"Gingerbread" Houses

I love decorating gingerbread houses with the boys. It is so much fun. Plus we get to eat a bunch of candy as we go. We use graham crackers for two reasons: I don't have to bake anything and they taste better than the store-bought gingerbread house kits. Truthfully, I've never even tried to bake real gingerbread. 

LEGO Challenge #12

**This was borrowed DIRECTLY from this site.**

Quest #12 - Mixed Media

Mixed Media means to combine one or more, other objects or art mediums with your LEGO creation. Your creation can be anything you like.

Often an unusual, seemingly unrelated combination of materials work best.

Daniel chose an apple as his other building material. He says "It's an apple creator." We had a long conversation about what exactly that is. From our discussion I think I figured out that they are measuring the apple with a very complicated machine. I love how Daniel can build something and be content with his final design but not really know what he made.

I'm not sure if you can see everything in this picture, but it's an aquarium. There is the desk at the bottom right where you pay and then go through the tunnel entrance. There are fish beads hanging on either side of the doorway. Once inside the aquarium you can see sea urchins (sparkly pom poms), starfish (star shaped beads), and a cuttlefish (lego but amazingly built and designed). Jacob really wants to go to an aquarium but unfortunately we don't have one nearby. 

Merry Almost Christmas!

We are finally starting to feel the Christmas Spirit in this house. So why not celebrate with some Christmas tree pizzas? Delicious and festive!

May you also find the joy of Christmas!

Happy Advent!

LEGO Challenge #11

**This was borrowed DIRECTLY from this site.**

Quest #11 - Shadow

Build something, or a number of things, that you think would cast a great shadow.

Take your creation to a sunny spot, inside or outside on a sunny day. Observe the shadow it casts. Move it around until it makes the shadow you like best. Notice how the shadow changes when it is cast on a wall, compared to the sidewalk, compared to the texture of a tree trunk. Where do you like the shadow best?

Take a picture of only the shadow. 

Jacob was totally into this! Can you guess what it is?

And here is Daniel's shadow. 

Jacob noted that it was not sunny today and the forecast showed clouds all day so we were forced to make our shadows on a white board with flashlights. Still fun, but harder to get good pictures, I think!

Do you want to know what they actually built?

Jacob: It's a jewel factory. It sucks up the rocks that the forklift brings. Then they go into the bottom of the machine and then the doors crunch them up and then the fire burns them into jewels.

Daniel said it is a car factory. What he means is that it is a factory that is also a car. I couldn't figure out what his factory made and neither could he! See the guy driving it inside?

LEGO Challenge #10

**This was borrowed DIRECTLY from this site.**

Quest #10 - Spring

Spring is the transition period between winter and summer. It is seen as a time of growth, renewal and new life for both plants and animals.

What does spring mean to you? Create something out of LEGO that reminds you of spring and tell me about it.

-- This seemed like a weird challenge to do in December, but it was really nice to think of what spring meant to us, and discuss the things we look forward to doing. --

Daniel built the trail system behind our house. He looks forward to riding his bike again!

Jacob built a garden. "See, it's time to water the flowers." 

LEGO Challenge #9

**This was borrowed DIRECTLY from this site.**

Quest #9 - Maximum Height

This weeks challenge is called maximum height.

What I am looking for is a vertical structure, that is standing alone, without anything supporting it.

Once you are happy with the height of your creation, please measure it and let me know how high it is.

Sometimes structures built for height need to be wider than just one lego brick. You might think about how easily it would fall over if it was really thin, and how stable it is when you use a wider base.

If there is more than one LEGO Quest Kid in your home, you might want to all pool the bricks and work together, or you may want to build alone, your choice.

Good luck, be patient and try again, (if you want). There is no winner here for maximum height, everyone has a different amount of LEGO bricks available to them. The idea is to have fun, this is not a contest, just build as high as you can, with the bricks that you have.

Jacob's house made it to 27cm and then he ran out of bricks. Seriously. He used every coloured brick that wasn't already being used elsewhere. This house is SOLID. You can't tell from the picture but it is as deep as it is wide. 

I started the challenge by recommending they NOT use 2x2 bricks, so what does Daniel do? Builds this whole crane out of 2x2 bricks and 2x10 flat pieces. He made is to 24cm and then it kept falling over. Pretty impressive height for such a wobbly structure!

LEGO Challenge #8

**This was borrowed DIRECTLY from this site.**

Quest #8 - Your Favorite Book

This weeks challenge is to create something from your favorite book.

You can design anything you like from this book, like a character, an object, a scene, a design or even a feeling.

It can be directly inspired by the colourful pages of a picture book. Or it can come from deep in your imagination influenced by your favorite novel.

