LEGO Challenge #14

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

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.