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Katie and I spend our Monday mornings at Play & Learn, an indoor playground program in our neighborhood.  Imagine a gym packed with every kind of fun thing for toddlers and you get the idea.  Orgies a long way towards keeping my sanity now that the rainy season is here.

Katie is especially passionateb about the little tikes cars.  They are value real estate in the preschooler economy.

Playtime always ends with everyone sitting in a circle for storytime.  The woman running the program often speaks with an unfortunately cloying, high tone that I refer to aas

Primary Voice, but such is the price I pay cor sanity in the winter.

Yesterday we ventured out to see the 2013 Seattle BrickCon, known as the longest-running LEGO convention in the country.

In sum: an exhibition hall crammed with the most astounding LEGO projects people can imagine.

Brian and I decided that our favorite was the Super Star Destroyer being attacked by a giant red octopus.  Wicked awesome.

There was even a “micro” version of BrickCon itself . . . .

. . . . with a micro-Super-Star-Destroyer-attacked-by-octopus.  So cool!

Most of the projects were reasonably scaled, but there were two standout massive-scale projects.

One was an incredibly detailed replica of Rivendell from the Lord of the Rings films.  My photos really can’t do it justice.

Look!  The Dark Riders are getting attacked by the river horses!

Sooooooo many tiny LEGO flowers.  It truly boggled the mind.

However, that mind-boggle was quickly overcome by the other massive-scale project: possibly the grandest, most detailed LEGO Hogwarts, ever.

SO HUGE.  Little doors were built into the walls to show specific scenes from the book, like the Wizard’s Chess scene from Book 1, or Harry escaping on the Hippogriff from Book 3.

I wish I’d had a better chance to look around for more little details, but the crowds were thick and I had to move on.

Oooooooo, even the Quidditch pitch!!

Other Things of Note:

The Space Needle (this was the first thing the kids wanted to see)

Giant Elaborate Castle (it was sadly overshadowed by Rivendell, which was placed right next to it)

A “Crazy Town” that was put together by a group of siblings.  I liked this one, since it was obviously kid-designed and kid-built.  Excellent use of the pink “LEGO Friends” blocks, there.

R2D2 (the head spun around and lit up)

A Lady Gaga concert (the dancers on stage were automated)

EXTERMINATE!!  (There were a lot of Doctor Who projects)

Giant steampunk traction cities (there is an entire “steampunk” category for the exhibition, along with “castle,” “train & town,” “space,” “pirate,” “micro,” “cars,” “real world buildings,” “dark side,” “mechas,” “characters,” “2D,” and much more)

The rebel base on Yavin 4 from Star Wars (I was especially impressed by this one)

A spooky fun house inspired by the Joker from Batman (the little rides spun around and went up and down)

A scale model of a real-life Tibetian monastery

A timeline of famous battles in history (starting with two cavemen hitting each other with clubs)  — oh yeah, “battles” is another building category

This adorable VW bus & trailer!  (I wish I had the real-life version!)  I loved the “cars” category — they all had trunks and hoods that opened to reveal tiny LEGO engines, just like at a real car show.  Look at the tiny red cooler on top of the bus!!  [swoon]

The kids had a day off from school last Monday, and with a rare sunbreak from the rain, I decided to take them to the zoo.

Katie, funnily enough, has been asking to go to the zoo and ride the merry-go-round for weeks.  This is unusual because I don’t think she’s been to the zoo for 4-5 months.  It’s not often she remembers and talks about something that happened so long ago.

So: carousel, check!

 

Then I let each of the other children choose one favorite thing to see.  Eleanor is reading The Reptile Room in the Series of Unfortunate Events, so she chose the small animal house.  Featured in this picture are a group of Egyptian tortoises, the cutest reptiles ever.

 

 

Jeff wanted to see the Asian small-clawed otters, mainly because there’s a playground nearby with a zipline.  But know what?  Asian small-clawed otters are difficult to photograph.  Instead, I will present you with a very cute photo of all four kids sitting on the statue of the komodo dragon.

 

 

Lastly, William wanted to see the giraffes.  D’awww, his smile is adorable!

 

 

Yes, welcome!  After going to the Seattle Symphony’s performance of “The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses,” Jeff decided to have a Zelda-themed birthday party.  EASIEST PARTY EVER.  Especially since Eleanor made the fabulous party decorations (such as the above sign) all by herself.

