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.
Presents have been opened. Katie was thrilled Santa got her the Ouija board she asked for but was upset it “didn’t work.” Tom liked seeing what he bought me…and everything we got the kids. And now the kids have disappeared…so Tom is napping and I’m reading a book with a cuddly dog.
I was looking for something in the upstairs hallway cabinets when I found this.
You have got to be kidding me.
So instead of putting her clean clothes away… Katie decided to stuff the entire bag into the cupboards. By process of elimination I figured they’d been there about a week.
Admittedly I bitched a lot beforehand about Anna making us go to Lightscape (I’m turning into a major homebody as I get older!)…but it ended up to be super cool and I have apologized.
I saw these on Amazon and had to try them. They are reflective — which is cool but obviously I can never see them because I’m in the car. And there was only enough to do this on both sides (unless I wanted to add more “string” between each bulb). Also, can’t wait to see if they stay on as the magnets aren’t that strong. But it’s cute, right?
Tom hauls everything up, puts the tree together, then comes back to do the star. Unfortunately the lights in the star were dead and we didn’t realize until it was attached.
I was so busy with a houseful of guests and dinner prep that I barely had time to look at my phone (so most of these are from everyone else)! But it was so worth it to have everyone together — from Georgia (Filipek), Michigan (Schwalm & Coe), and Illinois (Schwalm & Hudson). And our best friends joined us, too…and fit right in!
Puzzle #2Still can’t believe Izzy’s a college sophomore!Izzy wanted to steal Olive.
Then we did some reenactment shots!
I can’t believe it was 22 years between these photos. But we all still look the same, right?! Also: no kids in 2000, six kids in 2022!
The whole gang!Yes, two turkeys. Smoked and fried!We easily had enough food for 4x as many people. Kids tablePhotobomber!
We excitedly volunteered to host the Schwalm side family thanksgiving this year—Filipeks usually host in Atlanta but they’ve recently downsized and didn’t have room. We had plenty of room for everyone (most even stayed with us—kicking the kids out of their rooms of course)!
Everyone had varied arrival times, but by Wednesday afternoon everyone was here! It makes my heart so happy to see my kids having fun with their cousins.
Puzzle #1A little rest in some downtime.
Dinner for 21 is served! Charcuterie that takes up our entire kitchen island!
CousinsEven family ends up gathering at the bar…I think we need stadium seating!
All good reports on all subjects—plus she’s gaining confidence in math!
I enjoy looking at all their assignments and photos in the hallway. These were from their unit on phases of the moon—they got to make them using Oreos!
Katie helped me take apart some beauty advent calendars to save some space. She owed me some work after she took some of my makeup (from my office) without asking.
Olive was being a pain in the butt so Katie put her in one of the boxes we just emptied. Olive didn’t seem to mind too much.
I had asked her to make sure the bathroom was picked up for the housekeepers. She said it was done. So imagine my surprise when I walked by this morning and saw this disaster.
And I was even more shocked when I looked under the sink (I was shoving stuff in there to quickly get it out of the way).
And these disgusting glasses filled with who knows what.
And this is where she thought it was appropriate to put dishes.
Guess who just lost her phone for a good long time?
Yes, that’s her on TikTok.
I had to use her phone to figure out something with her watch and she was out of space so I was going to delete some photos/videos…and found this. And then a whole slew of videos.
UMMMMM WHAAAAAAAAT?!
I had TikTok locked down. I had no idea how she did this. Originally I didn’t even think to look at the time stamps on her phone…but they were last night between 10-11:15. After bedtime.
Ugh.
To start with, she knows TikTok isn’t allowed, let alone her having her own account. Even legally, you have to be 13. But there she was, with a bunch of videos uploaded!
UGH.
And a few of them were completely inappropriate.
UGHHH.
And I couldn’t even figure out how to delete her account—I had to prove I was her by verifying her email (which I had access to) but it wasn’t working.
UGHHHHH.
Then I noticed another new account she shouldn’t have had. And a bunch of new apps I don’t remember her asking for.
It was a long and frustrating day. But she’s lucky I had all day to calm down while she was at school…because I was LIVID.
So Tom was home and we presented a united force. During our conversation, she finally told us how she was able to do it. Are you ready? When I was gone to Ohio, Owen snagged Tom’s phone (because he hadn’t changed his password after the last incident) to log into the app we use to control their phones and give himself more time allowance—and Katie said she wanted stuff, too, so they changed all sorts of permissions. She lost her devices for a month. And I deleted almost every app off her phone.
So then we called Owen down. And after a bit, he admitted that he did that. We were really surprised and upset because he got in trouble for this exact thing previously. So, since it was his second offense, he lost devices for two months. Katie wasn’t smart enough to keep her mouth shut and said well she did it before, too…so fine, we increased her one month to two. So both have lost their devices for two months (phones, ipads, Xbox).
Technology and social media is a nightmare. We were doing the right things with programs meant to help us and protect them but they got around it. Good times.
To Owen’s credit, he REALLY handled it all well. Tom and I had anticipated Owen losing his crap because this was the biggest punishment he’s received… but he was actually amazing! You could obviously tell he was disappointed, but he didn’t lose his cool at all, stayed calm, didn’t try to hurt himself, didn’t storm off or cry… We were both surprised and thrilled.
Katie, on the other hand, ended up fighting and arguing and yelling and crying and slamming her door. After about an hour she was okay.
I asked her to start some of her laundry last night. I didn’t check the laundry room until the morning and found this. The room was CLEAN the last time I checked. GRRR.
