Bunco Night

Saturday night was the First Semi-Annual Troyer Family Bunco party at my house. With four tables going and about 25 people in attendance counting preschoolers, infants, and drop-ins, it was a merry time indeed. The winners, just as the players, were an excellent mix of generations. My great-niece Tavin (who was at the head table forever) and her mother Dawn tied for most wins, but Dawn had the most Buncos, so they both won a prize. Sadly, the loser prize went to the oldest female player, Tavin’s great-grandmother. She’s not as old as that sounds though, and I’m sure she doesn’t want me to mention her here so I won’t.

As we were hard at Bunco, Simon and Cody (age 5 and 4 I think) were playing with cars on the floor. Loud chortles of laughter and squeals of enjoyment accompanied their play. As I thought, "I don’t remember my kids being so loud at that age," I suddenly recalled a time when my oldest was in first grade. We had some guests whose boys were teenagers. As we sat at the table visiting, our little boys were playing in their usual delightfully exuberant manner, dashing through the dining room occasionally, and I remember our guest saying, "I don’t think my boys were ever so noisy at that age." I was a bit taken aback and perhaps somewhat offended. I did not remark upon the children’s noise at my house Saturday night, other than to comment how wonderful was the sound of their laughter, and why do grown-ups not laugh so loudly or easily as children do?

Those cute little boys were even able to sit on some laps and enjoy throwing the dice for awhile. "Am I winning?" was Simon’s question after each throw. Of course they also lost a car under the stove. I provided a broom to retrieve it. (Wow, what a lot of dust bunnies came out from under there! I must train my boys to do a better job of sweeping the kitchen!) And probably their favorite part of the night was after Bunco when they got to play Mario on Nintendo 64.

Some people – teenage girls – declined Bunco, preferring to hold babies. Here is Venisa with Jean’s little one, Sean. Then there’s the best sister-in-law in the world who insisted on giving up her spot in order to clean up the kitchen after the snack break. Doug, I don’t know what you did to deserve her.

Poor Will missed out on most of the fun, out on a call which I can’t tell you about because I didn’t see it in the paper yet and that’s the rule I go by. I will tell you that it had to do with equines. Will won’t admit that he loves Bunco, he tried to tell the family that he dislikes everything about it, including the dice, the noise people make when they’re winning, the noise they make when they’re losing, etc. etc. He's such a kidder. Fortunately he arrived home in time toat least partake of snacks and fellowship, sitting around on our new couches after the games were over.

I had a wonderful time and I believe it was shared by everyone here. Thanks for coming, family. To the Canadian, Californian, Hoosier ("Indianaian" just can't be right!) and Alabamian family, wish you could have been here!