One of the games our family played while camping during Memorial Day weekend was Bocce Ball.

If you have never played bocce ball or have never seen it played, it is a form of lawn bowling.

Balls are tossed or rolled at a target. Whoever is closest to the target scores points.

To see a demonstration of how the game is played, click on the youtube video link below.

The game was first played in Italy and is traditionally played on oyster shell courts. Our family plays a version that is called the West Coast Style which means it isn’t played on a court but instead in an open grassy area, although we also play it on the beach.

It is a great game for camping because it can be played anywhere there is a little bit of open grassy area. We usually have enough space to play it right at our campsite, but I do want to give a word of caution. The balls may look harmless but they are heavy so care needs to be taken to play away from camping units and other people. The ball hurts if it hits someone.

Although the game is intended to be played on flat ground, our family never lets a little bit of uneven or hilly ground stop us. And, if the area we have to play in is small, we don’t throw the target ball very far. If we have lots of space then we will toss it further away although it is challenging at any distance. I think it is most challenging and fun when the distance the target ball is thrown each round varies.

Our family’s technique varies according to the surface we play on. A toss with a roll is best for grassy surfaces where a ball is almost guaranteed to roll a little. On sand the ball usually comes to a dead stop when it lands so an accurate toss is essential if a person wants to score any points.

It can be played with single players or teams of players. This weekend we played with four teams of two and then with 3 individual players later on. It is easy to adapt to the number of people playing.

The game is available at stores such as WalMart and Target during the summer months and can be purchased online any time of the year. Prices range from about $20 up to about $100.

The set pictured below is available through Amazon. When purchasing a set to play while camping, I suggest buying one with brightly colored balls that will be easy to see on the grass.

Camping and playing games goes hand in hand. Our family’s favorite camping game is ladder golf but we have lots of others we enjoy as well.

One fun board game is called What’s Yours Like. What I like best about the game is that it is fun and different no matter if playing with kids, a group of adults, teenagers, or a group of older people.

A “guess word” is picked and everyone except the person in the “hot seat” gets to look at the word. They all then describe that item to the person in the hot seat but they try to be as clever and subtle as possible to prevent that person in the “hot seat” from guessing too quickly.

For example, the guess word may be “swimsuit.” The clues people may give might be, “mine is tight,” “it’s hot when I wear mine,” and “I hate shopping for mine.”

To watch a video of the game being played, click here.

Click here to see how well you can play the game with a couple sample clues. I’m pretty bad at the game. I played all five sample questions and only answered one correctly.

Playing games around the campfire is usually good for quite a few laughs.

One of our favorites is our version of the “Name Game.” It’s a round robin type game. The first person says their first name and says a short phrase where each adjective,verb, and noun in it has to start with the same first letter as their first name. The second person has to remember the what the first person said, plus add their own phrase. The third person has to remember what the first two people said plus add their own phrase. The game continues on like his until everyone has had a turn. It gets really fun with a large group of people because it’s hard to remember what everybody said so people start to make up really funny stuff.

Here’s an example of how the game is played.

Let’s say my name is Tammy and I’m going first. David is sitting next to me and is going second. Sally is sitting next to David and will go third. Fran is sitting next to David and is going fourth.

Tammy might say, “My name is Tammy and I’m a terrific teacher.

Then David might say, “I’m David and I’m a Dorky Dancer and Tammy is a terrific teacher.”

Then Sally might say, “I’m Sally and I’m a swaggering sailer.” “Tammy is a terriffic teacher and David is a dorky dancer.”

Then Fran might say, “I’m Fran and I like fried fruitcake.” “Tammy is a terrific teacher; David is a dorky dancer; and Sally is a swaggering sailor.”

It’s a type of memory game. If we only have 4 or 5 people playing the game we’ll go around 2 or 3 times without starting over to make it more challenging to remember all the phrases and to think of new descriptive words that start with the same first letter as a person’s name.

There’s no prizes or winner – just lots of laughs.