Lego Challenge---Halloween

Since we don't celebrate Halloween at our house, but rather, we usually enjoy some sort of Harvest Festival celebration instead, I let the kids make a model of what they are expecting to find at this year's church Harvest Festival.

Here is what they came up with:

Here you can see the playground to the right, complete with Mr. John's amazing train playset. Firefly insisted upon the teeter totter (it's her favorite thing), and Cowboy worked on the trees. The pavillion is to the left, with the chili cookoff inside (all the Nanny's are inside eating!). The costume judging is taking place outside, featuring Woody, Buzz, the Bug Hunter, and an alien (the winner!) among others. The horse ride (featuring our Jake and Woody's horse) is in the back.

Cowboy is showing off his contributions of the teepee (not actually present at the real festival, but a great idea!) and mom's addition of a cross. To the left, you can see the church that Firefly worked on.

  Here are two final views of the fun festival. From the side, you can see the tractor and hay ride with "real hay" (grass), courtesy of Ladybug. At the real festival, a great gospel-singing act was set up in the bed of a pick up, to which was attached a trailer full of straw for the kids to sit in while they listenened. It was a marvelous time for all of us. Stay tuned for pictures of the real thing later this week!

Blessings to you and wishes for a happy harvest,

Heather

Lego Challenge---Archaeology

The most recent Lego Challenge was to make something that represented archaeology. Tex opted to not participate this time as there wasn't much spare time to work on the project, but Cowboy eagerly put together this dinosaur dig so he could have a picture here on our blog. I understand that paleontology is probably more accurate when dealing with dinos, but since we believe that dinos were created by God on the same day as men (we are Young Earth Creation Science believers), we can assume that at OUR dig, they are not only unearthing dinosaur bones, but also finding human artifacts...thus, archaeology.

I am proud of Cowboy for wanting to participate and for working so diligently all by himself to make this display. He had fun demolishing it later, too. Boo was happy to help.

Blessings,

Heather

Lego Challenge---Playground

We decided to start participating in the bi-weekly Lego Challenge at Lego Quest Kids  this school year.

The current challenge is to build what you think a playground looks like. We had a fun time brainstorming, and each of the kids had many ideas.

Here is what they finally settled upon:

The first playground, built with regular Legos, is a tribute to International Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day (here's a link to their official page http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html ...it really is international! lol) The kids had fun fashioning a playground with a pirate ship as its centerpiece (like a park we visit in Williamsburg, VA). There is a fort also, so the pirates can battle the land guys, whoever they are (sometimes Jedi and sometimes Knights of the Realm).

Tex wants you to know that the cannons shoot soft balls (they had ball-shooting cannons at Miner Mike's in Lake of the Ozarks where we visited this summer) and the rocket (if you can see it) is just one of those stomp-on-the-pump-and-it-flies-high-up-in-the-air types of rockets.

He added a water feature because Busch Gardens, The Old Country has several areas with water to play in and the kids really loved it (we recently went there using our Salute to Heroes tickets).

Tex also included a teeter totter (a favorite in our backyard), a merry-go-round (a favorite from this summer at our family reunion), and seating for the adults who want to watch (though you will see at least one of them, probably their Dad, is having a go at the giant slide).

Lastly, if you look closely at the monkey bars, you will see someone monkeying around.

It was a lot of fun and I think I had as much fun as the kids did.

Ladybug and Cowboy helped build a playground like the one they visited this summer at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. There was a wonderful playground out by the sea lions, rhinos, and elephants. There was an old tram that looked like a train nearby which they also loved climbing on. It is an awesome zoo (the best I've been to). If you know anyone who lives nearby and hasn't gone, please tell them they are missing something special. The zoo had a special admission price for military families that was extremely reasonable (we were able to buy a deeply discounted annual pass for cheaper than admission for all of us).

Notice the train, the climbing wall, and elephant house. They especially remembered those things from the zoo.

Firefly built her own park while the rest of us worked. It has a horse in it because she likes our pony, Merry, so much. We also have a rooster, so there is a rooster on the roof. She said, "Our backyard is like a park!" and to us, it is. The kids have two metal swingsets, one with a teeter totter, the other with a double ride-on swing, a trampoline, and multiple ride on toys to play with (all of which were kindly given to us at various times).

Firefly had NO help from anyone (she said, "I can do it myself!"). I love it!

A week later, Cowboy called me in and said, "Mommy, I made something for you." I went in to the kids' room and he had made another playground. Here it is:

I guess he must have liked doing the Lego Challenge. I can't wait until the next one.

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Here is one final photo:

This is what happens when you spend too many hours building with Legos...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...hahahahahaha!

Those swirly things over his eyes are...you guessed it...Legos!

Bring out your inner child. Play with Legos.


Have a blessed day,

Heather