Lego Challenge #23

Quest #23 - Cityscape

A cityscape is the urban equivalent of a landscape.

Design a cityscape out of LEGO. It can be a city or town that you know, or a mysterious, made up place. I'd love to hear about your city, so include a little description about it when you send in your photo.

Jacob built this all by himself! There's an ocean with an oil platform and tanker ship. The city has a church, skyscraper, tower, fire station, and little cars on the road.

Lego Challenge #22

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

Quest #22 - Display Your Art

Can you design something out of LEGO that will display your own art?

You may want to look around the house and see if you have some of your artwork already done and ready to be displayed, or you might want to make something new. A drawing, painting, even a sculpture.

Your LEGO creation may be a traditional picture frame, or it might be something quite elaborate and unexpected.

Jacob drew a special picture to go with this challenge.

Lego Challenge #21

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

Quest #21 - Buoyancy

Can you create a marine vessel out of LEGO that floats?

You may need to experiment with several designs until you create one that works the way you want it to.

I would like your photo submission to show your creation in water, either floating, or perhaps in its sunken state, whichever you choose.

If you would like to take this a step further, you can place heavier objects like marbles or coins in your boat to see how many it can hold before it sinks. I'd love to hear all the details and so would everyone else!

This was fun! Of course the first attempts sunk because they were top heavy. Then we looked at a one-piece lego canoe we have (it came with the camper set). It floated so how could we copy that shape? 

Here is what the boys came up with.

Needless to say, they played in the sink a lot today!

Things That Are Too Wonderful to be Owned

So we read this amazing book called "Who Owns the Sun?" that was written and illustrated by a 14 year old girl in 1988. We decided to try and copy her watercolour paintings. The boys each chose their favourite painting in the book. We used our homemade liquid watercolours to paint the backgrounds... waited for them to dry and then used traditional watercolours to paint the foregrounds. They turned out wonderful.

Original "Who owns the wind?" by Stacy Chbosky

"Who owns the wind?" by Daniel

Original "Who owns the sun?" by Stacy Chbosky

"Who owns the sun?" by Jacob

Homemade Liquid Watercolours

So, first off, this wasn't my idea... I saw it on Pinterest.

I was helping clean out the church Sunday school room and offered to go through the giant container of markers and throw out the no good ones. Now I must confess I had ulterior motives... Namely homemade liquid watercolour paints. I've never tried liquid watercolours but apparently they are great for kids. Anyways, the boys helped me sort the markers into still good and not good piles. Then we took the not good pile and divided them into green, blue, purple, yellow, and orange/red. We threw out the black and brown ones, but in hindsight I think we should have used them too.  Anyways, then we threw out all the lids and put our markers into jars with water, like this:

We let them sit for almost one week....

Voilà! Our very own homemade paints! Check back to see how we used them....

Lego Challenge #17

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

Can you show Metamorphosis in action with Lego?

Transform your design into another in as many or as few stages as you want.

An idea to start your creative process might be to make two objects; the first stage, and the last stage of metamorphosis. Then design an object that has elements of both in it, to show the in-between stage.

This can represent an actual living thing, or it can be a totally invented entity.

Jacob: It's a dragon. It blows fire and has powerful legs and pokes on his body. He shrinks into a card with a mouth and eyes. His wings and tail shrink too.

Daniel: It's a transformer. When he turns into a car there are helmets on his eyes. He turns into a car at night. There are three steering wheels: one for the flashing lights, one to move the eyes, and one for the wheels.

Lego Challenge #18

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

Quest #18 - Flags

What is your favorite flag? Is it a flag of a country, a state, a province, a city or a town? Or is it one you've invented?

Create this flag design (you could use a 2-dimensional mosaic approach), or use the colour or design of the flag to inspire you in any number of ways.

Tell me about your creation and why you picked this particular flag.

The boys worked together to build several flags and Jacob wrote down all the ones they made. I have no idea which one is which though!

LEGO Challenge #14

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Quest #14 - Ancient Monument

This weeks challenge is to re-create or be inspired by an Ancient Monument.

An Ancient monument is an early historical structure worthy of preservation.

There are Ancient Monuments found all over the world, I look forward to seeing which one inspired you!

Be sure to tell me which Ancient Monument you were inspired by and why. Where this monument exists in the world and anything else you'd like to add about your creation.

-- So I changed this challenge a little bit. Jacob has had a tiny bit of exposure to Egyptian pyramids but other than that, we haven't really learned about anything "ancient." So I just called it the Monument Challenge, and said that a monument was a historically important building to a country. 

LEGO Challenge #13

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

Quest #13 - Earth Day

April 22nd is Earth Day.

What does Earth Day mean to you? Create something that reflects your ideas about Earth Day. It might be something that is inspired by the list below, or it might be some sort of invention that helps the Earth in a certain way?

Here is a list of words that remind me of Earth Day, you may have other words that inspire your creation.

Recycling

Wilderness

Protection of Animals and Wildlife

Deterioration of the environment

Oil Spills

Power Plants

Pesticides

Global Warming

Clean Energy

Pollution

Habitat Destruction

Bees

Trees

Ecosystem

Landfills

Litter

Oceans

Oxygen

Preserve

Rainforest

Reuse

Well, it obviously isn't anywhere close to Earth Day but if we did't do these in order someone would definitely throw a stink! :)

Daniel immediately said he was going to build people protecting endangered animals. Specifically in Africa. He built a baby cheetah, a lion, an elephant, a giraffe, and an anaconda.

Jacob built a power plant spewing black smoke into the air.

"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.