NY Comic Con

There was meeting and chatting with admired artist-writers.

There was Hobbit-y Lego.

There were things unveiled.

There was a panel we waited on line an hour for...so worth it.

There were new games to play.

There was a lot of smiling.

End of day: mellow and ready to call it a con.

Kid bits

Sag calls this The Claw.  His big Christmas present from us this year was the Lego Mindstorms robotics set.  We also gave him a nifty companion book which is full of ideas and instructions.  This is the first robot he has built at home (using a plan from the book).

Our football team, the New England Patriots, are in the NFL play-offs.  During the game they played last weekend, I noticed the hat Tom Brady was wearing and thought it looked cozy.  I bought one for Cap and when it arrived, Sag and I both loved how comfortable it was.  Here is Sag wearing Cap's cap.  I got a coupon code from the website yesterday so ordered Sag his very own.

The kids did some storyboarding this afternoon.  This is homework they never complain about!  We finished Wildwood today, they did their Vinny exercises, and they did Rosetta Stone.  Later, Daniel is coming over and he and Sag will go to Robotics class.

Fast work

Lego love

birthday booty building begins!

Today's awesome

Thanks to Shannon for pointing me in their direction...steampunk Lego creations!!!

Robotics

As August wound to a close, I asked the kids to think about new topics they wanted to explore this Fall.  Sag immediately said "Robotics".

And, so, in the past ten weeks, he has dipped his toes into this new-for-us field of study.  Lego has a robotics branch and his experiences (both in a class at a local enrichment center and as part of a newly formed homeschooling First Lego League team) have been predominantly in Lego Robotics.

Sag has an engineer/builder/scientist's curiosity.  And the imagination and creativity of an artist.  These innate qualities and his longtime passion for building with Lego dovetailed wonderfully for a focused period of growth in a new area.  (In both settings, having string teachers who were themselves artful in their guidance, was a true gift.)

Yesterday, his Robotics class had their tug-of-war derby.  It was their last class and families were invited to come watch.  I stayed home with Gem (who was still sick), but Cap went.  It was very exciting to receive a text that Sag's robot had won his division.

I am so grateful that Sag has walked away from this experience with such a deep sense of accomplishment.  Not so much that he performed so well in the culminating activity (though there is a special sense of pride that comes with that), but that he did this on his own, separate from us.  This experience required him to flex his wings of independence in different ways every week.

He did it, and he did it with a smile.  (Today he participates in his first ever First Lego League tournament with his team, The Learning Pirates!)

Lego fun

Yesterday the four of us took part in a Lego fundraiser for the local art museum and historical society.  It was something I've been wanting to do for a few years and it feels good to have something "off" the list for once :-)

It was a whole lot of fun coming in from the torrents of rain to join a mass of fellow Lego lovers to make a 3D map of our town's downtown with Lego structures.

I gathered, they built.

we chose the building that houses Mesob, the yummy Ethiopian restaurant.

the boys on the map.

that little yellow structure in the middle there is ours.

I loved the stained glass windows on this church!

folks were cleared off the map for a final gaze.

it's amazing what you can do with Lego.

Day in the city

I am surprised I haven't posted since Monday.  I had not realized it's been that long.

Yesterday Cap and I had rare alone time with just one child.  A birthday gift to Sag, we spent a few hours with him riding the subway, wandering around the American Museum of Natural History (he likes the "stuffed animals") and tucking into one of the supposed best burgers in Manhattan (Sag, a burger lover, declared it the best burger he's ever had).

Gem hung out at Baba's.  Later in the day we traipsed down to Rockefeller Center and hit both Nintendo World and the Lego store.  The kids spent their otoshidama on Pokemon cards and we admired the Tower Bridge at the Lego store.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any in stock.  Sag has saved up a serious amount of coin for it.

After a yummy dinner at Baba's, we cozied up together around her laptop and watched a home movie Cap made awhile ago of our last (and only one as a foursome) trip to Japan back in Dec 2002-Jan 2003.  It was breathtaking seeing the kids as toddlers.  We are so looking forward to going back!

Meandering

The four of us wound up at the mall this morning.  A rare, rare thing.

The kids checked out the new Lego mini-figures.  I checked out Chanel no.19.  We all checked out the iPad.

After lunch I made a huge pot of soup using homemade chicken stock and the end of the onions and carrots from the farm.  Soup and rice for dinner tonight.

The kids are playing with a friend...it's been a very Harry Potter kind of afternoon.

My mind is wandering...unable to stop and sit awhile...

And the weekend comes to a close

Pokemon cake.

Sag's "friends" party was mellow and we spent part of our time together outside which was a welcome bonus (you never know when celebrating a late November baby).

