Legos and The Franklin Institute

Twice this month Rudy and I have gone to the Franklin Institute for Lego-related activities. A few weeks ago, Rudy entered a Lego building contest sponsored by the museum in honor of their newest display- The Art of the Brick.
(Sorry the pictures are so small, I took them on my phone and if I try to make them bigger they are blurry)

There were Star Wars characters around to join in the celebration.

While we waited for the Lego contest, we explored an exhibit about the brain. There were cool illusions (these only showed up in 3-D in photos; otherwise it just looked flat)

Rudy explored some Lego robotics.

That's Rudy's skeleton moving as he moves.

Rudy's Lego display waiting for judging. It was a WWI battle scene.

Since it was opening day of The Art of the brick, the museum was very crowded and the lines were long. So even though we got a pass to the exhibit from being in the contest, I decided we would come back and use it another day.

So today we finally went back. The crowds were MUCH better and we were able to go right in to The Art of the Brick. The whole display is art created by Legos. Rudy really enjoyed it. The artist created famous works of art from Legos.

A stained glass window from Chartres made out of clear Legos.

This is what Rudy did the entire time (until he had no space left on his Kindle), he took pictures.

Posing with a cool original sculpture.

The Liberty bell "fixed" with Legos.

After walking through the Lego exhibit, we found a place to play with Legos. So Rudy spent about 20-30 minutes in the zone building a house.

The finished product

Then we explored the rest of the museum.  We built a domino line and sent it off.

Rudy attempted to design a plane.

And he was fascinated by this, which was created using Newton's Laws. Golf balls rolled through this over and over and he just stared and studied it for a good 10-15 minutes.

Snow Days

February has brought more snow and cold and our second snow day for the year (after last year, 2 snow days isn't so bad!)

Rudy and Niko spent the morning trying to dig forts in the snow piles (Note: we only got about 5 inches of snow, so there wasn't much to work with.)

Rudy decided it was a good day to try out the mustache tattoo he got in one of his Valentine cards. I wish I had remembered the next day was picture day before I helped him do it!

Later Rudy decided the boogie boards were perfect for playing in the snow.

January

Somehow January has ended and no pictures were added (and very few were taken)!

New Year's Day we went to the Tuckerton Seaport for a festival. The festival ended up being not very exciting, but we explored the seaport.


We discovered a picture of some familiar looking pirates.

The train engineer tried to sell us tickets (and smoke a chapstick!).

Then we found a short trail to run through.

January also brought our first snowfall of the winter. A storm predicted to be 6-18 inches gave us this much snow. The kids still had fun.

Christmas

Christmas Eve and the traditional family picture in front of the tree. Oops. Forgot to set the timer.

Yep, still pushed the wrong button.

There we go. Let's take one with and one without flash just in case.

After church we went to our (new) tradition of having the Feast of the Seven Fishes with friends.

Christmas morning the kids were excited by their stockings.

And then the present opening began.

My son knows me well...maybe.

Each of the kids got an electronic device and everything stopped for a while...

On the 27th we headed to PA for the Andes Christmas.
First we ate, then before presents we took a kid picture.  The first one turned out the best...

Then, of course, they all wanted to do silly pictures...

The present opening seemed much calmer and more relaxed than in the past. After presents we had dessert and then the game playing began.

Some played Wits and Wagers.

Some Sneaky Squirrel.

And some Connect Four.