Hunter came home from school yesterday and went straight upstairs. A little part of me was hoping he was being diligent about his homework and wanted to get started on his reading. After 30 minutes of not hearing from him I figured I go check on him. As I climbed the stairs I could hear the familiar sound of legos being shuffled around in the bin.
I found Hunter like this:
I’m not sure what it was about school yesterday, but he had something in his mind he wanted to build. He still loves legos. He loves building massive sets and he loves tinkering with leftover pieces. I can’t count how many times I’ve climbed the stairs and found him in this exact position.
I’ve got several years of pictures showing him younger…
and younger…
He got his first set of legos for his 4th birthday and it’s been a passion ever since. In fact, this was the first Christmas he didn’t receive a lego set. Those sets have always been such a large part of his Christmas morning and Steve and I went back and forth as to whether we should do it again this year. But they’re a lot of money and it would’ve been his main gift. He’s got buckets and buckets of legos so we opted for the long board instead.
Luckily Bennett got a large lego set for Christmas and Hunter was more than happy to help him piece it together.
I often wonder how much longer I’ll catch Hunter in this position: Knee to his chin, legos spread across the floor, lost in his own little world.
Last year I was on my soapbox about my dislike for the pinewood derby. I assure you, even a year later my feelings haven’t changed. I still think it is a waste of time and money and I hate how the boys don’t even make their cars. No joke, Hunter took his car to the weigh-in the night before and a boy asked me if Hunter helped his dad make the car. I had to laugh. Hunter made his own car. The boy’s response was classic, “You let him make his own car?”
I’m ready to turn the pinewood derby on its head and turn it into a lego derby, where all the cars are built on lego frames. Our friend’s troop did that and I loved the idea of having every boy truly build the car on his own.
Since that isn’t happening anytime soon – Hunter made it his reality now. He had to use the wood base (we glued lego plates to the wood) and the BSA approved wheels (seriously? this activity has gotten out of hand!) but he made a lego car. He worked through a couple different designs before landing on this design.
And you know what? The car didn’t do half bad. He wasn’t setting records but he was in the middle of the pack the whole time. He was pleased as could be – and so was I.
We’re keeping the car and he can create a new lego car on the same base next year!
We are in full-swing Halloween costume planning mode. We’ve scoured pinterest. We met as a family, where voting was involved. We decided on the family theme and everyone was excited about their costumes. Then I ended up in the hospital and I decided I didn’t have it in me to follow through with our plan. So we went to plan C. (Yes, there was a plan B, after further research I realized it too would require too much.)
I’ve got everyone squared away as to what they want, its now time to execute. Steve is being only slightly uncooperative. (Let it be known, he is surprisingly willing to play along with my crazy ideas!) After I presented his costume idea, he shot me down quickly. He’s hoping his costume this year doesn’t have something covering his head or require any face paint – I feel as though he’s stifling my creative energy!
I’m going to have to think outside the box just a bit because my current ideas don’t fit his criteria!
Hunter is the Lego master. He started his fascination at four years old when a neighbor gave him a starter box of Legos for his birthday. His interest has only grown over the years and I often catch him upstairs in a sea of Legos from building and sorting. He doesn’t often keep his sets put together, instead, he breaks them down and rebuilds something new. It’s impressive to watch him manipulate the bricks into something his mind imagined without any clear instructions. He’s a builder.
We went to the Lego store this weekend and his eyes lit up with wonder when he saw the Lego robots. Mind blown. Two of his favorite things, Legos and coding, in one fancy toy. My eyes did not light up when I saw the $350 price tag. However, the kind associate was able to point us to a newer version of the Lego robots, Lego Boost, at a more affordable $160 price tag. Hunter has visions of robots in his future. I have visions of him mowing a lot of lawns. 🙂
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I found the perfect magnets for Hunter’s magnet board. I was scouring Amazon for something or other when I was sidetracked and I came across Lego magnets – a way to display Lego figurines and artwork! (What in the world did we do before Amazon?!? I could’ve ran to 3 stores and never found those puppies.)
They’re the perfect accent to the Lego print he has hanging on another wall.
He likes to switch out the guys – and sometimes he doesn’t even put guys on them, he uses the magnets plain. Either way, they beat the boring colored circle magnets I originally picked up.
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