Yellow car!

Did you ever play games in the car when you went on a long trip with your family? One my siblings and I played was "Beevah" or "Beaver" for those of us without New England accents. Hehe. My sister, Becky, learned to talk when my family lived in Boston (before I was born) so she picked up a Boston accent. Therefore, she said "beevah" instead of beaver.

So what's a "beevah?"

A "beevah" is any car, usually a station wagon, with those "wooden" panels on the side. You don't see many of those these days, but back in the 70's and 80's they were everywhere.

Okay, so here's how the game went: You're driving down the road, and when you saw one of these cars you yelled out "Beevah!" I don't know if they kept score, but it was fun.

Becky and I modified it later to see who could find the most cars of their choice. She chose Monte Carlos while I chose VW Bugs. We were on the way to my grandmother's in Oxford and Becky was winning... until... we drove by this VW "graveyard" in Coldwater. Hehe... guess who won? ;)

Sarah and I have a variation of the game called "Yellow Car." We started this game when she was about 2 years old and taught it to Cloosty. Because you don't see as many yellow cars as you do red, black, white or blue cars, they are special. So when you see a yellow car/truck/van, you yell out "Yellow Car!" It's also great for teaching them about colors. And if you happen to spot an orange or even a purple car - WOW! That's EXTRA SPECIAL!

We don't keep score, it's just fun to spot them.

But now Cloosty has modified the game to "Mail Man!" or "Mail Truck!" You yell one of those out when you see a USPS vehicle, a UPS van, or a FedEx van. Oh, and there's also "Yellow School Bus!", MAX buses are just "Big School Bus!", and the short buses are "Little School Bus!" ;)

We play the game all the time - not just on long road trips. And I think for our trip down to the beach, I'll make up a sheet of paper with pictures of different things they need to look for. Examples: A flag, a bridge, a mail truck, a boat, etc. I think they'll like that. :)