Hey Bookworm friends! I’m a bit behind on my April recap but better late than never. I’m getting over a cold so I have a lot of couch time in which to hopefully catch up on blog stuff. April was a busy month and what I lacked in reading numbers I certainly made up in time spent playing board games! Here’s a look back at what I did in April.
April Highlights
- The second half of the month was non-stop brimming with action. First Easter celebrations, and we got to see a family friend from out of town that we hadn’t seen in a long time! We also did a bit of cat sitting for a friend.
- Then in the last week of April, we went to Ottawa for a week. My husband had to attend a conference one of the days, but the rest of the time we spent visiting old high school friends. We did an escape room, went to a 90’s style arcade, a board game cafe, and walked around everywhere! I really enjoy visiting Ottawa, because aside from the friends that live there, everything we want to do is within a 20-ish minute walk. We even spent half a day reading at the park because it was the first truly summery-feeling day this year and it was gorgeous☺️.
What I Watched In April
The short selection I watched in April is pretty random. We’ve been devoting most of our evenings to continuing Babylon 5 and we’re on season 4 now. The story is so good and I love that it’s making me feel visceral emotions. It’s a veritable roller-coaster of emotions that’s forced me to go back and forth on how I feel about certain characters. You can tell that it was written as a complete story because the pieces fit perfectly and I love seeing earlier details cleverly paying off seasons later!
Every once in a while I love to use Hoopla to check out courses on The Great Courses video library collection. I started one about The History of Ancient Egypt which I’ve been enjoying slowly. There’s like 40-something lessons so it’ll take me a while to finish but it’s perfect for when I’m in the mood to watch something more academic.
The only movie I watched in April is Empire Waist which is a coming-of-age comedy/drama and I absolutely loved it. As an insecure teen with a talent for sewing meets a confident plus-sized classmate, she is pushed outside of her comfort zone by entering a fashion design contest. The female friendship in this movie is everything and it had me in tears multiple times. It was funny and heartwarming with themes of body positivity and acceptance. Younger me would have loved it and I could see this becoming a comfort re-watch.
Finished Watching
- Empire Waist
Currently Watching
- Babylon 5 (S2-S4)
- The History Of Ancient Egypt Course
Games I Played
- Roll For The Galaxy – One of our favourites, I enjoy it every time! You roll lots of dice to build a galaxy with planets and technologies. (Owned)
- Evergreen – Grow trees in different biomes by placing them where the sunlight can reach them. First time playing and loved it. (Board Game Cafe)
- Disney Villanous – Each person plays as a different Villain and tries to complete their goal before their opponents. Not my favourite but my husband really likes it. (Owned)
- Camel Up – A crowd favourite whenever we introduce it to friends. Race camels and bet on which one will win but dice decide the outcome of the race. (Board Game Cafe)
- Menara – A cooperative dexterity game that’s the opposite of jenga. It’s really fun and has three difficulty levels! (Board Game Cafe)
- Jaipur – A Two-player game where you play as merchants in Jaipur trading and selling goods. This small game is perfect for when you want a quick game. (Board Game Cafe)
- Bunny Kingdom – Draft cards to build a kingdom on a grid. Your bunnies need to collect resources and make big cities to gain points. I would love to own this game. (Board Game Cafe)
- Coffee Rush – A Korean game about running a coffee shop and it comes with super cute components. Tried it once and I’d love to play again as it’s harder than it looks but super engaging. (Board Game Cafe)
- Okey Dokey – A co-op game where you try to play all the right cards with limited communication. Got it at a board game swap it was cute but with very little replay value. (Owned)
- Forbidden Sky – A cooperative game of exploration and survival. It’s fun but really challenging, not one I’d want to play often. (Board Game Cafe)
- Grumpf – A real-time game where you compete to collect various strange critters (grumpfs). I hated it because it’s too fast-paced, chaotic, and involves having to do fast math. You won’t catch me playing it again. (Board Game Cafe)
- Tapeworm – A tiny, silly game from the creator of The Binding of Isaac. The goal is to be the first to get rid of all your cards by connecting and growing the wriggling masses of different colored worm bodies. It’s easy to play and addictive, I really like this one! (Board Game Cafe)
- Lords of Waterdeep – A D&D worker placement game. I always enjoy this game but we realized it’s not well balanced for two players, even with the expansions. I still love it but would prefer it to play with more friends going forward. (Owned)
- Knit Wit – A word game where you place spools and thread to create categories to give answers to. We played it once and it was not very exciting; it’s probably better with more players.
