Lego Surprise

I heard in November that a Lego show was coming to the area in April and it was a good idea to buy tickets sooner rather than later.  So I bought them and decided not to give them to him for his birthday, that would be a long time to wait.  Easter would be better so I tucked them in my 2016 calendar and waited.  Easter rolls around and I had bought him so much other stuff, I decided to just make it a Sunday surprise.  I wrote it on our calendar in the stairwell and one day he read it and wondered what it meant.  I said it was a surprise and he would have to wait until that Sunday.  He really did not ask about it after that until Sunday morning when he said it was the day for his surprise.  And then it started, whining about his disappointing life so far with surprises and he hates surprises, why can't I just tell him etc for the next two hours.  He did ask if it was Legos and since I cannot lie when you guess something, my face gives it away if I try, That did not really placate him very much and he continued as we drove to the farm show. And then he saw the lines of people walking to the doors and complained about that.  Then he complained about the long walk from the parking lot to the same door.  And then I pointed out there was a Lego show here.  Finally a breakthrough, he said if it had something to do with Legos, he was going to like it.  And then he started to get a bit excited and finally was in Lego overload!  They were everywhere.  And people were everywhere.  The lines were longest to take photos with the figures but since we were there at opening time, I figured that would die down eventually. So we worked our way around the place. 

Lego City with super heroes everywhere, being super. 

Rocky and Groot 

The tiger was near a zebra and giraffe 

One of the Ninjago ningas 

Stormtrooper selfie 

Rey from The Force Awakens 

BB8

The back of the Hulk Buster 

And the front 

Groot Selfie 

By far his favorite was the car building and racing.  We did that several times.  

Last minute repair. 

The Lego pile 

that you can crawl into.  The adults in yellow are breaking up the pieces the kids leave in their wake.  

A marble maze on a pivot that you can move around to get the marble through the maze.  We ran into his teacher and her family leaving this area and he had fun seeing her outside of school.  Because they have lives outside the classroom, I told him.  

He made a shield with a bull. 

Which was upside down when we put in on the board.  Oh well.  

The Scooby Doo and gang were neat in that they were flat and the same on both sides.  

Finally the line was short enough for the Hulk and Iron Man selfies. 

We decided to share a Farm Show (actually PA Dairy Farmers) milkshake. At $5.00, two were not in the budget.  Dad said the last time he got one they were $1.25. 

Back to the car tables. 

Milk shake selfie.  My favorite part of the Lego show. 

His super racer.  

He did not want to wait for a photo with Spiderman, even though they were printing them for free.  

He worked on a square art piece while I stood in line for the Star Wars figures. 

Boba Fett

Chewbacca 

I helped the mom and son in front of us to take photos together and she in turn helped me out.  

He made another bull with grass and I made a love note to him. 

A vendor at the show demonstrating their foam building toys. Kind of like foam tinker toys. 

My car on our third racing event.  I reinforced my chassis and I did not experience the car blow up as most of the cars experienced.  I passed on my knowledge to him for his next car and it worked out well for him.  

It did not get old racing his cars with anyone willing, which they all were.  

He played on this wall while I filled out a form for State Farm so I could get a plastic piggy bank.  He wrote Hi Lego Man in one peg pieces.  

And then put in his coin to get the piggy bank, for me. 

Our next to last stop was the mixels table.  

He did buy a small Ninjago set and I picked up some Lego Fest mini-figures and we headed home.  We were not home 10 minutes and I got a text from Ryder's mom asking if Baylor could come over.  He ate some lunch and we headed over there.  

While I would have loved to prop up my feet in front of the TV embroidering something, I used my time wisely and worked on the black raspberries.  Nearly done! I took two loads to the bank and still have more to thin out.  

Smokin In the Snow

I woke up to a light dusting of snow on the grass but of course that did not stop me from getting out the grill to smoke some pork!  And the snow did not last and turned to light, misty rain.  I had the pork butt from last Sunday and some ribs from Aldi.  The ribs took up all of a 13 x 11 cookie sheet and I had to cut off the one end to make it fit on the pan.  The butt smoked for several hours first and then I added the ribs for a few hours.  I also made a Polish cabbage soup in the morning. It was a fun morning in the kitchen. 

Mom and Dad came over in the late morning.  Her face when I told her the story of the asparagus, her favorite veggie. 

It was really snowing on their drive down to us and it was not even raining at our place as we headed to Heather's (the pork was now braising in the oven).  Heather did not even get any rain and had to take the kids to soccer, which did not make her happy as she was hoping for a weather reschedule. 

We exchanged Easter gifts with the kids. Since we were not seeing them until after Easter, I picked up several items on Easter clearance!  

Crazy cousins.  We had a nice visit, although a short one.  John and Connor had plans to meet Larry, their brother in laws, and Josh, their nephew, in Hershey for a hockey game.  Heather and Brigid had a girls night planned so we left shortly after the boys did.  

And we had pork for supper!   But no asparagus. 

Round Up

4-4

Early Birthday Cake for Diane as we would not be seeing her tomorrow on her birthday.  

