Life with Dylan

Category: Lego’s

  • #Lego Minifigures Come to Life

    Wondering what to do with all those Lego Minifigures your child has collected? You know, the ones that come in those shiny little bags … the ones you have to feel and desperately try to guess which one is inside?

    Well, Dylan spent almost all day creating his very own scenes for some of his favorite Lego Minifigures. He still amazes me at what he can create with these little plastic bricks.

    Surfer Girl riding a wave. This one is my favorite and I have been told that I can take it to work and put it on my desk.

    Werewolf howling at the moon in a graveyard.

    Frankenstein coming out of a grave.

    Hockey Player scoring the wining goal on the ice.

    Sailor and Fishing Lawn Nome lost at sea.

    Looks like he caught a shark and was using chum as his bait. (That would be the red stuff in the water)

    High above the water looking out for sharks.

    Hazmat Guy rescuing the Tennis Girl from a contamination at the tennis courts.

    Sumo Wrestler vs. Karate Man in a Japanese hut burning into flames.

    It is Dylan’s dream to work at @Legoand_CA and build his creations.

    All descriptions of these Lego sculptures were given by Dylan.

  • LEGO Star Wars: The Padowan Menace

    Tonight was the premiere of LEGO Star Wars: The Padowan Menace on Cartoon Network and of course, we had to watch it. In fact, we had to arrange our entire schedule today around this special LEGO event. Dylan has had this day marked on his calender for over a week and was actually counting down the minutes until 7 pm tonight.

    The Star Wars blanket was ready on the floor and the smell of popcorn filled the house. The first glimpse of the show starting resulted in what I would call a ‘girl scream’ and a leap off the couch.

    Yes, I would say Dylan was excited to see LEGO Star Wars: The Padowan Menace.

    ** Spoiler Alert **

    Although this was Dylan’s choice of movies, I must admit I loved it!

    The LEGO Padowan children going on a field trip and encountering various destinations as  C-3PO and R2-D2 attempt to fly the school bus/ship was a great parallel to the new Star Tours ride at Disneyland. The crash landing on Hoth was my favorite.

    Another really funny and creative aspect to this movie was seeing George Lucas as a LEGO. He appears every so often, as the director, to inform Darth Vader that he is not in the scene. At one point he even reminds Darth Vader that anyone can wear that mask. Hilarious!

    Seeing all of the LEGO characters that Dylan has built come to life on the screen was a wonderful way for him and I to connect. After watching this with him, I have a little bit better understanding of why he loves his LEGO’s so much.

    So the next time you see a child playing with LEGO’s try to use your imagination … you know, that thing that use to come so naturally to us when we were younger? Imagine those little pieces of plastic coming to life like they did in LEGO Star Wars: The Padowan Menace.

    You can watch a trailer of the movie over at the LEGO site and play some cool online games too!

    Did you watch LEGO Star Wars: The Padowan Menace?  
    What did you think?

  • Dylan’s Lego Birthday – Part 2

    One birthday party down and another to one to go. Well, this wasn’t really a party … more of a celebration.

    Ever since Dylan received a certificate from his school for a free kids meal at Joe’s Crab Shack he has been asking to go there for dinner. What better time to go than for his birthday?

    Nothing fancy. Just Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Steph and us.

    I was amazed at the amount of food this 8 year old could put away! Give him some fresh seafood and he is in heaven.  Calamari, shrimp, and of course crab!

    The best part of the birthday celebration was when it was time for the staff of Joe’s Crab Shack to embarrass, or should I say recognize, the birthday boy! The announcement was made to everyone that someone was having a birthday and this is what happened next.

    Huge foam cowboy hat about 5 sizes too big!

    Must stand on his chair.

    Staff singing him the “short” birthday song

    And he loved every minute of it!

    Once dinner was finished we headed off to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for presents and ice cream cake.

    What? Another LEGO?

    … and a LEGO watch?

    I still can’t believe my little boy is 8 years old. Where does the time go?

  • Dylan’s Lego Birthday – Part 1

    Last week was Dylan’s 8th birthday and the festivities seemed to go on forever. Maybe that is why I kept putting off writing this blog post. Or maybe it is because I was hoping for something a little more exciting to write about. So much time and preparation went into planning Dylan’s LEGO Birthday party. Everything he wanted, I somehow managed to make happen. The only thing I couldn’t do was make people show up!

    Yes, I said it, people didn’t show up to his party. I wonder what posses a parent to RSVP with a yes and confirm via email only days before the party and then not show up. No call, no email, no text … nothing. Only three kids showed up and two of them were twins, so that doesn’t really count. So basically, two people showed up out of the seven who said they would be here. Well, we made the best of it and still had fun!

    The living room was transformed into a Lego-wonderland and the kids had time to build whatever they wanted. Some of the creations were great! We even had a jar filled with Lego’s and the person who guessed the closest to how many Lego’s were in it won a prize. I knew there was a good reason for Dylan to own so many Lego’s.

    Next we played Lego Bingo with a great template I found  from Amy at LivingLocurto.com The kids loved this game so much that we played three times! Since all the kids didn’t show up, I had extra prizes to give away … see I found one positive already!



    Using Lego mini kits we also had races to see who could build the kit the fastest. However, I was so busy watching the kids that I forgot to take pictures of this. Oops!

    Mini Corn Dogs, Cheese Balls, and Fresh Fruit
    Cake designed by Dylan – Made by Mom

    All in all, the kids had a good time. The birthday kit from the Lego Store was huge hit with kids too!

    I guess the mom in me just feels bad that my son couldn’t have had a better party. The party that he had dreamed about.

