Back to Reality

Well, today is our first day back home from Vancouver. Back to the regular everyday life.

We made a trip to the mall to meet a tenant to pick up some very, very late rent. While we were there we picked up some science kits. Elijah chose a mammoth skeleton to build. He had it built in no time at all.

Toviel chose a build-your-own transforming solar powered robot. The skill level was ages 10 and up. I had to help him with some of the snapping together of parts as well as punching out some pieces. His fingers simply tired after a while.

The robot is almost finished:

Now, the test. And it works perfectly! Here is the robot walking, powered by the sunlight:

Here it is transformed into the scorpion, walking around:

It has one more mode; a tank mode, which we didn't get around to building today.

Both the boys did a math lesson today, jumped on the trampoline, played some games (mainly Pirate's Cove), built with Lego, and played together.

At bedtime, Toviel climbed I to bed with his Magformers and built several things. His last creation was "The Solar Beam"...

Elijah climbed into bed with his book about whales and dolphins and a notebook. After a while he came running out telling me how fascinating Bowhead Whales were, along with all sorts of interesting facts. He started making notes in a notebook:

I asked him if he would teach me some of the things he was learning. "Oh, totally!" He exclaimed. So tomorrow, I get to learn about Bowhead Whales!

Sometimes, the most learning occurs when they are wearing only their underwear, at 12:30am, when kids "should" be sleeping.

Friday: Lego, Friends, and More Friends

This morning Toviel attempted to dismantle our broken electric pencil sharpener. He stalled because some of the screws are so tight, and my wimpy fingers were useless at helping. He asked for a sledge hammer so he could smash it, but then we decided to wait until Daddy's big, strong hands were home to dig out the power drill and give us aid.

This afternoon we went to a friend's birthday party. It might just have been the best birthday party ever. It was at Bricks 4 Kidz and the boys had a blast!

For a short while the kids had free time to play with and build whatever they wanted.

Then the kids were given instruction booklets and all the pieces necessary to create a zip line contraption. They all built their own and added their own mini figures, raced their creations down the zip line string, modified their creations, making them crazier and crazier with each modification. I loved how the kids engaged with each other in such a cooperative, considerate, yet ridiculously silly manner.

Next the kids were each given more complicated instructions with all the necessary pieces to build their own amusement park ride. Some of the kids built carousels, spinning swings, merry-go-rounds, pirate-ship rides, Ferris wheels, etc. they each worked individually and when they were done they attached switches with battery packs onto their rides which powered them. At the end they put all the rides together on one table. Voila....they had built an amusement park!

It ended up that they had amusement park ride fights, to see which ride would break and which would stand up to the repeated beating of another contraption whizzing round and round, hitting each other with each spin.

The birthday boy's dad said it reminded him of Robot Wars. I had a sudden longing to participate in a crazy event that 10 years ago seemed absolutely pointless, ridiculous, and a waste of time and resources. It's funny how having boys can change you.

After the party we went to M's house. Shortly afterwards, M & M came over for just over an hour. Not long enough....we miss seeing them all the time.

Our evening ended with pizza and a movie. We watched a Lego Ninjago video, and finished off with Mary Poppins! This was my first time ever seeing the Mary Poppins movie! I have to be honest that throughout the movie I puttered around a bit, organizing some things for my in-laws upcoming anniversary party, looking at online flyers, things here and there like that. I have always found it difficult to do nothing but watch a movie.

I was surprised when the movie was finally over at 11:30pm how emphatic Toviel was about how much he loved Mary Poppins. He wants to watch it again tomorrow.