Hi to you both and welcome to the Forum!
I also play words with friends and I do have problems sometimes, this is what I do :
Do the four finger swipe up or double tap the home button to reveal your multi task bar along the bottom. It will show all the apps that you have opened at one time or another. Long press one of these apps until they start to jiggle and red minus signs will appear above them all. Press all the minus signs, this will close them, not delete them. It's a good idea to do this regularly just to keep them all running smoothly, I do mine every night.
Give it a try next time it happens, fixes mine every time and I have the paid app.
The IPad Forum is a community of members from all walks of life and from all over the world coming together to share our experiences and to help each other learn about this wonderful piece of technology the Ipad. There is a wealth of information already here in the many threads we have so doing some searches will answer most of the questions you have. If then you cannot find the answer you are seeking then by all means post your question. There are many friendly and informed members here only too willing to help you.
We also have our own App - Discussion Forum for IPad Users. It is a very simple app to navigate.
Reading the IPad manual is a great place to start so please download a copy of these.
http://www.support.apple.com/manuals/ipad/
A very informative thread from which you will learn many tips and shortcuts for the IPad.
http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-general-discussions/21590-tips-tricks-those-us-who-dont-know.html
We have rules like any Community so please read these also
http://www.ipadforums.net/forum-rul...um-rules-everybody-please-read.html#post14697
Once again we welcome you here and are so pleased you have joined us!
Sent from my iPad using iPF