Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Brick Fair

I remember reading about Brick Fair last year and thinking how much the kids would like it.  Unfortunately, we didn't make it last year so when I found out about this year's convention, I felt like we just had to go!  We ended up planning a day trip with the Amos family and had a really great time!  Cody didn't know where we were going so everyone decided to keep it a secret for him :)  I asked Cody many times throughout the day if he wanted me to tell him.  He voted to keep it a surprise.

We left our house around 10:15 Saturday morning, stopped to pick up the Amos crew and were off.  On the way, we stopped at Jim N Nick's.  I think I've only been there one other time, years and years ago when Cody was in Children's Hospital.  The kids have never had it before and really liked it.  I got a potato, but it honestly wasn't as good as Big Bob Gibson's.  At any rate, the food was good, everyone enjoyed their meal and we chatted for about an hour before heading on to Birmingham.

We arrived at the BJCC to see a line...a VERY long line of people waiting to get in.  It was nearly 2:00 and it only went until 4:00.  In my brain, that two hours just wasn't long enough.

We were able find a handicapped parking spot less that a block away, which we were very thankful for.  To pay for parking would have been an additional $8 or so.  Plus, we didn't have to walk super far. Anyway, we made our way to the end of the line and I noticed we would be in the shade.  It was windy and cool out, so being in the shade would have been too cold for The Boy.  So we stayed in the sunshine and waited for the rest of the group to catch up to us :)
 
Cody and Zachary

We couldn't believe Cody didn't see this!

Three wheeled Segway, baby!
 
 Look!  They caught up to us :)

I was there, too!

Britney and Emily
Just look at those beautiful girls!


Once inside, Cody realized what we were doing.  Mostly because of the kid behind us jumping up and down saying, "I see LEGOS!  We're here!!"  :)  He was very happy and all of the kids were really excited!  Emily and Brit were so pumped about this convention!  I just love those girls.

The room the event was held in was smaller than I imagined and it was PACKED!  There were so many displays.  I honestly wanted several of them!

WALL-E


R2D2

There was this large, computer controlled chess game.  All of the pieces were built out of Legos with moving parts.  It was very cool!  The girls went to watch and Brit was quite perturbed when that guy stepped in front of them.  There was a lot of that going on...mostly adults being rude.  Nice example there, buddy.


 There were many different buildings, cities, trains...


HUGE battleship

Super Heros

I see pixels


Star Wars
 

Number 5 is ALIVE!



Nyan Cat & Waffle Cat


  Brit and Cody each got a bucket full of Lego pieces.  They also built their own mini-figures.  I think the Amos kids did too, but I was just keeping up with my own at this point!  That place was crowded!  :)


Cody picking out his mini-figs noggin'
 After Cody picked out his mini, he went to a table where they were selling accessories.  Most of them were $1 a piece.  Some $1.50.  He bought $3.50 worth of stuff.  And then another $3.50 worth of stuff.  I asked Cody if he was going to spend all of his money there, and he matter of factly said, "Yeah, I am."
Iron Giant
 Britney really liked the beach scene.  It was fun to look through and pick out the funny things.  For instance, Superman was on the top of that red building, there were seagulls, penguins, scorpions, mermaids, and dinosaurs on the beach.  In the little cafe area next to the blue building, Harlequin and The Joker were sitting at a table together.  That kid has a good eye!
PCB

LOVED this castle!

Herbie

My sweet two


 

I don't know how there could have been THAT many people there and us not get a picture with all of us in it.  Oh well.  I think two hours was plenty of time, but I can see how we could have easily spent another hour.  I know there were things we missed.

I'm very happy we were able to go and spend that time with our friends.  We headed out a little after 4:00, dropped them off at their house and were home by 6:00.  I think we all slept pretty well that night.

Thankful for another successful adventure!

LEGO Castle Medieval Market Village

Remember THIS post?  Brit and Cody were SO excited about that LEGO Castle.  They took all of the pieces out of the box and put a few things together.  Then the table needed to be cleaned off, so they'd throw everything back in the box.  This happened several times, until they quit pulling the box back out.  I believe it ended up somewhere in the deepest, darkest parts of Cody's bedroom. Well a year later, nearly to the day, Brit decided to get it back out to work on it. 
 


And work on it she did!


She put all of the smaller objects together - the tree, wagon, table, market stand, etc and she also did one of the buildings.  Then the next day, I put the blue building together.  I seriously enjoyed doing it!  Max and I played with Legos when we were kids, but we always just went off our imaginations.  We never had a boxed set so I've never built something like this.  Pretty cool.

The finished product

Walk with friends

I met up with the Bothwells and the Crawfords (who brought Brit) and walked nearly 5.5 miles at the refuge last weekend.  I really enjoyed it.  It wasn't too cool out or too windy.  We listened to the Sandhill Cranes and Whooping Cranes and decided they sound like velociraptors :)  They make the coolest sounds!  











Photo by Esther Crawford

It really was a wonderful day with some pretty awesome people!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

This week

(Which was actually last week!)

One of Britney's Christmas presents was art classes at Shop Around the Corner for a month.  She had her first class on Tuesday.  She enjoyed it very much, but at the same time she isn't accustomed to someone telling her how to do things...especially something like art.  But like I told her, that's the point of the class.  It's offering her a different perspective and new ways of doing things.  She's anxious for her next class!

During her class, Cody and I went to BooksAMillion.  We spent a good chunk of time in their LEGO section.  He was very interested in getting THIS book, which is funny because I was just looking at it online the other night.  He didn't get it because he wanted something else more, but we checked an old gift card and there's enough on there for him to buy it.  I imagine he will next time we're there.



















On Thursday night, Britney went to audition for Father of the Bride.  This is with the same theatre group that she did Little Women with.  She's VERY excited about this one.  I'll update when they post the cast list!



Brit spent the night with Emily on Thursday night.  Em had originally invited her for Friday night, but Bobby and I had dinner plans.  Those plans were cancelled because of illness so she ended up spending Friday night as well.  Chan was there Friday night as well...HAPPY GIRLS :)

Today, I met the Crawfords (who brought Brit with them) and KT and her family to hike over at the refuge.  I guess it's actually called walking since it's flat, but walking doesn't sound as good....so hiking it is!  We did 5.32 miles so that's better than nothing!  I'd like to go again tomorrow with Bobby while we are having these 65*- 70* days but it's suppose be storming and rainy all day.  Then it's going to get cold again.  I hate winter in Alabama.  I can't handle the back and forth.  If it's 70 degrees one day, it shouldn't be 37 the next.  The end.

Where we've been as a family