He has been building Lego sets since our guests departed.  Lego came through by having someone available after 5pm on a Sunday to let us know that they will send a replacement bag #3 for the Hagrid's Hut set which had been mispacked with a duplicate bag #2.  (It's gonna be awhile as the replacement bricks will be coming from Denmark...which is kind of cool :-)

I had a tiny little pity party wishing that we had the same options as non-allergenic families so that I could order a pizza for dinner.  But, my kids have never known the pleasures of a weekend-ending pie and were happy to 'order' from the fridge/pantry selections I outlined, so I've gotten over it.

Cap's watching the Pats, Gem's finishing the party bowl of potato chips, Amazing Race and Next Iron Chef later, and once I have the tv all to myself, The Walking Dead :-)

I hope your weekend is ending peacefully.  Love and light to you.

Hot, hot, hot

I may try to eat seasonally, but I sure don't 'be' seasonally. As the mercury hit 'bout 100º today, I made home fries. Gem's been jonesing for them for awhile and well, he could no longer be denied.

This morning, the kids and I headed out to the post office where I shipped a bunch of the books I've sold. So far, I've made about $125. It took awhile at the P.O. because I was filling out address labels and figuring out which envelopes were for Priority Mail, etc. and there was, of course, only one window open. But, the kids were chillaxed for the most part and we were soon out of there.

We then strolled to the bookstore where the kids searched for 'vacation' books. Sag ordered some Pokemon books and we'll be going back to pick them up Thursday.

I finagled a short trip to the library out of the kids and dropped off Rufus M. (which we finished last night) and picked up some more books about Jamestown and colonial Williamsburg.

Once home, while the kids ate lunch, I made the base for blueberry ice cream I'll have the machine crank out tomorrow.

We headed back out to pick up our CSA share and then Cap (who as up at school having completed his first day of camp). As we drove past one of the town pools on the way home there was much excitement and longing.

Cap took the kids to a free Lego mini-build at our local Lego store (neither of us grown-ups was in the right frame of mind to head out to a pool) and I put away the veggies, cleared out the fridge some, e-mailed book customers, had some solo dinner (nice when I can catch it :-) and prepped the basil from today's share to make pesto only to realize we have no fresh garlic.

Everyone's home now. The Red Sox game is on, Sag is drawing, Gem is relaxing on the couch, Cap's tying away on his laptop... I'm off to make the kids' dinner.

The headache that played peek-a-boo with me all afternoon has abated. I'm thinking it was related to dehydration...

Weather-wise, more of the same for the rest of the week.

The winter games

Last night: snow jumping.  The kids have been primed by the Mario and Sonic Winter Olympics Wii game and are digging the real thing.

Lego universe

Gem often thinks about the things he wants to get. He feels deeply about these items and sometimes it makes him truly sad waiting and wondering if/when he'll ever attain these objects.

His feelings for the Lego Batman computer game intensified quite a bit, out of the blue, this week. He had been saving up for Mata Nui, but then, boom, it became all about the computer game. The nearly $30 price differential put somewhat of a kink into matters. (He had enough for Mata Nui and then some, but not the $40 he needed for the game.)

The desperate times call for desperate measures situation resulted in the kids putting on some shows for Barbra and me, their captive audience to their created and actual drama the past few days :-)

The photo above is the set for Gem's show, Lego Universe. I love the Waldorf puppet theater elements which continue to show up in their productions (the use of cloth, the visible puppeteer).

I opted for the 50¢ seat on the floor, Barb sprang for a chair at $1...neither of us took advantage of the upper deck seating (the top bunk of the bunk bed) which would allow a 180º view of the various stages used in the production ($5 for 2 patrons/$3 for 1).

There was an intermission and Gem worked a snack bar charging 25¢ for a bowl of potato chips and 10¢ for a glass of lemonade. The snack bar was genius. It brought their pooled savings up to $40 and we headed to the Apple Store after my appointment with Vinny.

Tonight we have been playing the game, grazing on apples, cucumber, prosciutto, goat Brie, watching Game 1 of the World Series, laughing, hugging, getting in some serious chillaxing.

Morning snuggle shoot

1. Cap and I make pretty kids.

2. They are now paid for pics I take and post to the blog. (They are desperate for Lego money and Sag, in particular, dislikes me taking pics of him...)

3. Sag has recently discovered the joys of sleeping nearly nude.

4. They love the big bed...echoes and muscle memory dating back to infancy. Powerful...I get that.

5. Gem has corrected me: he is desperate for money to buy Sag a birthday present.

I like to move it move it

Sag's current "it" tune.

Seasonal lego

Our new local Lego store offered free pumpkin mini-sets today. We got there just after 5pm and hung out for an hour with Melody and her kids. Friends transform waiting into fun and it didn't feel nearly as long as it was.



Once the kids got started, it took them about 2 minutes to build their pumpkins.


Not surprisingly, they started wishing they could buy/get something. But, we had talked about it before leaving the house, and they both did a good job of reining in their feelings and we left without incident and without buying anything.

The twilight sky was amazing and enchanted us the whole drive home.


Their October lego treats.