Looking for Board Game Recommendations for 8 and 11 year olds

Basic info: My family received a generous gift card for Amazon.com and I thought I'd use some of it for some new board games for my two daughters; we left behind most of our games when we moved to Hawaii, so need to replenish a bit. The 11-year old is quite young for her age, so I'm thinking more in the 8-10 age range, although hopefully something that can be enjoyed for at least a couple years to come (so probably not Candyland, etc).

My girls enjoy Monopoly and really liked Dungeon, although when we tried to playWrath of Ashardalon I felt like it was a bit beyond them, or at least with a steep learning curve. We also have Ticket to Ride, but it also seems complicated and might work better waiting another year or so. So I'm looking for games that can be as complex as Dungeon or Monopoly, but not as much so as WoA.

I'm thinking of getting maybe 3-4 games, hoping to keep it to around $100. I'm considering a mixture of old classics with maybe one new and/or more complex game. Some ones I'm considering:

Stratego (an old favorite of mine)
Clue (just a classic)
Game of Life (I think they'd enjoy this)
Catan (might be a bit much?)
Talisman (also maybe a bit much, or is it less complex than Wrath?)


Any suggestions? I'm thinking two in the Stratego/Clue/Game of Life category and one in the Catan/Talisman category.

Catan is actually pretty straightforward, that's why it's becoming a mainstay.

I have an 8 and 12 year old, and I've been gaming with them for a couple of years now. The issue I had with the "standards" (Life, Clue, Monopoly, etc) is that while they were mostly the right speed for my kids, they bored me to tears. Here are my suggestions:

Catan Junior might be a better intro than Catan. It's simplified, but has the same basic mechanics.
Castle Panic is also good for the 8-10 range, and we had quite a lot of fun with it.
Takenoko. You can play this one as simple or complex as you like and it's still fun. This one is my daughter's favorite.
My younger son's favorite is Flashpoint: Fire Rescue, and he always wants to play (my daughter doesn't like it and never plays).
If you include card games in your purchase, I highly recommend Rat-a-Tat-Cat. Very quick, but lots of fun. We actually have been playing this for years, and played it tonight.
We've also had a blast with Forbidden Island, although it's gotten stale recently (we've played it a lot though).

edit: Forgot to say good luck and have fun!

Thanks for the recommendations, folks. I'll take a look at everything that's been mentioned and let y'all know what I get. Please keep the recs coming.

[MENTION=59082]Mercurius[/MENTION], I have 13 and a 10 y.o. daughters. Catan they've been playing for a few years. Carcassonne they picked right up. When younger I just removed the "Farmer" placement which simplified the game a lot in terms of short vs long investment of your meeple. High Society is a quick bidding game (no actual board) that is simple to learn. Not only are all of these are interesting enough for my wife and I, I'll also play them with just adults.

Apples to Apples is fun because it's about imagination not hard rules, but I wouldn't recommend Apples to Apples Junior - same rules but the cards are so bland it's boring and actually harder to use your imagination.

I've heard good things about Dixit and Mus from friends, and they also showed up in this data analysis of BoardGameGeek ratings cross-referenced with generic minimum age (you know your kids best). http://fivethirtyeight.com/features...-with-your-kids-and-play-these-games-instead/

My eight year old daughter likes Forbidden Island, Exploding Kittens, FlashPoint, Love Letter, Burgle Bros, King of Tokyo, Memory, and Sorry.

Dixit is great for kids,because the game play is loose, and if they just want to examine the cards, that's a great pastime. Best use of expansions in a board game, too.

I believe Target has a kid-specific version of Ticket to Ride, too..

Thanks all, and thanks [MENTION=20564]Blue[/MENTION] for that interesting article. While I think the overall perspective in it is sound, I do question using Board Game Geek ratings in determining quality. BGG is dominated by very serious board game players, people who generally care more about whether a game is "mechanical sound" than the average player, who just wants to have fun.

A quick update. I've been spending a lot of time researching games and keep running into the same problem: There's a gap between what I think my girls will enjoy and understand, and what I want to play. For instance, the games that appeal most to me are probably Runebound, Claustrophobia, Star Wars Rebellion,, and maybe Terra Mystica, but all seem likely they're more suited for age 13+. So maybe in a couple years.

I'm also very curious about the X-Wing Miniatures Game, which is also probably too old for them, but seems like they could easily grow into it. The bottom line is that I have to enjoy playing the game, so as long as I'm willing to help them with the learning curve. That said, I'm also a bit leery about the cost. Only $30 for a starter set, but it sounds like you really have to invest $100-150 just to have a solid diversity of ships and such.

Anyhow, the only game I've purchased so far is Forbidden Island. It seemed like a nice mix. I'm on the verge of buying Talisman, especially because it may soon be unavailable. Dixit also sounds like an intriguing option. I'm still going back and forth on X-Wing. I'm tempted to give it a shot, or at least buy a starter set and a few expansions and see how it goes. Worse case scenario and I'm out $100 but have some fun desk toys .

My kids at 8 and 9 have been playing Catan Jr for a couple years and love it. Probably move them up to Catan soon. My kids absolutely love Ticket to Ride. Since you have it I would consider giving it another try.

I also started my kids with Hero Kids a couple years ago (6&7) and they now sit in my weekly 5E game and are begging to play. Hero Kids is a very lite fantasy RPG system geared to kids.

Splendor

Colt Express - Rob the 3d train!

Drakon - move through a dragons ever shifting dungeon trying to be the 1st to amass x amount of gold. Each tile moved onto does something & you can even eat the other guys with the dragon.

Survive! - Escape the sinking island & try & eat the other guys pieces with whales, sharks & sea monsters before they can get to safety.

Rock/paper/Wizard (? think that's the title) - new game from WizKids. You make hand gestures at the other players to affect them with classic D&D spells to hinder them in gaining loot. 1st one to x pts wins.

X-Wing: Is really good & fairly simple (you don't HAVE to use the upgrade cards that come with each ship). Well worth the price of the starter. And yes, it helps to have a handful of additional ships. Just buy your favorite little ships - ties, y-wings, whatever. Bigger ships like the Falcon & Slave 1 make the game more complex, but not neccecarily better (due to the rules shennanagins you can get up to, especially with the upgrade cards....)
If you get this, invest in at least one extra set of the dice (preferably 1 set per player) as it's REALLY annoying to pass one set back & forth.