Plan to Have a Fruitful and Fun Family Game Night

Playing the games of Bananagrams, Appletters, and Pairs in Pears, will definitely make game night a fruitful and fun experience.

Planning and having a family game night is a great way for families to gather together and share some fun and games with each other.  Choosing a particular theme for the special time will turn the event into an even more extraordinary occasion.  With the fruitful games of Bananagrams, Appletters, or Pairs in Pears (and while snacking on healthy slices of apples and drinking non-alcoholic pina coladas), game night will be turned into a wonderful fruitful experience for the whole entire family.

All three games are quick to learn, easy to play and offer an exciting fun time for a variety of different aged players.  The suggested ages for Pairs in Pears and Appletters is 5 and up, while Bananagrams is 7 and up, making the games perfect for a family of players.  The word games challenge each player at their various skilled levels.  It doesn’t matter if the words being created are FUN or AFFABLE.  What matters is only in making words.

Bananagrams was the first of fruity games to be published in 2006.  Seeking to invent a word game which was competitive, yet fun, and great for families, the Nathanson family came up with “an anagram game which would drive a person bananas!”  After ‘Bananagrams’ was invented, the other fruits soon followed; making a collection of fantastic word games which can be played.

Bananagrams begins by placing the 144 lettered tiles, included in the banana shaped pouch, face down in the center of the table.  Like bananas, this is the ‘Bunch’ of letters players will ‘Peel’ from.  Depending on the number of players will determine the amount of letters each player peels from the bunch at the start of the game.

Once all players have their initial tiles in front of them, someone yells ‘Split’.  A race to create words in the form of crossword puzzles begins.  The first player to do so , then yells, “Peel” and all players ‘peel’ another letter from the ‘bunch’ in the center of the table.  Play continues for all players until all letters are ‘peeled’ from the ‘bunch’.  The winner of the game is the first person to use all of his or her letters after the last peel.

An interesting aspect of Bananagrams is if at any time players want to change a word they initially formed, they can do so.  For example, if they find the word ‘GAME’ would help them more than the word ‘NAME’, they can switch the N for a G and use the N elsewhere.

Appletters is another word forming game.  The center placement of the 110 tiled letters contained within an apple pouch is called the Core (instead of the Bunch), for this game.  Players begin with 9 lettered tiles from the Core.  The objective of players is to use all their letters while making one long snake or worm-like string of letters.

Players connect their tiles by creating a word from either the first or last letter of the previous word.  If players are unable to create a word, they need to pick 3 letters from the core and pass.  The first person to use all of his or her letters at any point during the game will ask, “How do you like them apples?” and will be declared the winner of Appletters.

Pairs in Pears includes 104 tiled letters in a pouch shaped pear. If only 2 players are playing the game, each player will take 52 tiles and race to make 4 pairs of words.  For a game in which 3 players are playing, each person begins with 34 tiles and competes to be the first with 3 pairs.  A 4 player game uses 26 tiles each and the winner is the first to make 2 pairs.

Pairs are words which share a letter.  The following is an image which displays the winner of a 3 player game.  The player was the first to create 3 pairs of words, pairing up either consonants or vowels, with his beginning 34 tiles.

The adorable fruit theme and pouches, shared by the above three games of Bananagrams, Appletters, and Pairs in Pears, does add to the charm of the games.  However, the games are pleasantly competitive and are excitedly played by a wide range of ages.  Choosing these games to play on a family game night will have everyone saying, “Orange glad we played these games!”