Ten-ish Things: Bunko

How do you spell "bunko"?  Bunko...bunco...bunceaux?

I play in a bunko group once a month.  It's so fun and a much needed break from motherhood with my girlfriends.  Last September I hosted the group at our house and I kicked Honey and the kids out for a couple of hours while we ate, played, and visited.

When they came back home, there were still a few women hanging out and visiting and the girls thought it looked like so much fun to have a bunko party.  They begged and asked and nagged for 10 months until finally they wore me down.  While Bubba spent 2 weeks at camp, we invited TWELVE 8 year olds to the house for a night of pizza and bunko.

We had decorations and prizes, but we had a hard time coming up with players.


We started by inviting girls from church.  Admittedly, the week leading up to the 4th of July weekend was probably the worst time all summer to host a party, but only four of the original 10 people we invited could make it.

Another mom that was helping me with the party started brainstorming who else to invite.  We needed at least 2 more to make 2 tables.  Remember the parable in Matthew 22 about the man who was trying to throw a wedding banquet for his son but he couldn't find anyone to come?  So he just kept sending his servants out to keep inviting different people until the banquet hall was full?  That's how we felt...like that man.

In the eleventh hour, the other mom found 6 more girls to fill our banquet hall and the Bunko party was ON!  It was a little awkward at first because only a few girls knew any of the other girls.  We took a few "photo booth" pictures to loosen everyone up.

Then we ate pizza and cookies.

That was the easy part.

Then we taught 12 girls how to play Bunko.  It took 4 grown-ups, one at each table and one to provide non-stop refills of Crystal Lite lemonade.

By the time the game was over, the prizes were handed out, and the heavy drinkers were cut off, there was no awkwardness.  At all.  They were all comfortable enough to climb on my couch and grin big for a group picture.

It was really fun, and I would totally do it again...in 10 months.