Building the Death Star

This Christmas Santa brought us the Lego "Death Star" set, which contains a 250 page instruction book and nearly 4,000 pieces. 

It turned into a really fun family project over the holiday break.

Lennon helped out on some of it, but most of the time he would create new objects with the spare pieces.

Dwarves and Orcs in the Death Star? 

Maybe Sauron could have won with this thing...

I finished it up late last night when there were about 100 pieces left. 

Legoland Discovery Center

I took the Lukas, Lennon, Keira and Kassidy to Legoland Discovery Center in Grapevine this afternoon. I took advantage of the discounted after 4pm admission. The kids liked it, I thought it was a bit underwhelming and am glad to not have paid full admission. Here are some pictures:

DFW airport:


Downtown Dallas:


Southfork Ranch:


Their favorite thing was the Kingdom Quest ride:



Keira and Kassidy enjoyed the play area with giant bricks:






They each built a car and raced it down a ramp. Well, they had to make of with what they got, lots of bigger kids hogging certain Legos:









At the earthquake center they showed team building skills:



And Lennon found a motorcycle:



Overall the kids had fun, but were a bit overwhelmed by the amount of people, especially the ones throwing giant bricks, I had to brace myself not to tell other parents to teach their kids how to behave;)

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Cintiq Sketching

Katharine was especially proud of this picture that she sketched up on my Cintiq yesterday:

Dollhouse Entertainment

Maya and Katharine had a virtual play-date earlier tonight over Skype on our iPads.

Of course, Katharine had to set hers up like a big screen TV inside her dollhouse.

Up in a tree

While the weather outside is frightful, here are some pictures from just ten days (and an additional 40 degrees) ago that I hadn't posted.

The kids and I went on a bike ride with Jeramy and Maya to a favorite park of theirs. Katharine and Maya went up a tree, and Lukas rode down grassy hills. Lennon and Kassidy stuck to the traditional playground fare of slides and swings.

Queue up Iria's gasp....

 now

From me to me

If I was going to buy myself a Christmas present, it would be the LEGO Star Wars 'Death Star' set.

And then I would work on it with the kids over the holiday break, spending quality time with them hunting down tiny wedge pieces and acting out movie scenes as the build came together.

So far, everything is off to a great start.

Bag(s) one complete, nine more to go!

Gifts from Katharine

Everybody received custom-made gifts from Katharine this year.

Lukas's was one of my favorites- she assembled a bunch of loose LEGO pieces and drew up some instructions for making a build. One mini-figure was included.

For me, she thought up a new twist on the classic "give my Dad a tie" gift.

She cut off the bottom of the tie, sealed up the bottom, added some Velcro, and turned it into an iphone holder. Iria's glass cozy is also shown.