My Lego Genius

Ethan & Gavin finished Star Wars V this past week & thus began Ethan’s obsession with the AT-AT Snow Walker.  Lego will happily sell you a motorized set for $130. 

Ethan, being the genius he is, knows that’s not happening, so what’s a resourceful kid to do?  Build it yourself!

AT-AT Snow Walker

K~

Lego Crane

Ethan has been hard at work. His Lego City changes weekly. It’s currently becoming two cities with the help of his latest creation – The Lego Crane.

Ethan & his Crane

The Crane Operator

What do you think? Architect? Engineer? Lego Artist?

K~

For those of you looking for the submission address for Lego’s Dinosaur challenge, here it is:

Lego Creator Build-a-Dino Challenge

PO Box 1625

Enfield, CT 06083-1625

Lego Inspiration

Ethan has been working hard all summer on a Lego City. Lego Cities are what he usually builds, but this one is fairly detailed. Jason & I have been seeing a lot of details from our summer travels pop up in his city. This is one example.

While driving home from ND, we took a detour & saw the world’s largest structure, a TV tower. Here’s the real thing.

And here’s the Lego version.

Here’s one of Ethan’s original Lego creations. This is part of Lego City’s recycling system. The recycling truck dumps the stuff on the belt & then the train picks it up.

This is something Ethan’s created for the newest Lego contest. It’s a family of Dinosaurs. The baby is just hatching from his egg.

Here’s a close up of the baby in its egg.

K~

Ethan’s Latest Lego Design

The last few days, Ethan has been hard at work building a Lego Football Stadium. Here’s a few pictures.

This is the aerial view.

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This is looking down field towards a goal post.

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This is a view of the stands. There’s an obvious Vikings fan. Not sure who the skeleton guy is cheering for. Probably the Packers.

K~

The Long Anticipated Lego City by Ethan

Thanks for the reminder Jack. Here’s Ethan & his newest Lego City.

It’s small but what you’re seeing on the lower left is a 2-story house, the far upper right is a dorm, below that & down the street is a restaurant, & then the airport. I think with our new photo editing software I can do little closeups but I haven’t had a chance to figure it all out yet.

Ethan did okay last night. He wet a little bit but said he woke up right away & went to the bathroom. That’s a pretty successful first night in my book. He changed his pants but laid back down on the damp sheet. Ick, but I guess at least he let me sleep

Gavin thankfully doesn’t have soccer this morning. The new sports director at the Y decided not to punish us & make us stand out in the rain & snow & watch our 4yr olds play clumpball. Very nice of him. Gavin hasn’t noticed yet. When he does I’m sure there will be much wailing & gnashing of teeth.

Today is Jason’s birthday. He can’t believe he has to work on his birthday (ala Jim Gaffigan. Here’s his birthday sketch) We don’t have any big plans, just cake & ice cream & an old family movie, The Swiss Family Robinson. Last year I nearly forgot his birthday. In my defense we had been back home only 6 days, we were still pretty jet lagged, I was still sick from Vertigo, & we had a new baby who had finally decided to wake up. This year has already been better for Jason. My sister Jenny gave him this fabulous shirt

& he hasn’t even seen the awesome gift from us yet.

Happy Birthday Jason!

K~

Boy’s Weekend Revisited & The Christmas Wrap-up (With Pictures!)

Jason & the boys had a nice weekend in MN. They spent a lot of time with Jason’s family playing with their cousins. Sunday was spent at my parents due to bad road conditions. They made it home around 2:30 on Monday & we’ve been non-stop ever since. Here’s my favorite picture from their trip home.

Christmas was a hit with the boys. We had them open their big present from us before church this morning. Ethan’s was obvious (the Airport box was huge). Gavin’s was less so. I was directing him towards his Playmobil Jeep but he wanted a box buried at the back of the tree. At Thanksgiving he caught Becky & I looking at some Playmobil furniture she had ordered for him & he knew what box it was & that’s what he wanted to open first. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised that he remembered the box. Tova was sleeping late so she had to wait until after church for her gifts. Even then she wasn’t that interested. She much preferred to play with the trash. She seems to enjoy her little piggy bank though.

Here’s Ethan with his completed Airport.

Here’s Gavin with his fully furnished house. It might be time for an addition.

What you can’t tell from the picture is all the people he has. Each room set comes with somebody. He has about 10 kids, plus 2 babies (twins), & lots of mom’s & dad’s. There are 2 dogs, a wolf & a polar bear in the mix too. You might notice the Viking on the slide. I love Playmobil

Last but not least, here’s a picture of all of us. We were fortunate to have Ha, an MBA student studying at Rural U, join us this year. She is from Hanoi & this is her first Christmas Celebration. She attended church with us & stayed overnight so she could get the full experience. It was a lot of fun & we were glad she was able to join us for Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Kristen

I Have A Great Life

That’s a quote from Ethan today at lunch. He cleaned up this Christmas. He ended up with 2 BIG Lego’s – an Airport, complete with plane, & the long-awaited Lego Train. Here’s Ethan opening his train (thanks Becky, Pat, Cole, Jenny, Grammy & Papa)

I’ll recap the rest of Christmas later. I’m being called into duty in Lego City.

K~