Cool new Star Trek Hot Wheels cars!

Last night I found a new toy that I'm certain to buy for you in 2014: Star Trek Hot Wheels vehicles!

They're little trucks and cars that have one of the five major "Star Trek: The Original Series" characters on each vehicle: Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, and Sulu. Here's an article about the Hot Wheels cars.

You've always liked Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. I remember you picking one out each time we went shopping at Wal-Mart, Target or Albertson's supermarket when you were only two years old!

I don't quite know when the Star Trek Hot Wheels come out, but I'll be looking for them!

Our time together on Saturday, Nov. 16

At Grandma and Grandpa Bignell's,
Nov. 16, 2013

I had so much fun with you today, Kieran, as did the rest of the family. Everybody was so happy to see you again after all of this time. I thought I would take this entry to recap our day together.

We started with Uncle Chris and me picking you up at Caribou Coffee in Woodbury. Then we stopped in Hudson, Wis., where we went downtown to the bookstore. There you got some "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" notebooks and a football book. After that, we went to KFC and picked up lunch.

Following that, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Bignell's farm, where you got to meet the entire family and where we had lunch. We spent the afternoon playing games with your cousins Bryan and Rebekah and coloring. After they left, we played with Hot Wheels cars while listening to the Beatles and wrapped up the afternoon with dinner while playing Battleship.

From there, we traveled back to Woodbury and while waiting for Grandma Deb to pick you up put stickers in your NFL sticker book!

Your Matchbox Car Wash Mini Playset

Do you remember your Matchbox Car Wash Mini Playset? It was one of many Matchbox car playsets that you had.

This one was neat, though, because it folded up into a box that you could carry around! We kept it in an end table between the sofa and the wall in the green house we lived in at Lancaster, Calif., along with all of the other Matchbox and Hot Wheel sets.

I think you were more of a collector than a player with the Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars, though. You'd play a little with them each day, but you were more into your action figures.

The two purple guys who came with the car wash got put in with our airport toys, if I remember correctly. I think we used the guy carrying the rag as an airplane mechanic at the airport hangar!

My email to you sent on March 2, 2013

Here’s a copy of weekly email sent to you on March 2, 2013, in case you don’t receive it:

Hi Kieran,

How are you doing today? I’m doing fine, though I miss you like crazy! I had so much fun with you get together you could bring the Batman puzzle that was in it, and we could make it together. I’m also glad you enjoyed the candy. Grandma wasn’t feeling well on Friday, so she didn’t have a chance to make her Easter cupcakes for you, but she promised to do so for the next time we get together, which is in four weeks on March 29.

I’m also very happy that you liked the dragon Hot Wheels set and the cool cars to play with it. That was neat how the cars would go down the ramp on only one set of wheels where the dragon had “bitten out” the roadway! I shall have to look at the toy store for a race track like the center has.

What adventures are you taking your toy archer and ninja on today? I bet they will battle a very dangerous dragon. Make sure to feed the dragon whole wheat so that it can’t breathe fire – then you’ll be able to capture it for the zoo!

This week may be the last you’ll be able to make snowmen this winter. The weather is supposed to get very warm this week – warm enough to make the snow melt. When spring and the snow melt came while I was in school and about your age (well, a little older), we used to make dams out of the runoff and the remaining snow. Here’s a newspaper column I once wrote about it.

Making the eggs in school with the balloons and plaster of Paris sounds like fun. Do you next get to paint the eggs?

Have you read any good books lately? I have. I recently read “Bunny’s Easter Egg” by Anne Mortimer. It’s about a bunny rabbit who looks a lot like your new stuffie, Soccer. After a long night of hiding Easter eggs, the bunny rabbit can’t find a comfortable place to sleep. Will Bunny be able to go to sleep? You’ll have to find out be reading the book. I bet it’s in your school or city library.

Before I go, I just want you to know that I have not received your emails for the past eight weeks or your report card (via email or by giving me a copy on Friday as requested in last week’s email). Please have your mother resend your emails and your report card.

I love and miss you very much! I look forward to reading all of your resent emails, as well as your response to this one, and to seeing you again no later than March 29.

Love,

Dad

 

Remember your Hot Wheels ramp?

One of the toys we played quite a lot with when you were a toddler and a preschooler was a Hot Wheels ramp. It was mad eup of three straight Hot Wheels racing track pieces, and using a plastic vice, could be held to a ledge. I hook it up to the glass table we had in the living room.

We'd zip cars down the ramp to see which ones went the farthest! It was a great to teach you colors, as we'd race the "yellow" car against the "green" car and so on. Because you had almost a tote full of cars, we could spend the better part of an hour sending cars down the ramp.

Ont time you used the racing track pieces as a "light saber," though, and started whacking stuff, so I had to put away the ramp away. But we eventually set it back up.

This was just one of many Hot Wheel and Matchbox toys that you had.

My Jan. 5, 2013, email to you

Here is a copy of my letter sent to you on Jan. 5, 2013, just in case you are not allowed to see it:

Hi Kieran,

I had so much fun visiting with you yesterday! I can’t wait to see you again on Friday, Feb. 1.

What game should I bring next time for us to play? I am thinking of getting checkers or maybe some of the card games like Old Maid or Go Fish that we used to play at the condo.

Playing with the remote control dune buggy was a good time. You got really good at maneuvering it! When I was a little boy your age, I always wanted a real dune buggy. They are very dangerous, though, and wreck the environment, so there are very many places that one can drive them, and that is probably good. We’ll have to enjoy the toy remote control dune buggy, I guess! Don’t forget to turn it off by moving the red switch on the dune buggy’s bottom or the batteries will die.

The cars that came with the truck also were a lot of fun (They were a gift from Grandma and Grandpa Bignell). As a little boy, I use to draw roads on cut-out paper bags or potato chip boxes to drive the vehicles on. Maybe we should do that the next time we get together – I’ll bring some markers or crayons. Let me know if you’d like to do that.

Thank you for painting the picture for me! I have hung it up over my desk so I may enjoy it every day.

I must compliment you for being so kind to the workers at the center yesterday by offering to share your M&M’s and root beer with them. You are a very nice, polite boy (Just like I taught you!).

You asked if next time I might bring some action figures for you, but we never got to which ones you might like. Perhaps you could let me know in your next email that you send.

Going back to school should be a lot of fun on Monday. I bet it’s been a while since you’ve seen your friends!

We didn’t get a chance to read the books I brought yesterday. I have books about Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Peter Pan, Jake and the Pirates, and A Bug’s Life.

Have fun at school this week, and I will see on Friday, Feb. 1. I miss you very much!

Love,

Dad

It was so good to see you again!

Opening Transformers present, Dec. 21, 2012.

I had so much fun with you this afternoon, Kieran! I'm glad we had the opportunity to play, and I'm so happy that you liked all of your presents.

The Hot Wheels cars you liked so much were from Uncle Chris and Aunt Susie. The got one more present for you, but I ran out of room for it in the tote I was carrying and I need to get batteries for it! I will bring it when we get together in January. The Imaginext superheroes, game cards, and Christmas cookies were from Grandma and Grandpa.

I really enjoyed hearing you sing the Christmas songs you did for your school program. You have a great voice, and I'm very impressed that you could remember so many words!

In a few days, I will post our Chistmas pictures online with this other set of photos, which are of our Christmases past.