Tin Can Alley

It's a wet morning and a Public Holiday. The uninspiring rain drips down keeping us indoors. The troops are bored and restless.

Dash vows to stay in bed all day and compose football tables.

Miss Fab (a.k.a. Princess) galantly plays with Scrag and his toy cars... but soon complaints erupt from all quarters and kids descend on us begging for some fun.

We parents are still lurking in our PJ's but Mr G is up for anything. "Hide and Seek!!!" he shouts. "Quick, hide, I'll count! 1...2...3... You too mummy!!"

We scatter and hide. Scrag joins in. We giggle, we're found.

Eventually we need a new game.

"I know just the thing!" exclaims Mr G.

Tin Can Alley.

It's a game Mr G played in the streets as a kid growing up in Newcastle. All the kids in his neighbourhood would join in and have a great ole time. The game can be played big and wild outdoors with lots of kids. Or small and gentler with your littlies in the hallway on a rainy day. Here's how it goes:

Props
An empty (clean) tin can; 6 popsicle sticks (licked clean)
A tennis ball (for rolling); A lightweight ball (for throwing)
Two teams (even the toddler can play)
An Out Zone (e.g. the lounge couch)

Set up the tin can in the middle of the hallway with the six sticks arranged on top.

Teams take turns rolling the ball to try and knock over the can.

As soon as the can is knocked over two things happen:

• The team that knocked over the can (T1) must try to avoid being hit by the ball while attempting to arrange all six sticks on top of the can.
• The other team (T2) must try to hit T1 members with the ball, sending them to the Out Zone.

T1 can rescue members from the Out Zone by giving them a High Five to release them.

T2 cannot run with the ball: they must pass it to each other. If they manage to hit all T1 members before T1 gets the sticks reassembled on the can, T2 is the Winner.

If T1 gets the sticks assembled on the can before all their members are caught then T1 is the Winner.

.............................................................

This is so much fun, trust me. We played Girls against Boys (me and Miss Fab vs. Mr G & Dash; Scrag was an honorary member of the Boys Team).

We won the first game, the boys won the next two. Even Scrag joined in (his attempts to hit the can had us all in stitches).

After we had run out of steam chasing each other all over the house, we sat down for a nice cup of tea and some Banana & Chocolate Chip Muffins I had whipped up earlier (oh yes, very occasionally I bake, but it's so rare that I nearly always write about it on my blog. So you see. Really Not that Often.)
Click here for my super easy super yummy recipe.

OK, so now you know what to do next time you're stuck inside on a rainy weekend with a bunch of bored kids: serve them up some Baked Beans and then play Tin Can Alley with the empty can :)