Lego Olympics

The kids made some events for the 2012 Lego Olympics recently.

Clockwise from left in the top photo you can see cycling, the lighting of the Olympic flame, fencing with seating for a small crowd, hurdles, a food stall and the winner of the archery contest surrounded by ... um ... Robin Hood and several aliens?


And in this photo, clockwise from top left, you can see swimming, archery, high jump, javelin, more cycling with a couple exchanging flowers and a flagbearer, and a steeplechase, observed by a random pig.


A fun way to reflect upon current events.

Storing and Organising Lego

To the astonishment of many, our substantial Lego collection is now sorted.


Yes, the seemingly impossible has now been achieved.


When a Lego collection gets as big as ours, it can be hard to locate that certain piece you want to make a particular creation. Sorting by colour makes the finding process just that little bit easier. We have sorted our Lego by colour for over a year now, but we have recently bought a few new boxes to streamline the process.

I do a major colour sort at the end of each school holiday, about every three months. In between times, Lego is either put away properly by colour or just put into one large Unsorted Box. Sorting this box is the task for the end of the holidays, or earlier if it gets too full too quickly. It takes about a day to sort one 50L tub, with breaks and distractions, unless I have help - which can make the task take longer, if the help consists of diverting the unsorted Lego pieces to unfinished Lego creations!

We have boxes with dividers for individual colours:


We have boxes without dividers for the black, dark grey, light grey and white pieces, since there are so many:


We have a box for the base plates:


We even have a box for all those clear pieces, and another for several hundred Lego people, several dozen horses and all their accoutrements:


Best of all, almost all of the boxes fit neatly under our bed, ready to be brought out on the weekend.

Lego Star Wars

Jeff has been busy spending all our life savings (well - almost) on Star Wars Lego. Very little of this was bought new. Most of it came via eBay, saving us money and allowing Samuel to obtain the Storm Troopers that he earnestly desired. Jeff, Joshua and Samuel have a bit more to build from the last eBay package, but Joshua invited us to a Star Wars "movie" this morning, so I took some photos.This is the Small Games Room (ie, the room for games with small pieces, which almost exclusively means Lego). Occasionally, the Lego has to be packed away so the SGR can become the Guest Bedroom. But in the meantime, the addition of a slab of MDF painted green makes the bed a perfect platform for wars between the Seperatists's droids and the Republic's Jedi and clones.

A Lego Poem

For my sons, Joshua and Samuel.

There was a little Rock Monster
Way down in a mine,
He went for a walk one day
Some crystals to find.

But instead of some crystals,
The Rock Monster found:
A Power Miner digging
Deep down in the ground.

The Power Miner gasped
“You gave me a scare!”
The Rock Monster told him
“I just hoped you’d share.”

The Power Miner thought
“I know I should be kind.
And I have extra crystals
So I really don’t mind.”

The Rock Monster said politely,
“Thank you very much.”
Then he took the crystals home
And ate them for lunch!

Mm-mm. Tasty!

by Sharon Jackson, 2010

Merry Christmas! 2009

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to JESUS!

Happy birthday to you.

Merry Christmas

to all our friends and family,

love from Joshua, Anna, Abigail and Samuel

And for our northern friends,
we hope you enjoy your snow!

(And Merry Christmas from me too.)

The Problem with Catalogues

"Sammy buy this Lego!""Look! That Blue Rock Monster, Mum.""I not scared, I brave. I shoot Rock Monster!"

Holiday Snaps

Joshua at the Boys' Brigades Father-Son camp:Anna singing and dancing in the play room:Duplo:Joshua showing off a connector creation:Dressed up for a wedding:With Jeff officiating:Anna reading Practise being Godly by Colin Buchanan, listening to the audio on CD:Abi and Rabbit have a picnic party:Anna and Sam join Abi for the picnic party:

A Wonderful Gift

Joel, our previous minister's son, visited our Sunday evening service tonight along with David, another of the young adults. Afterwards, he gave us a wonderful gift: his collection of Castle and Pirate Lego from when he was a boy!Are you jealous yet? When he saw it all, Joshua could hardly keep his eyes from popping out of his head!

Play Nice

I really appreciate the days when the kids play nicely together.

I took this photo a few weeks ago, while all four children played for several hours with minimum disagreement. Joshua and Anna played for a long time building castles with Mega Blocks. Who would have thought that Joshua would still be playing with a present he was given for his first Christmas (thanks Uncle Daryl!) five and a half years later?

They had a whole scenario that they were playing out, with Anna's block person being the Queen and Joshua's the King. The King was busy off having adventures and the Queen was feeling quite lonely without him: she built a plane so she could go to meet him. The King had a Knight, so he hadn't really missed her. I'm not quite sure if you can extrapolate from that to surmise the situation with Josh off at away-school and Anna missing him at home, but I do know that my mother-heart was filled with joy to see them playing so companionably.Joshua's castle is at the centre of this picture, and Anna's is at the bottom left. Her castle was somewhat less magnificent than his, but that was mostly because Joshua got a head start on Anna when it came to selecting the blocks to use. Anna was busy with Abigail and Samuel and the Little People farm when Joshua first began building.

Cuteness personified

His "necklace" is a Duplo fuel hose.

Dress Up Fun

Anna is dressed up as "an Asian person"; Joshua is a hen, sitting on its nest (made of Duplo) and laying an egg.

Joshua earned Salty all by himself!

Salty cost $30.00 and Joshua earned the money to buy him all by himself! He also earned enough to tithe from his earnings before spending any of them.Joshua began earning, tithing and saving back in September and I am really proud of him for keeping up his effort, even with the distraction of Christmas gifts.

The things one can make...

With a little imagination:

Weekly Report 2008:23

Last week was a complete wash out with me trying my hardest to be able to (1) catch up on all the washing and folding and (2) have an afternoon nap as often as possible so I could get better from sinusitis. Here's just two things we did manage to do.

Making crowns:Joshua made Anna a special crown so she could be "Spider Girl":
And making tools, just like Daddy's, all from Duplo:
In case you're wondering, in the picture above Joshua is using a gigantic hand drill and Abigail is using a sander. It's meant to be a rotary sander, but some things just aren't reproducable in Duplo. In the photo below, Anna is showing off her skills with a hammer.