-- I read the challenge to the boys and sent them to the bookshelf to pick their favourite book... I was a little surprised at the choices, but the challenge turned out awesome for both of them! --

Daniel: I picked "Daniel in the Lion's Den" as my favourite story. Daniel is petting the lion because the angel closed its mouth. See the white bones in the den? Daniel is ok. They are waiting for King Darius.

This is definitely one of Daniel's favourite stories (for obvious reasons, I think) but I was not expecting him to grab a Bible for this challenge. One of his favourite books is all about knights and I was guessing that is what he would pick. I love the window as the exit from the lion's den. He spent a long time choosing the right Lego head for Daniel.

Jacob: It's a Nebula that looks like an eye. There are all the different colours of stars around it. It's hard to make it round.

Wow. Jacob's creation amazed me after the failed 2D attempt the other week. The fact that he combined two pictures he loves is just awesome. This is from National Geographic's First Big Book of Space. While I know that Jacob loves learning about Space I was not expecting him to pick this book either... and then I was wondering how he was going to build Jupiter because that is his favourite planet and usually the first part of the book he wants to read. I had absolutely nothing to do with this creation. I thought he would pick a book with tractors or construction vehicles.

This mama is super proud of these two boys. 

LEGO Challenge #7

**This was borrowed DIRECTLY from this site.**

Quest #7 - Collaboration

This weeks quest is called Collaboration.

What I am hoping for, is that you will work together with someone or maybe even your whole family on a joint project. For example, if you are the only kid in your home, you can work together with a friend or parent on your creation. If you live in a house where there are two or more kids, work together with all the kids who want to join in and, if you can get your parents involved, or anyone else that wants to join you, please do.

One creation per household this week.

What you decide to build, is totally up to you and the person/people you are working with. Anything goes as long as it's built with LEGO and it is an original design.

Sometimes working together can be difficult, because everyone can have different ideas of what the final design is going to look like. Often times, working with other people on a creation can bring your design to new, greater places, places you wouldn't have found if you were doing it alone.

It's a fire station! It was fire safety week in our house (culminating in an awesome tour of the local fire station) so that is what we decided to build. It has parking for the fire motorcycle, fire truck, and fire chief's car. There is a flashing fire alarm on the wall inside. The upstairs is for the fire fighters to rest.  It was fun to get fully involved, even if my job was building walls strong enough to hold up the second storey and roof. 

Pumpkin Experiment

Wow. It has been awhile since I've actually posted something I've made, something FOOD related. Actually, I bet if I looked I haven't even posted anything from my new kitchen that I've baked! What is with that? Anyways, pumpkins. Last year "we" carved pumpkins all by myself and I swore I wouldn't do it again this year. But I kind of caved and carved some little ones right on Halloween. The boys did design the faces.

Jacob drew a face and left it for me to figure out how to carve it.

Daniel used these cool stencils that you press into the pumpkin and they leave lines for the parent to follow with the knife. He wanted me to add a tear.

Why are both pumpkins sad? Daniel's is actually two sided and there is a happy face on the other side. I think they remember the sad baby pumpkin I made last year and wanted to re-create it.

I decided to try and make pumpkin purée so I could try making my own pumpkin bread. 

Yum. Everyone loved it. And I froze the leftover purée and have enough to make 6 more loaves! I also have a few more pumpkins.

Combine:

2 cups pumpkin purée

4 eggs

1 cup canola oil

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1/4 cup water

Add: 

2 cups white flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsps baking soda

1.5 tsp salt

1.5 tsp cinnamon 

**Makes 2 loaves**

Bake 350 for 50-60 minutes.

I added chocolate chips to the second loaf.

LEGO Quest #6

**This was borrowed DIRECTLY from this site.**

Quest #6 - Creature

Design a creature. 

A creature, is a living organism, generally the non-human kind.

Insects, bugs, birds, animals, sea creatures, plants, fungus, micro-organisms, maybe even other worldly?

This creature can be something that already exists, or it can be something that you have just discovered. It can live on Earth, or a different planet.

What I would like to know is its habitat - the environment in which it lives. You can tell me anything about this creature to describe it, like its name, what it eats, etc. Share as much or as little information as you like.

Jacob: The moose are eating grass near a fall tree and a summer tree in a forest.

Daniel: It's a daddy cheetah and a baby cheetah eating a gazelle in a zoo.

LEGO Quest #5

**This was borrowed DIRECTLY from this site.**

Quest #5 - Tool

Hey LEGO Quest kids, ready for this weeks challenge? 

Design a tool.

This can be something that already exists in the tool world, or it can be an invented tool for a particular job that you have in mind. This can be very simple or extremely complex, it's up to you. Maybe even think about some of the first tools ever invented by man or animal to serve them.

Daniel: It's a crane. There are buttons. There are levers. There's a fire extinguisher. There is a flashing light. It's lifting up a beam. 

