Sweet Magnolias Autumn

PJ Night

Cal

"Okay, we have cards, Monopoly, the Game of Life, Yahtzee, or Apples to Apples," Katie says as she looks through the board games laid out. She constructed a massive floor bed, with probably every extra blanket, cushion and pillow in the house, plus half her stuffed animals.

"What do you want to play Katie?" Annie asks as Katie sits back on Annie's lap. 

"Umm..." Katie says as she taps her lip with her pointer finger. I think I want to play...  Monopoly." 

"Boys?" Maddie asks from the kitchen, where she putting away the last of the pizza. 

"Monopoly sounds good," Kyle says as he loads the dishwasher.  

"Works for me," Annie says. 

"Give me a minute. I think I might have a better idea." Ty says as he gets up and heads back towards the stairs. Annie lifts Katie off her lap and heads towards the kitchen. 

"Do you like Monopoly, coach?" Katie asks as she turns towards me. 

"I haven't played it in years; you might have to remind me how to play," I tell her. Truthfully, I've only played Monopoly a handful of times, most of them with my team when we went on road trips. Usually, it was cards, but sometimes, we needed a break from cards. 

"I love Monopoly, but we haven't played it in a long time, and I've only ever played the junior version," she says. 

"Well, you must be excited to play the older kid version then," I say. 

"Yeah, but I wish we could play it more often," Katie says with a small frown.

"Play what more often, Katiedid?" Maddie asks as she walks back in carrying a tray of premade s'mores. She is followed by Annie, who is carrying a plate of lemon bars and Kyle, carrying a bunch of small plates.

"Big kid Monopoly," she says with a smile. 

"Well, I have something you might like more than Big Kid Monopoly, Katie," Ty says as he walks back in, leaning over the couch close to where Katie is sitting.  

"What is it," she asks, sounding skeptical but bouncing in her seat. Ty pulls something out from behind his back. "Jurassic Park Monopoly." Katie screeches in excitement as she takes the box from Ty. 

"I thought you might like to give this version a try," Ty tells her as he walks around to join us. 

"Yes." She says and starts ripping open the lid and pulling everything out. Causing the rest of us to laugh. 

"I totally forgot we had a Jurassic Park version," Maddie says. 

"I got it for a birthday one year when I was around Katie's age; Ty, Annie, and I used to play all the time on margarites nights," Kyle says, and I can hear the amusement in his voice. "I totally forgot about it."

"I came across it a few weeks ago and thought I wrap it up as a joke Christmas gift for you, but this seemed like a better time to pull it out," Ty tells him with a chuckle. 

"Alright, we have Mama Decatur's famous lemon bars, chocolate chip cookies S'mores for dessert. Use a plate, please, and thank you." Maddie tells them before coming to sit down next to me. Once she is seated I give her leg a squeeze. Kyle has started to help Katie with setting up. Annie is reaching for a dessert. 

"So, how does this work, deciding who goes first? Do we go from youngest to oldest, vice versa, Clockwise, or rock, paper, scissors?" I ask, looking around. 

"Nope. We usually just roll the dice, and whoever gets the highest number starts, and then we go clockwise." Kyle says. "For picking the token, we do the lowest, get the first choice and work our way up to the highest."