Baylor got to blow out the candle so he was much pleased. 

4-5

Darth Vader straw cups are always a good thing 

So are Eddy cuddles 

He has been making menus for dinner.  He had a number 1, 4 and 5.  

4-6 

My new favorite mug 

Tonight we played basketball. 

My heart in all his goofiness. 

4-7

Dinner with my crazies, yes I claim them as mine 

Jumbo badminton 

With a lovely sky when we finally went inside 

4-8

My date with the train on the way into work. 66 cars 

The forecast was for snow on Saturday so I wanted to pick the asparagus before that so Mom could have it when she came over.  Sadly, it was already destroyed by the overnight cold temps and was complete mush!  She will be so disappointed.  

Busy Weekend For Sure

So Baylor has a season pass to Hershey Park so he can go with Joey and Landon over the summer as they go a lot!  Saturday was opening weekend so Joey asked if Baylor could go with them to get their passes and go on the rides.  Since I was going to Baltimore to pick up Diane at the airport, it was a great help to have him off having fun at the park and not bored in the back seat.  They had a great time and stayed an extra two hours because it was so nice.  

Added bonus: I got to shop at IKEA all by myself!  I found a sofa/futon type seating thing online and it was $130.00, in blue and wanted to get one for the new game room.  I had help inside getting it on the cart, and I helped the lady put one on her cart.  In the parking lot I managed to not sail away with the wind as it was very windy and IKEA carts are hard to control with their extra turny wheels. And when I got to the car, I wondered what I was thinking trying to get it in the van by myself.  Thankfully a guy and his wife were walking to their car and offered to help.  He asked me where my husband was and he hoped he was not at home sitting on the couch.  I just mumbled about being at work and then thanked him for his help.  

Then I headed to BWI and was 20 minutes late because getting through the toll booths on 95 is crazy even with 20 lines going. And don't get me started on the jerks driving up the sides trying to get two cars ahead of me.  And don't think I wont threaten to hit your car with mine if you even think to try to cut in front of me.  A pet peeve for sure.  I have never been in a line that it was not eventually my turn. Anyway, at BWI arrivals I finally found her, well she found me. Turns out she was in the wrong place and figured it out when I started snapping on the phone about not being able to sit in the drive by pick up lanes and she was not at the door she said she was and I was staring right at it.  Not my better moment. We headed towards the Trader Joe's and lunch at a pizza and salad shop in the plaza.  She was hungry after a long day flying.  It was fun, like a subway shop for pizza and salads.  Trader Joe's was fun as well, like it always is. 

   

We had a nice catch up on the drive home but it was late.  Thankfully Joey was OK keeping Baylor another hour until Gloria could pick him up.  

Sunday morning was quite calm and Diane picked up a rental car for a few days and visited some friends and her dad.  In the afternoon Baylor had a birthday party at Get Air indoor trampoline park.  It is a bit different than Sky Zone and he loved it.  They had nice ramps which were fun. 

And a Jacob's ladder to climb and spin off of. 

I went shopping of course!  I had a Big Lots 20% off coupon and the Hancock Fabric next door was going out of business. I picked up some embroidery threads for half price.  That has been my evening entertainment and I have quite a few pieces in the works.  And my favorite urban grocery store is in the same plaza.  I picked up a whole pork butt for $.79 a pound!  And a few other things of course.  

The party was two hours and I did not shop that long so I got to see Baylor having more fun.  They have a ninja course which was quite difficult for the young kids with no arm strength.  Baylor got pretty frustrated and some rope burns on another part of the course but he kept trying. 

He at least made it to touch the top even if he could not haul himself over the edge. 

Caden, the birthday boy, asked if we could come to his house afterwards and that was fine with me. His parents had driven several of the party goers to the event so it was a full house of boys.  And then we put them outside because boys can be crazy with Nerf guns.  

It was certainly a fun afternoon.  

My sister in law shared this sweet photo of Presley.  

Round Up

3-29

Back to school morning selfie

When he came home he wanted to zombie hunt with his new Nerf guns so he drew a zombie.  I convinced him to let me have it as I loved the picture.  Especially the shoelaces. 

I bought some half price Easter goodies at the store today.  Eddy was very tolerant of me putting ears on her for a photo of the Easter Eddy.  

3-30

I asked him to stop and smell the flowers.  He said they paralyzed him but he could still walk to the van. 

Thankfully I did not risk a whiff of them. 

3-31

Morning Sunrise 

Shiny Happy People 

My Lego collection has grown at my desk.  Baylor covets many of them when he visits.  It does get a bit crowded up there.  But I am not giving any of them up, at least not right now. 

4-1 

April Fool's True Story. I told several people at work I was pregnant with this kid and it was 4/1.  They did not believe me until 4/2.  Most nights we race to the mail and most nights he wins. 

He asked me to make brownies for dessert.  He had me close my eyes while he made up the plate with my brownie and his Brown E from Mrs Anderson. Thankfully we were on to her because one of the neighbor girls had her for 1st grade and warned us about her April Fools joke.  He 'pranked' me all morning and all afternoon.  He loved it.