Around The Blogosphere
Reviews:
- Book Review: The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Charlotte @ Bewitching Books, Ravenous Reads)
- On the Horizon – murder by memory (Olivia Waite) & last chance to save the world (Beth Revis) – Two Novellas! (The Captain @ Captain’s Quarters)
Misc:
- Fun for Monday: The Game Night Book Tag (Mayri @ bookforager)
- Q1 2025 Reading Stats (Nic @ Dragon Rambles)
- Spring Equinox Celebrations Book Tag (ORIGINAL) (Laura @ The Corner of Laura)
- Could Your Local Library Lose Access to Interlibrary Loan and Other Crucial Services? (Pages Unbound)
- Author Spotlight ~ Stephanie Burgis (Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits)
I encourage you to visit these lovely bloggers 😊!
Let’s chat in the comments!
What’s a highlight from your month? Or, what’s one of your favourite board games?
Ottawa looks like such a fun city. And I remember loving Babylon 5 when it was on TV, I’d love to do a rewatch one day😁
It is a really fun city to visit 🙂 And oh my gosh! I never watched it when it came out, watching it now for the first time and I have to say it stands up pretty well in general and I’m loving the story :)!
Whoa, so many games! Ottawa looks amazing. Hope you have a great May!
haha I really went ham on games last month 🤣 Thank you and I hope you have a fantastic May too, Lisa 😀
It sounds like you had an incredibly busy month and got to do some fantastic things. How was the Escape Room? That nighttime picture looks awesome, although all of your pictures are lovely. It definitely looks and sounds like you had a fantastic trip.
I haven’t seen any of your watches (I’ve only heard of one before 🙈) but I’m glad you’re enjoying/ enjoyed them all 🥰
Omg you weren’t kidding in the title about it being a board game heavy month 😳 I’ve always been curious about Villinous but I don’t think I’ve heard of any of the others before. Maybe the camel one 🤔 I think maybe I’m getting mixed up with Buckaroo though as it sounds nothing like I imagined 😂 I really appreciate how you described and gave your honest thoughts on each one. It’s incredible how many games are actually out there.
Thanks for linking to my post 🥰
My minds gone blank and I can’t think what I did when 😂 I believe Chicago was in April and seeing that was a definite highlight though 😍 I simply adore that show. Game wise Monopoly or Scrabble or Backgammon. I don’t really know any unusual ones 😅 I used to like Mastermind (the peg one) but I don’t have it anymore despite once having two sets 🤔
It was busy indeed but mostly because everything happened in the last half 😅 The escape room was fun and the best part is that we did escape because the previous time we hadn’t so It’s nice to not fail every time 🤣 Thanks so much & it was really great🥰
Oh, which one had you heard of ? I’m guessing` Babylon 5? And the stuff I watched was super random.
haha no I wasn’t kidding, we went to board game cafes several times and sometimes I don’t want to play as many video games and I’d rather play something at the table lol.
Oh Villainous is fun in some ways but it’s not my preferred style of game and I lose every time because strategy-wise I’m not that good at it. lol haha I think I’ve heard of Buckaroo, is that the one where you stack items on a donkey until it bucks? Thank you, I figured If I’m gonna have a wall of text about games I might as well give my opinions on each one. hehe I know there are just so many games but that’s why I like going to cafes because it’s a really cost effective way to try them out.
