A Pirate Scene

The 5 year old has lately taken an interest in pirate figures when playing with Lego. That seemed to be the primary driving force in the scenario she created that is documented below.

First, a mermaid holding an umbrella had to make an appearance, along with an alligator.

I'm not really sure the reason for the soldier, although I suspect she doesn't differentiate between him and the pirates since he came with some of them. You may notice in the above picture at the far right and in the following the peg-legged pirate is at the end of the line of the main pirate group. That is because he has a peg leg, so he runs slower. Let's now take a look at what they are running towards.

Err, apparently they are headed to fight a group of Storm Troopers and Mandalorians. Wait, I don't think those guys are normally on the same side...

 

I also think that one of the Troopers is holding a katana. Frankly, I am finding this all a bit confusing. As for the bystander...

I'm at a loss to explain any further.

The Big Parade

The long weekend started with building a new Lego house, trying out some new building techniques for the windows and incorporating a nice little side garden by one of our young gardeners. She also added decorative lights over the window.

After building this house, some more came down from the shelf and lined the street. Pretty quickly, in anticipation of Independence Day, a full on parade started to form, being led by a dutiful police officer.

After the horses, the necessary crew showed up as well.

Conveniently a helicopter was available to get an arial shot of the festivities and the gathered crowds.

There might not have been 76 trombones, but it still was a pretty big parade for these little people.

Block People

During parent-teacher conference tonight, these awesome block people were created by the kids while the grownups talked.

The Girl's Clubhouse

A few weeks ago, I decided to adapt one of my earlier architecture experiments into the front entrance of a full fortress. Here is a shot of the main level of the structure in which you can see the older columns surrounding the entrance.

One of my favorite aspects of this building is the way I used 1x2 plates with a handle to hold swords for exterior decoration, in addition to jousting spears for flags and shields to add some color.

After finishing the main layer, I made use of some plates to construct a solid roof. Not sure this is my favorite color for the roof, but it isn't bad, and sometimes you have to work with the available parts.

The bulk of this construction occurred while the rest of the family was out of town, hence how I was able to get all of the decorations in place and not have random red or yellow bricks put in the walls by helpers. But shortly after getting home, it was quickly co-opted by the girls to be their new clubhouse.

More and more often, any thing we build at our house gets used by this group of girls, kicking out any boys that may have been there. At least they were nice enough to do some gardening and put in bushes in front of the building.

And for the curious, here is what the building zone looked like mid-construction.

Here comes the Easter Bunny

Easter is fast approaching our household. After dinner one night, I was asked to help find some parts for a basket, and then to help build a bunny to sit in it. This one was a very collaborative project that we both had a lot of fun building.

Round One ... FIGHT!

Two esteemed sumo wrestlers have entered the ring and are preparing to spar.

Wait, who is that there with them?

Oh no! It appears the sumo ring was actually an ice skating rink!

The biggest problem with ice skating is of course the risk of injury, often requiring a stretcher.

The above started with a sumo wrestling scene I was working on. It was then turned into a longer narrative by an imaginative child which roughly followed the above plot. Somewhere there was an attempt at building crutches that didn't work too well. I also enjoy the fact that in the Lego universe a female ice skater and a sumo wrestler have identical body compositions.

Architecture Experiments

I like to make experiments to try new architectural patterns. In my mind these are small tests to see if I think there is any chance of scaling them up to be part of a larger structure. It hasn't happened yet, but I think at least one of these has a chance. This one is an attempt to make an entrance with columns bordering it. I think some contrasting colors may work better for this style.

This second technique, as you can see, I experimented with some different color combinations. I really like the way the lime green turned out, although the other two color patterns are pretty decent as well.

Now to watch the pick a brick wall for a color of 1x1 round plates to stock up on and try to make a larger building...