 

Jacob: It's a forklift. She is carrying things for the crane to lift up. Also a crane truck. It folds up to drive. The lever moves the crane. He loads things onto the forklift.

LEGO Quest #4

**This was borrowed DIRECTLY from this site.**

Quest #4 - Two Dimensional

This weeks challenge is to create a Two dimensional design.

Two dimensions is having only the dimensions of height and width, like a square. Three dimensions is having height, width and depth, like a cube.

This can be almost anything. It can be a representation of an object, a piece of artwork (realistic, or abstract), a mosaic, a colour study, a picture from your favorite book?

The idea is to keep it flat. Pretend like you are drawing or painting or taking a photograph, but try to create it out of LEGO. Have fun, only play along if you feel inspired!

---------------------------------

So I need to explain a little about this challenge. I thought this would be an interesting challenge because we have never tried building with Lego in this way. I thought it could totally add a new "dimension" to their creativity.
Anyways... I set up the challenge for them and Daniel immediately said he wanted to build a camera and Jacob started crying. Well then. I suggested he try a tree and started pulling some brown and green pieces out of the Lego bin for him. I actually try NOT to help with these challenges and let the kids figure it out themselves. I'll help search for a specific piece and that's about it. But I knew this one would need a little intervention since it was a new idea. I even had another website I thought I'd show them that runs a daily 2D Lego Challenge.... But.... Then.... Samuel woke up. I left them alone to quickly go grab him, but, of course, I needed to change him. By the time I got back downstairs the 2D creations were demolished and they were back to building 3D (they were actually building cool little sheds). I lamented that I didn't get to see what they built and Jacob looks up at me and says "I took pictures for you." So, with no further ado, here are their Two Dimensional creations, photography credits go to 

Jacob:

Jacob: It's trees in snow.

Daniel: It's a camera. See? Click!

And here's what they really wanted to build:

LEGO Quest #3

**This was borrowed DIRECTLY from this site.**

Quest #3 - Vessel

Hey LEGO Quest kids, I cannot believe the coolness of the creations you guys are making! Here is this weeks challenge;

Design a vessel. Here is the definition of the word vessel.

Vessel

-noun

1. a craft for traveling on water, now usually one larger than an ordinary rowboat; a ship or boat.

2. an airship.

3. a hollow or concave utensil, as a cup, bowl, pitcher, or vase, used for holding liquids or other contents.

As you can see, you have a lot of options here, have fun!

Jacob: it has a motor so it can go fast. It can go very fast. It can speed faster than the police and do pop-a-wheelies. It's sometimes like a skidoo.

Daniel: Theres three people in it. It's a boat that can go underwater. You can drive it from two different sides. It goes way up at the top on the water and can sink to the bottom to drive. It can even drive upsidedown.

And then Jacob decided to make another kind of vessel....

It's a cup!

Uh-oh! I spilled my water!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Do you ever look at your kid and think "holy moly when did he suddenly get so big I can't lift him into the grocery cart anymore and he also shouldn't really be in the grocery cart?" ... Well I did! Jacob turned 6 and he is definitely not "little" anymore. He has become a passionate, compassionate, awesome kid! I'm amazed.

Anyways... He came up with this super plan (it was all just in his head, he said) for his birthday cake. It would have a racetrack with actual toy race cars on it. And there would be people watching the race on some sort of 3 dimensional stands and the people would be M&Ms. It should also have his name and a 6 on it somewhere. I'm on it, I said.

LEGO Quest #2

**This was borrowed DIRECTLY from this site.**

Quest #2 - Monochromatic

Monochromatic colour scheme.

Pick a colour, any colour, and use only that colour of LEGO.

Build anything. The sky is the limit. A structure, a sculpture, functional, non-functional, anything at all, but you can only use one colour!

Daniel: It's a little bad guy getaway boat. It has a door. The thing on top tells everybody something like "There's a meeting today."

Jacob: It's a garbage chopper. It chops the garbage up when you drop it in. It has very sharp big blades in it.

LEGO Quest #1

**This was borrowed DIRECTLY from this site.**

Quest #1 - Car

Create a LEGO Car.

Get your LEGO out, it's time for LEGO Quest Challenge #1

This can be simple or extremely complex, it's up to you. The only real rule is that it has to be custom built. Your own creation, not a pre-designed one.

Daniel: Mine has a tow hook and can tow cars. It has real stairs and moving stairs because my car is very big. They have a suitcase to deliver to the suitcase store.

Jacob: It's a fire truck car. The spoiler makes it go fast. I built a tunnel for the fire truck to go through.

I Have a New Kitchen

My new kitchen is mostly brown, but it's a great space to bake up some treats for my boys!

I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. I think the kids liked them...