BrickFest was a dud.

We’ve been to a BrickFest before in Virginia and it was AMAZING. So we were excited to go again… Except this one was a complete dud compared to that. Super SUPER disappointing.

There were basically NO displays—the previous one had city blocks, automation (think roller coaster), big things, little things, selfie stations…

This one had some giant creations:

and a very small area of smaller creations like this:

but that was about it. Most of it was lame (for older kids) stuff like “make and race a Lego car”

or “create a glow in the dark Lego” (which Owen did to at least do something).

The kids also did one square of a bigger design—which we would never see.

But man did the store and checkout lines take up a ton of space (conservatively 1/4 of the venue):

This was the best part for me—a local artist who did lilacs. I’m going to need that ASAP.

What was even more disappointing is that we were supposed to go with Anna and family—but long story short they got there after us and got stuck in a huge line and then we discovered it sucked so they just gave up and never made it in.

After we got home I decided to look up the last one we went to…and discovered it wasn’t BrickFest, but was BrickFair. UGHHHHH.

Well, it’s happened.

I tested positive this morning.

Thankfully it’s nothing too awful—a minor sore throat, a random cough, slight body aches (but that could just be me being old), and the worst is a nagging headache but it’s manageable with Excedrin. It really all just feels like an annoying cold. Vaccines and boosters for the win.

The kids feel fine. Tom has tested negative. And apparently dogs can get Covid so if I want to cuddle Olive I need to mask.

At least I have a cute cuddle buddy!

And Katie decided to get out Legos right here. For the first time ever.

Lego Challenge: Day 1

I started the kids on the Lego challenge calendar because we’ve been watching Lego Masters and they love it—so figured this would be a big treat.

Ha. Hahaha. Katie didn’t want to do the first one I picked (rockets) and Owen didn’t want to do the second (pizza) do they did Rock Paper Scissors and tied like six times. Owen finally won which sent Katie into a fit because she “didn’t know how to build a rocket and she’s stupid.”

Sigh. No good deed goes unpunished.

So after some counseling, they both worked on rockets. Katie eventually gave up but Owen did finish.

I’m not sure when we’re going to attempt this again.

Katie’s first official Lego build!

The official Lego rules state that you have to be six years old so we’ve been playing by the rules…but at the last build they asked why she wasn’t building and we said because she wasn’t six yet. They told us they don’t care and to just sign her up. YAY!

Of course Owen was done in a few minutes, but she kept at it and did it with barely any help!

#NationalMargaritaDay

Me: Owen, put your Lego robot away.

Owen does nothing and wastes time.

Me: Owen, put all your Legos on a tray and put it on the other room.

Owen: Why do I have to?

Me: Because it can’t stay in the middle of the floor right where everyone needs to walk. Put everything away on a tray.

Again he does nothing.

Me: Owen. Legos. Tray.

I see him moving stuff around.

Me: Owen, did you seriously just push everything in a pile against the wall? GET. A. TRAY.

I’ve always thought a train under the tree would be cool.

It only took 44 years, a kid who loves Legos, grandparents who were willing to buy the set and the electronics 💗 and a last-minute extra set of tracks to fit around the tree stand… It ended up needing some parental intervention [to get the power hooked up correctly and the tracks in an approximate circle] but Owen did the bulk of it.

  

Surprise trip to LegoLand Discovery Center!

We didn’t even know this place existed until a few weeks ago, so I found discount tickets and off we went! It wasn’t quite as exciting as I’d hoped it would be (and one of the rides was shut down) but the kids had a really good time so that’s all that matters!

LegoLand

Sorting Christmas Legos for next year.

We got the kids the LEGO City Advent Calendar Building Kit so after they had opened all the doors and built everything we asked if they wanted to do it again next year…because if they did, we had to sort all the pieces and take everything apart. They said yes. So I tasked Katie with that job to keep her out of my hair while I started putting away Christmas decorations. She did amazingly well! 🙂

 

Summer Slide Worksheet? CHECK!

He finished his Summer Slide stuff a few days early (280 second grade workbook pages, ~700 pages of reading, and 70 pages of handwriting practice!) so guess who’s starting his Lego reward right now?

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Overall it was more of a fight than I thought it would be—he’s a typical kid who never wanted to spend the 20-30 measly minutes a day to do what he needed to do, so when it compounded and he’d have to work for 2-3 hours to catch up he became a hot whiny mess. And this was even after I put the Lego reward on display! The only time he got really excited about “doing homework” was this week when he saw how close he was to the end.

But, he now knows how to do 3-digit addition and subtraction (along with lots of other stuff) and his handwriting is MILES ahead of where it was. We still need to work on reading comprehension and composing sentences, but overall, he did a great job! YAY OWEN!

Owen’s half birthday pool party!

Once again this year, Owen decided to have his birthday party at the community pool with Costco pizzas and cake (which I forgot to get a picture of)! The trade off is that many of his friends are away on vacations…but even though we had a small turnout and it was about 110°, everyone had fun!

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After his party, one of his friends came back to spend a few hours. They had fun playing Xbox and then building Legos.

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After he left, Owen opened his gifts and was COMPLETELY GEEKED to get some Ninjago Legos, a bunch of Pokemon cards, a Nerf bow and arrow, a Star Wars board game, and $15 cash. This was my favorite card he got:

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And it didn’t take long before Owen and Katie had their noses buried in Pokemon cards.

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