If You Build It...

A while ago, I did a blog on Ryan building things. This is a follow up to that blog. Ryan LOVES to build things. He loves Legos. He builds really cool contraptions of his own design. Recently he has found some MegaBlock collections that Mark built in the past. He and I have built a fighter jet (Blue Angels)

and a destroyer.

He also spent quite a bit of time this summer assembling the Rippin' Rocket Roller Coaster - a K'Nex structure that is bigger than he is. We took pictures of the MegaBlock creations, but unfortunately did not get a picture of the roller coaster before it got destroyed. I did find a picture of it when Mark built it in 2003 that I included here.

Ryan has also recently came across an Electronic Snap Kit that we have. It lets you put different electronic components on a board and hook them up to a battery. Depending on the configuration of the components, you can turn on lights, play music, turn a motor, etc. It teaches basics about circuits and lets you learn about switches, resistors, capacitors, transistors, etc. Ryan loves that thing. He has spent hours making circuits. On Saturday I had to tell him to do something else because after two hours of laser gun sounds and sirens, I was getting a head ache.

He's a great kid! We are glad he is in our family.

Halloween 2009

We had a fun Halloween. Lauren had big plans for her costume and had been planning it way in advance as usual. At the last minute, she decided that she wanted to do something else. It was touch and go for a minute, but she decided to be an aviator / Amelia Erhart. She wore my leather jacket, Great Grandpa Lindsey's safety goggles, a bat costume hat turned inside out and a scarf. I love this picture of her. It is really cute.

Joseph didn't plan his costume at all (or we didn't plan it for him.) We tried to stuff him into his Bob the Builder costume from last year, but it was too small for him then and this year we didn't have a prayer. Lauren found a bee costume that we had made for Mark years ago and Joseph was happy to put it on.

Ryan had costume trauma this year. He wanted to be a skeleton for a long time. We came up with a skeleton costume for him, but he didn't like it. At the last minute we threw a baseball hat and giant glasses on him. The glasses came off after the first house, so he was a baseball player.

After the kids got back from trick-or-treating, Marsha and I tried on some of the costume accessories. I was wearing Lauren's goggles and aviator helmet. Notice the slimming affect it has on my face. Marsha put on Joe's bee hat and Ryan's glasses. Aren't we cute? We rival Brad and Stef in their costumes.

Mark's costume this year consisted of making a Belgium flag and taping it on his shirt. He went as a Flem. Strange boy. The day after Halloween, he was messing around with Joe's bee costume. This is the result.