Remember your Lego Fire Chief Car set?

One of the many Lego sets you've had over the years - and one that you put together Feb. 8-9, 2014 - was the Fire Chief Car from the Lego City rescue set. The set included a fire department car, the fire chief, a tree with a cat atop it, and a woman holding a fish to get the cat to come down!

After you put it together that weekend while visiting, you took the car and two Lego back to your mother's, but we left the tree and cat on the house set I built while you were putting together the Monster truck and semitrailer set!

You've had quite a few of the smaller City Rescue sets, such as a fire truck and police motorcycle after robbers, over the years. I wonder which ones we'll get in the weeks ahead?

Memories of your 'Scottish' castle

During the previous weekend with me (Feb. 8-9, 2014), you played a lot with your castle that I gave you for Christmas 2013. You made a couple of great memories - at least in my mind!

One memory revolved about me somehow telling you that at one time England conquered Wales, then Scotland and finally Ireland to form the United Kingdom. After that, the knights in your castle were Scotsmen defending the fort against the invading English!

During this battle, you also started shooting the discs from the cannons on the tip of the castle's turrets. Some of those discs hit me! You were apologetic and shifted the castle's position so that the fired discs would land on your bed, that way they would be easier to find!

Your Lego Monster Truck Transporter kit

One of the great Lego toys we got this past weekend (Feb. 9, 2014) was the Lego Monster Truck Transporter kit.

I was so impressed that you put it together all by yourself! There were a lot of pieces in the kit, but you followed the instructions from the first to the last page while we listened to oldies and I built a house from the other Lego kit. Your ability to stick through the project from start to end with only a couple of short breaks to get up and stretch your legs was fantastic!

The kit made a semi truck and trailer with a Monser truck that fit on the trailer's back. There were three guys and other pieces as well.

I can't wait to put together more Lego kits with you!

My Super Bowl memories

Larry Czonka (Miami Dalphins)
in 1973 Super Bowl.

Today is the big Super Bowl game! Though you've watched others before when we were together, this is probably the one you'll remember as your "first" Super Bowl!

The Super Bowl during the year I was in first grade (1973) was the first one I remember. That year, the Miami Dolphins defeated the Washington Redskins 14-7, and the Dolphins became the only NFL team to ever have a perfect season.

I remember lots of other Super Bowls from my childhood years in the 1970s, probably more so than the rest of my life. Usually the Super Bowl involved the Minnesota Vikings or Dallas Cowboys playing either the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Okland Raiders. The Broncos and Rams also made the Super Bowl during those years.

The other big Super Bowl I remember is No. 30 when the Green Bay Packers beat the New England Patriots, winning the first league championship in 30 years! That was in 1997.

Your second quarter report card

Your report card for second quarter of first grade showed some marked improvement! I was very proud of you for your accomplishments.

If you did not stay the same with an already good grade, work habit, or conduct, you improved. You improved in Christ-Light, Memory Treasures, Language Arts, Spelling, Math, Art and P.E. as well as following directions, attentiveness, class participation, completing assignments, showing love to others, respecting authority and following classroom/school rules.

You received A's in math, memory treasures, and Christ-light, a B+ in language arts, and a C in spelling. You also received an E (for excellent) in class participation!

I have kept your report card so that one later you may look back upon it!

Your height and weight through the years II

In a previous entry, I listed your height and weight through the years. When we got together on Saturday (Jan. 25), you were very excited to tell me that you weighed 51 pounds! So I figured I should update this list!

Here's a list of those measurements that I stumbled across as going through my computer files. It's a little incomplete because I have your height listed on a wall poster (which is packed away somewhere):

2007
Feb. 23 – Weighs 7 pounds, 7 ounces

2008
Feb. 5 – Weighs 20 lb., 14 oz.
June 5 – Weighs 23 lb., 6 oz.

2011
Jan 26 – Measures 3 feet, 10 inches tall

2012
Jan 10 – Weighs 41 pounds
Jan 21 – Measures 3 feet, 11.25 inches tall
Apr 21 – Height is hair under 4 feet

2014
Jan 25 – Weighs 51 pounds
March 25 – Weighs 44 points; measures 4 feet tall (added after entry was posted)

Remember your electric racetrack?

Jan. 25, 2014

On Saturday, I gave you a racetrack toy that we built and played with. It was the Kid Connection Road Racing Play Set.

We put together the track with me cnnecting the pieces (which you handed to me) and you putting on the stickers!

The racetrack formed a figure 8 in which part of it rose above the other. It came with two cars - a black one and a red one.

The challenge was to ensure the race cars didn't spin out, so you had to control its speed...but we didn't want to go too slow or that wouldn't be any fun!

We each did a bunch of trial runs practicing control of the car; you kept track of the number of spin outs on a notepad!

Our day together on Jan. 25, 2014

Playing with the new racetrack toy, Jan. 25, 2014.

I had so much fun with you on Saturday! We began the day by stopping in Hudson, where we stopped at the Dollar Tree and picked up football/basketball/baseball stickers, then at Target where we picked up BeyBlade tops and Lego kits, then at Culvers for lunch, and finally at Walgreens for football cards!

Then we went back to Grandma and Gandpa's where we looked at all of the football cards, put together the Lego sets, and placed stickers in our NFL book. Then we put togther and played quite a while with our racetrack set!

We also took some time to look at your report card. I am very proud of you - your grades and conduct improved across the board from first to second quarter!

While enjoying an early dinenr of hand sandwiches, we played Trouble and Hi-Ho Cherry-O. On the ride back, you watched the opening episode of Jonny Quest on my Kindle Fire.

Our day together sledding and playing

Playing Beyblade

I had so much with you on Saturday, Kieran! Our few hours together went by so fast!

We started the day snow tubing on the bunny hill at Badlands Snow Park near Hudson, Wis. You might recall they had these all ropes you could use to ride up the hill. After that, we went inside the warming house and played foosball.

Then we went to Target and picked up some Beyblade materials and basketball cards. We disccovered during lunch at Culvers that the basketball cards cube we got was a rip-off, so we went back to pick up a big pack!

We spent the afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa Bignell's and played games, went through our NBA cards and NFL stickers, enjoyed a Star Trek phaser adventure on a derelict alien ship, and opened up a pack of Star Wars action figures (the making of Darth Vader set).

I can;t wait to get back together with you!