Car Games

I remember growing up my family always played "Beaver" - and I have no idea why it was called that. Whoever spotted a VW Beetle and called it first got a point (or two if it was convertible, 5 if it was red, and 7 if it was a red convertible). I always thought it wasn't fair when Daddy won because he was driving and saw everything quicker than we did.

More recently, my sisters played a similar game with Jeep Wranglers. (Lindsay, you'll have to remind me what you called it, as well as the rules.) I think there was hitting involved.

I knew it would only be a matter of time before the boys started playing games like this. Well, without the hitting, of course. Caleb had started making a game of finding certain cars as we drove along. I told him about "Beaver" and he decided we needed to make up our own version of it. I don't think we've given it a name, but we've come up with some rules.

1. Each day we choose 2 different cars to find as we drive around. The more common vehicle is worth one point; the less common one, two. Convertibles get 3 points. (The points are just for determining how many we find; there are no teams, no "winners". That may come later, though.)

2. There's always a bonus car: the Smart Car. (We added this on later, after we saw this Smart car in the parking garage of my gym.) Since they're so rare, they're worth 10 points.

3. At least two people have to see the car for it to count. (Jacob can't always recognize the cars we're playing with for the day and will add points willy-nilly.)

4. Cars in parking lots are okay. Car dealerships don't count, though.

5. You can't count the same car twice - coming, then going.

Yesterday was our first day to play. Caleb decided we'd be on the lookout for VW Beetles (bugs - 1 point), Scion xBs (boxes - 2 points), and Chevrolet HHRs (PT-wannabes - 3 points). By the end of the day, we were at 73 points - including the 10-point Smart car. (We took it down to two cars after realizing how confusing it gets to try to keep up with three.)

Today we looked for Mustangs (1 point) and Corvettes (2 points). Caleb had a stipulation that if we saw a blue one with white racing stripes, it was a 5-point bonus. Lo and behold, if we weren't driving down a side road on the way home from gymnastics when a bright blue sports car with white racing stripes drove past. Caleb was so excited and I was so shocked about actually seeing one that we didn't notice what kind of car it was. (I know it wasn't either a Mustang or a Corvette, but we counted it anyway.) Our short trip netted us 22 points.

I shouldn't have been so hard on Daddy about winning "Beaver". It takes a lot of concentration to pay attention to your driving and look for specific cars at the same time. Good eyes!