"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!