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.