By the way, don’t forget to put on your Link hat!  (Not the top hat featured in the sign, of course.)

 

 

Make sure you take lots of Red Potion with you before you start your journey (Red Potions restore half your missing hearts in the game) . . .

 

 

. . . . but be careful:

 

 

There’s MONSTERS ahead!  Better take that sword you found on the centerpiece Jeff made.

 

 

And GOOD LUCK ON YOUR QUEST!

 

 

(I’m using the “qwest” sign as a bookmark now.  Love it.)

Here are all the boys “questing.”  It’s the Zelda Battle Quest game on the Nintendo Land game for the Wii U.  The game can have up to 4 players at once, and the levels are short enough that it was easy to rotate them all through.  Don’t they look adorable in their Link hats?

 

 

After your long journey through the land of Hyrule, there is one more thing to do . . .

 

 

In this case, pizza and Triforce Cupcakes!

 

 

D’awwww.  Ain’t he a sweetie?  Many parents have since reported to me that their sons constantly wear their Link hats now.  Totally worth the time spent making them.

 

It’s always the same . . . I’m exhausted by the homework routine by the end of the school year, thinking, “I can’t wait for the freedom of summer to rejuvenate me!”  But then, after having all four kids home all summer, I think, “I can’t wait for school to start.  We can have structure in our day and it will rejuvenate me!”

Ha.

I’m going to miss these kiddos.  It’s been a very fun summer.  And I obviously need to start cross-posting my Facebook stuff, since none of it is showing up here.  SO HERE YOU GO:

 

Katie insisted that Brian make her a lunch in a lunch box to carry to the school bus.  She was understandably miffed that she wasn’t allowed to board.  Fortunately, the sainted grandmother Kathryn is visiting right now, so hugs all around.

 

Jeff is in 5th, Eleanor in 3rd, and Wimmy is in 1st.  Katie starts preschool tomorrow, yoiks.

And, of course, the school cones.  I felt bad this year because I didn’t find many cute things to put in them — just a few glittery pencils and some candy.  But you know what?  They loved them anyway.  I even found orange Tic-Tacs for Jeff, and he was overjoyed.  “This is my favorite kind of small candy!”  (As opposed to his favorite big kind, Kit-Kat.)  Eleanor proudly noted that this was the first year she untied the school cone, instead of ripping into the tissue paper.  Milestones, milestones.

This week Eleanor and Jeffrey are participating in an all-day theater camp.  William is feeling their absence.

“I really miss them,” he told me this afternoon.  “I miss my Chuthers.”

Chuthers?”

“Yeah,” he explained.  “Like when you say we love each Chuther?”

Ah.  Yes, I do tend to slur the phrase “each other” that way.

“Well, I love my Chuthers a lot.”

Me too, Wimmy.  I’m totally going to refer to the people I love as my Chuthers from now on.

During our trip to the zoo today, the kids insisted I take a group picture of them sitting on this hippo statue. This was the best one. Those knuckleheads.

Burke Museum. He was so excited to hang it up this afternoon, and couldn’t wait for a bird to show up and eat. A few minutes later, Brian and I peeked in the backyard, and this is what we saw:

My Eleanor got baptized!

 

Lucky girl — both sets of grandparents were able to come to Seattle for the event.  There were also so many friends there; it was wonderful to see how much love there is for this little girl.  This was a really spiritual experience for me, and I do not say that lightly.  (Or often.)

 

Unlike in Utah, where the Stake Primary organized everything, we put together everything ourselves (with some help from the ward mission leader).  Everyone in the family participated: William lead the music (Katie assisted by doing interpretive dance during the songs), and Jeffrey and I played a duet of “Keep the Commandments” on the piano.

Grandma Shirts gave a talk about baptism, and Grandma Newey gave one about the Holy Ghost.

When Katie saw Eleanor in the water, she got upset and really wanted to get in, too.  Grandma Shirts explained that it wasn’t her turn.  This placated Katie for a moment, but then lead to her demanding “My turn!” during Eleanor’s confirmation.  Just wait about six more years, baby girl . . .

 

Naturally, this was all followed up by the traditional game of dodgeball in the church gym.

What great kids — what a wonderful evening!