My pleasure, my friend 🥰
Ohh seeing the musical Chicago would be an absolute highlight!! 😍 I enjoy playing Scrabble, even though again I tend to lose 🤣 I like mastermind too, my parents have an old copy of that game ohh do you know where your sets ended up?
It seems to go like that sometimes when everything happens at once 😅 aww we’ll congratulation on completing it then 🥰 I always think they look like so much fun (not the horror ones though, those would probably make me cry 🙈)
Yes that’s the one 😂 although I don’t know enough about it to know how it differs to other similar shows.
That’s lovely 😊 it’s nice that you get drawn to that kind too. Yeah I think you’ve mentioned those type not being your go to before. I think the Disney ties and villians intrigues me though 😂 yes that’s the one. So completely different 😂 it’s lovely as it gives an idea of what they entail and what type of games work for you in general. And that’s very true as they can be pretty expensive sometimes. I don’t think there’s any near me anymore though 🤔
It was incredible 😍😍 one of my top three shows! Aww really? That’s surprising when you read a lot. Although I think I put too much focus on getting a good word and it doesn’t always help. The one I played was my parents too. So I’m guessing maybe they’d had one each or something and that’s why we had two. I’m not really sure. My sister and I did a few car boots when we were younger so maybe we got rid of them in one of those 🤔
Yes true. It’s like one of those ‘when it rains it pours’ moments 🤣 Thank you, it was certainly mostly due to my friends’ efforts but I helped a bit 😅. Oh my gosh I would be right there crying in the corner. I refuse to do the scary ones but my husband knows that so we make sure it advance it won’t be like dark, or with actors in it or with too-dark themes. For example there’s a death-row themed one that I have zero stomach for 😖.
Ah okay and that’s fair 🙂
I only kind of recently got into video games really but board games have been a huge part of my life since I was little because my mom is also big into board games.
Yes the Villains theme is well-done and a lot of people love that game (and there are so many different expansions for it)!
Thank you 🙂
Aw that’s too bad that there aren’t any near you anymore 🙁
Oh wow that’s super high praise, I love that! 🖤
Ahaha I know right!? I’m not awful or anything but it’s not surprising once you know that word games are my mom’s thing, and my husband is just automatically good at every game 🙄 So between those two, I really have to work hard to win 🤣🤣
Oh I see that makes sense and I hope they found lovely new homes where someone else plays it now then, lol 🙂
Definitely seems to be 😂
Aww I’m sure you helped more than you’re giving yourself credit for 🥰 I totally get that and truly feel the same. I’ve seen a Hannibal one advertised and just no, I truly couldn’t cope with that. I’ve finally seen one of the films and want to watch the others but even that took me years to decide on 😂 I will admit I’m kind of intrigued and terrified of the idea of London Dungeons. Part of me thinks it could be fascinating with some of its topics but even if I surprise myself and cope with the gore I couldn’t handle the live actor thing unless there’s some kind of badge you can wear so they leave you alone 😂
Aww that’s lovely 🥰 it’s wonderful having grown up with them like that.
Oh yeah I’ve seen a few of them around.
I could be wrong, I’d have to research it. I know the one I tried turned into a sushi place though 🙄
❤️❤️ it helps that the themes are pretty dark yet fun and there isn’t a bad song in it 😂
Ah well I hope you find a game that works as a weakness for him one day then 😂 and at least its a challenge I guess.
Yes hopefully, although I also hope I can track down a copy to try again one day 😂
Looks like a great month. Was it one of the good escape rooms? You know, the sort where you have to solve several puzzles to unlock the next room? I love those, unfortunately the best one in Rotorua has now closed.
Thank you 🙂 & It was one of the good escape rooms that open up into other little rooms which is fun! & oh no that’s such a bummer that the good one by closed down :(!!
I forgot, I also wanted to thank you for the link. I’m glad you enjoyed my nerdy stats post. i had fun with it, so I might do it again at the mid-way mark.
My pleasure, Nic 🙂 I enjoy stats posts like that so yes I did like yours a lot! Sounds like a good idea 🙂