    Is there something wrong with home birthday parties? Do parents only want to go if the party is at a pool or a bounce house like Jump ‘n Jammin? Do I need to pay hundreds of dollars on a game truck and invite 30 people to get kids to come to my son’s birthday party? A birthday party is not a place to drop off all your kids (siblings included) so you can have the day to yourself. A birthday party is for the birthday child and his or her friends.

    I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

  • The Coveted Boba Fett Slave I

    Yes, another Lego posting. But this one is different … the biggest one yet that Dylan built entirely on his own. He has been eyeing this particular Lego (Boba Fett’s Slave I) for some time now and he finally had enough money saved up to buy it. Well, ok … almost enough money. I pitched in $25 as an early birthday present and he had the other $40. The remaining $15 was paid with Lego VIP points and an additional 10% discount for showing our Legoland pass when we made the purchase at the Lego Store.

    After opening the box and sorting out all the bags he prepared himself by taking a deep breath and letting me know that he would need to be left alone so that he could concentrate.

    With bag 1 opened and sorted onto paper plates he began what would be a 5 hour Lego project.

    I thought it would be fun to capture a picture every 30 minutes to watch his progress.

    30 minutes 

    1 hour 

    1:30 hours 

    2 hours

    It’s now 9:30 pm. Time for bed, but he will start again as soon as he wakes up in the morning.

    Bag #2 opened and ready to go

    3 hours

    Bag #3 ready to go – 3:30 hours

    4 hours

    4:30 hours – almost done!

    5 hours and it’s finally done

    Dylan was so proud of himself after building this Boba Fett Slave I. He kept reminding me that it had 573 pieces and was for ages 9-14


    Life is so much better with LEGO’s

  • LEGO Addiction?

    Is it possible to be addicted to LEGO’s? These small pieces of plastic seem to have taken over my son’s bedroom. The shelves that were once filled with hundred of books are now home to hundreds of dollars worth of tiny Lego’s. Every penny Dylan gets is now saved up to buy the latest Lego collection so he can build something else.

    Granted I love that he is using his brain and building these wonderful creations, perfecting his hand-eye coordination, and buying something other than video games … but SERIOUSLY, they have taken over  his room!

    We still have all the books, they were just moved to other places. And the Lego’s that didn’t fit on the shelves in his room … well, they have been  placed on a shelf in his closet!

  • Wordless Wednesday – Worth Every Penny Dylan Had!

  • Who Knew LEGO’s Could Be So Much Fun?

    After learning some fascinating facts about LEGO’s and seeing how LEGO’s are made, Dylan’s mind went into overload!

    All it takes is a visit to the LEGO Factory at Legoland and the imagination of a child takes off. Hours of play using nothing but his hands and his imagination. Three hours of building with these little pieces of plastic resulted in a campfire scene complete with a rainbow tent and animals of all sorts. No instruction booklet needed, he just used his creative abilities.

    Yes, that is a bat on top of the rainbow tent. The odd looking thing in the front? Why a beaver building his dam of course! What else would it be?

    A monkey and an owl in a tree.
    A snake, turtle and skunk family.

    People around the campfire cooking a fish.

    So proud of himself!  I don’t think I could have done this if I tried.

  • The Easter Bunny Is Awesome!

    Yes, at almost 8 years old Dylan still wakes up at 6:30 am to see what the Easter Bunny brought to him. After all his dental work, Dylan was a little worried because his sugar intake is now limited. What will the Easter Bunny bring me?

    To make sure the Easter Bunny still stopped by our house, we made special Easter Eggs for him to find and hide. No ordinary dyed eggs would do this year… we made our own colored eggs with melted crayon wax!  What a cool science experiment too. As soon as the eggs came out of the hot water, Dylan carefully applied the crayon to the egg. Instead of just coloring the egg, the crayon began to melt and the result was a beautiful shinny finish on each egg. And the best part, no messy dye to clean up!

    Much to Dylan’s surprise, the Easter Bunny filled his basket with not candy … but LEGO’s! The best part, he didn’t even care about the candy! A couple eggs filled with jellybeans and a small box of chocolate sat in the basket while Dylan ripped open the new Pirates of the Caribbean LEGO’s and began building at 7 am.

    Now it was off to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for the annual egg hunt in the backyard. This is one of Dylan’s favorite things because he knows these eggs contain something much better than candy … MONEY!

    Ok, this is just a little too easy. Maybe Grandpa needs to think of some new hiding places for the eggs next year.

    Dylan found all 24 plastic eggs and walked away with $7 plus a few chocolate eggs. After all was said and done, Dylan said, “Mom, the Easter Bunny is Awesome!”

    Make your child smile like Dylan did with the newest Lego Collection, Pirates of the Caribbean. 

  • Made My Son Cry Today …

    We all know how much Dylan loves LEGO’s … especially Star Wars LEGO’s! He has spent all his money on new Star Wars LEGO’s and they are now displayed in his room. (that is for another day’s post) However, there is one particular set that he really wants and has been asking for. Every time we go in the LEGO store or into Target he just stares at it. He keeps asking and I keep saying no. Dylan is learning the value of the all mighty dollar and that money must be earned. Yes, I even said ‘money doesn’t grow on trees ya know’ … wow, just like a parent huh?

    Well, today we had to run some errands to get a few things for our vacation and once again he asked to go look at the LEGO’s. As he stared with awe he said, “Mom, I’m going to keep saving until I have enough money and buy this. It’s on sale for $35.99” He then proceeded to walk away and I put the LEGO box in the cart. We continued our shopping and I told him that maybe if he helped clean the house today and kept doing so well in school that he could earn the LEGO set. Mind you, he has been walking alongside the cart moping like he just lost his best friend. Just then he looked in the cart and tears began to roll down his face. He ran to me and hugged me so tightly. I asked why he was crying and he said, “Because I’m so happy” This is when I knew I made the right choice when I put the box in the cart.