pegs for hits, white for misses.
• When every hole in a ship has been hit, its owner has to say which ship you sank.
• This edition also comes with planes. The rules in the box explain how they play.

Winning

First player to sink the whole enemy fleet wins.

How to Play

• Roll all 6 dice and set aside at least one scoring die. Then roll the rest again or bank your points.
• Scoring: each 1 is 100, each 5 is 50, three of a kind is 100 times the number (three 1s are 1,000).
• Roll and nothing scores? That's a Farkle. You lose everything from that turn.
• If all 6 dice score, pick them all up and keep rolling.
• The scoring card in the box has the bigger combos, like straights and four of a kind.

Winning

First player to 10,000 points triggers the end. Everyone else gets one last turn to beat them.

How to Play

• Draw a card and move your gingerbread pawn to the next space of that color.
• Two color squares on a card means you move to the second space of that color.
• A picture card sends you straight to that spot on the board, forward or back.

Winning

First player to reach the Candy Castle wins.

How to Play

• Each player has 4 pegs in their home. Press the bubble in the middle to roll.
• You need a 6 to move a peg out onto the start space. Rolling a 6 also gets you another turn.
• Land on another player's peg and it goes back to their home.

Winning

First player to get all 4 pegs around the board and into their finish spaces wins.

What's Here

• Decks of playing cards for spades, rummy, poker night, or Go Fish.
• Jigsaw puzzles, perfect for a rainy afternoon spread out on the dining table.

Before You Go

Please check that every puzzle piece makes it back into its box so the next family can finish theirs.

Setup

• Boards 24 ft apart (front to front). 8 bags, 4 per color.
• Partners stand at opposite boards. Rock-paper-scissors decides who throws first.

How to Play

• Alternate throws with your opponent until all 8 bags are thrown.
• Throw from behind the front edge of your board (the foul line).
• A bag that hits the ground first then bounces onto the board doesn't count - remove it.

Scoring (cancellation)

• In the hole = 3, on the board = 1, on the ground = 0.
• Only the higher-scoring team scores each round: subtract the lower total from the higher and add the difference.
• First team to reach 21 (or over) wins.

How to Play

• Tee off from the tee area; the player farthest from the basket throws first.
• The hole is done when your disc lands in the basket or chains.
• Play your next throw from where the last one landed (the lie) - lead foot within 11 inches behind it.
• Fewest throws on a hole tees off first on the next hole.

The Course

6 holes. Par by hole: 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 3 (total par 14). A disc stuck in a tree or bush is thrown from the ground directly beneath it, with a 1-stroke penalty.

Setup

• 8 large bocce balls (4 per color) and 1 small target ball called the pallina.
• Coin flip to start; the winner tosses the pallina at least halfway out, then rolls their first ball.

How to Play

• The team NOT closest to the pallina keeps throwing until they get closer or run out of balls.
• You're allowed to knock the pallina or your opponent's balls to change the layout.

Scoring

Only one team scores per frame: 1 point for each of their balls closer to the pallina than the opponent's closest ball (max 4 per frame). First to 11 wins.

Setup

2 to 4 players. Ladders about 15 ft apart. Each team gets 3 bolas (two balls on a rope).

Scoring

• Top rung = 3, middle = 2, bottom = 1. Only bolas still hanging at the end of the round count.
• It's fair game (encouraged, even) to knock opponents' bolas off - knocked-off bolas score nothing.
• All 3 bolas on the same rung, or one on each rung, earns a bonus point.
• First to exactly 21 wins; go over and that round's points don't count.

Setup

Teams of two, cans (Kans) 50 ft apart. Teammates stand at opposite cans and take turns.

Scoring

• Partner deflects your throw and it hits the can = 1 point (a 'dinger').
• You hit the side of the can directly = 2 points (a 'deuce').
• Partner slams it into the top opening = 3 points (a 'bucket').
• Disc goes straight through the slot = instant win. Otherwise first to exactly 21 wins.

How to Play

• The server stands 6 ft from the net, across from the receiver, and serves the ball off the net.
• The receiving team gets up to 3 alternating touches to bounce it back onto the net, then possession switches.
• After the serve you can move anywhere - it's 360 degrees around the net.

Scoring

You score when the other team can't return it cleanly: the ball hits the rim or ground, doesn't bounce off the net in a single bounce, or they can't get it back onto the net.

Serving

• Serve underarm, hitting the birdie below your waist, diagonally into the opposite service box.
• Even score = serve from the right box; odd score = left box. Keep both feet still and inside the box.

Rallies

• The birdie can't bounce - return it before it lands. One hit per side.
• A birdie landing on any boundary line is in.

Scoring

A point is scored on every rally, and whoever wins it serves next. First to 21 wins a game but must win by 2 (hard cap at 30). A match is best of 3 games.

How to Play

• Set the rocking balance platform on its base. Take turns rolling the giant die.
• Easy mode: place the block wherever you like. Hard mode: you must place the exact shape you rolled.
• Once the loose pieces run out, it goes Jenga-style - carefully move a lower piece up top without a collapse.

Winning

Whoever topples the tower is out. The last player to place a piece successfully wins.