Greater Midwest Lego Train Club

We finally made it to the "Lego museum". I think we'll be heading back ASAP thou unfortunately that won't be until June. This Lego club is only open the 2nd Saturday of every month but they'll be relocating these next few months to a bigger location. It is operated by Lego enthusiasts, or Geeks (:

James reacting to his first sighting of the Lego city-

 

There were huge card tables set up with Lego creations, all with railroad tracks around them. I guess Lego enthusiasts are allowed to bring their Lego trains to this place and they'll run them on the track. That could be fun for James in the future, if he ever gets into trains.

So we walked around the perimeter and admired all the Legos.

 

 

 

There were windows or peep holes that James enjoyed looking into- usually mini figures were hiding in them.

 

 

 

 

 

Awwww. This reminded us of Tia Kiki and Tio Berto.

 

This was my favorite little display. A bike trail with flowers and a river. Pretty.

 

Lego mountain!

 

The main Lego Geek.

The true Lego company does not put out military sets. This company, GMLTC or Brickmania, does make its own sets or weapon pieces. James didn't show too much interest.

 

 

 

James was excited to see SpongeBob!

 

This display was under construction. I guess they are recreating a St. Paul street with the Ordway and Landmark Center.

The Landmark Center- looks like they used some Harry Potter castle parts (:

 

 

We spied Spiderman.

 

We bought some tiny pizzas from the retail area. They were $2 and I couldn't resist!

 

 

Awesome.

 

I was jealous of their organization and storage. A nice man told me this was 1/3 of their storage- there is more behind the scenes. But how lovely to organize by color and then shape. Of course our collection can't compare and maybe we would use six total drawers!

 

More storage.

 

 

 

 

The retail area. Pricey, hard to find sets and lots of miscellaneous small parts (like the pizzas we ended up buying.)

 

Spying the retail area, James was suddenly much more charming and willing to pose for a picture... Hmmmm...

Their own bricks- the weapons.

 

 

The place is run on donations. A free place? Wonderful! But James did put in some cash from us.

 

Starting to get a little cranky. No Lego set in his hand...

What a great place though! We'll definitely return and hopefully spend more time there. I think a scavenger hunt would be fun- there are just so many hidden mini figures and buildings we probably didn't see!

 

 

 

 

WJDN?

Chillaxin' with Dad.

We don't discriminate

We play with "girls' toys" here. I bought this Lego set because I was excited by the bakery (:

James agreed that we can share the set, but it is mine. I guess I stress that so he doesn't think I bought him a new set.

His review-

 

 

Work

So big news in my school district tonight.

I have a bit of drama/bullying going on at my own school. Hopefully it will be resolved tomorrow.

 

Nemo and Pez

Did I never share James' new pets? His new fish are named Nemo and Pez (Spanish for fish).

 

Each morning he gets up and feeds them solo, if he can get the fish food can open on his own. He also feeds them at night. He's taken good care of them so far!

Our Life

These pictures are from last weekend but they are still true today. James is a creative, demanding boy. He loves to create and play with us. On this weekend day Jim and James play the wii driving game. It was pretty darn funny! James is a terrible driver (:

 

And this is our living room. The Lego City has taken over!

 

 

Snow Day with Mom 3/29

We woke up to a significant amount of snow- not a ton but enough snow and ice for my school district to call a rare Snow Day. It was a good thing because I overslept. My iPad is never too far away so when I reached for it to email my school I was going to be late, I went on autopilot to Facebook where I saw post after post from my colleagues that it was a snow day!

What to do on a snow day but make the kitchen nice and cozy with the smell of peanut butter cookies? They were all done before 9:30am! And my strange little boy wouldn't try one bite! His loss...

James grew tired of Legos by 10am (imagine that!) so I convinced him to go upstairs with me to play. This rocket ship from Grandma Rose was great fun AND it goes with his daycare's monthly theme- outer space!

We also set up the train tracks. James had a great idea of creating a tunnel from his chairs.

AND THEN we went outside!! James raced me to put on his coat and boots first. He won (:

 

Sledding down our hill.

 

We wrestled and laughed in the snow.

Oh dear. No make-up on this Mom...

 

It was a fun day!

 

Another Pretty Cool Set

Our deprived child had to create his own set this week since we don't just buy new toys for the heck of it. (He's learning!)

He created this Krusty Krab "set", an idea from the SpongeBob tv show.

Enjoy!

 

 

WJDN?

Cuddling with Dad (:

 

 

Kindergarten, here we come!

The kindergarten roundup happened on February 23. We turned in James' registration papers and started the process of registering him for Spanish immersion kindergarten!

There were four stations for families to visit- story time, art activity, registration bad bus ride, and finally a morning meeting.

I didn't capture a picture of the story time because it required heavy concentration for me- you see, it was all in Spanish. It was amazing how naturally the children fell into the routine of listening quietly, repeating the words at a prompt, and how it did seem they understood bits and pieces. The story was maybe a familiar one for everyone- Where the Wild Things Are. I understood quite a bit, but I wondered about Jim's comfort level. I guess for him he had a similar experience to the kids (:

James at the art activity. The directions were given in Spanish with a brief demonstration. Stringing froot loops on to yarn.

Registration and bus ride. The adults were to turn in papers or fill them out (we came with ours completed). The kids were asked to line up and go for a bus ride. I wasn't sure if James would go without us, and we made no move to budge from our seats, but he went willingly with the other kids and teacher. I quickly snapped a picture of his departure but didn't make a big deal of it until he came back. He LOVED the bus!

The last station was the morning meeting, a kindergarten start to a day full of songs, check ins, and calendar/weather chat. This teacher was my favorite, she seemed the most natural with children if this age and also her Spanish didn't seem forced. There was another teacher with good Spanish (a native speaker) but she was from Chile and I found her harder to understand.

Anyway, fun station. She was very animated and fun.

Here's one cute song she led the children through.