Can you make ... part 2

The requests keep coming in which gives me some great excuses to launch into projects I have always wanted to do.

The first thing I did was build a paint booth out of melamine and plywood scraps I had in the garage. To help protect the wood and make it easier to "clean" overspray, I put on two coats of lacquer. It's now so pretty, that I almost hate to paint in it.

But, when the lacquer was good and set, the booth was put to use as I used it while sealing a wooden ship model before I apply paint to it. I did not go fancy on the booth by putting in air vents and such since it is more of a place to contain the paint, and I can drop a piece of plastic down to protect the drying paint from particles in the air or WPF (Wet Paint Finger) accidents.

The next thing was to search for a new project. I scoured around the internet looking for wooden toy plans. One of the first places I found was Vintage Projects. You can find plans to build your own power tools, motorized vehicles for the kids, boats, go carts ... lots of things. The plans are from the days when companies did not have to worry about getting sued over the stupidity of the end-user. While I found a number of interesting projects (will that 25' cabin cruiser fit in my garage or do I need to build a workshop?) most were too large for what I was looking to do. After a few more searches, I came across Fine Hardwood Toys for Your Children's Children from Wisconsin (that is the title of the site). While there are no plans provided, ideas were generated. After rummaging through the garage and deciding that buying a lathe to turn wheels was out of the question (at least until Christmas) a trip to Michael's to buy wheels was undertaken and later on a Saturday afternoon Levi helped me lacquer my interpretretation of a wood train (my train will be lucky to survive the horde as it is made out of pine scraps, and excess closet rod dowel with pre-turned 1" wheels from Michael's).

The kids have loved the train -- I started with an engine and two other cars: one is a barrel car that carries 4 "pickle" barrels (from Michael's too) and the other car is a "tanker" car with the tank being removable.

The kids have made all kinds of "trains" out of it -- Levi has shooting trains as he likes to lay the barrels horizontally like cannons. Rachel made a bubble gum train which has probably generated the most fights and squabbles as everyone wants to play with that train. Rachel is happy to oblige; of course, after she has removed all the gum.

Now I am getting requests for more cars for the train as it is "too short" (each car is 8" long); good thing that I made templates of the bodies and the placement of the holes, dowls and cut-outs. Next up will be a flat car with a platform over the wheels so that when Levi's WALL-E goes for a ride, he is not dragging on the train wheels. The girls have wanted to know where the Caboose is, and the request includes an option to put people or other items in it.

One great find at Michael's are these wood kits that retail for $1.00. That is correct, for $1 (plus tax) you get a wood kit that is usually around 12 to 20 pieces of very easy construction, paint (4 colors), glue and a paint brush. Did I say they only cost $1?

The selection is great too -- you can build complete trains (about 6 cars total), race cars, biplanes, pirate ships, rubber-band propelled submaries, rubber-band airplanes (they don't fly, just spin the prop), sail boats, jets and as you see to the right, space craft. The hardest part was getting Levi to leave the space ship alone long enough for the glue to dry. Next kit I may just use hot glue and call it good.

Back in my day, these things would have been a hoot for, uhm, bb-guns, fire crackers, oh, and other assorted mayhem. Come to think of it they may be a hoot today as well.

The tool set I am using is pretty simple: 12" Craftsman bandsaw, a Craftsman belt/disc sander combo, a Craftsman table saw, and a Craftsman 3/4 HP drill press with 10" clearance all supported by a Bostich air compressor. Now I just need a bigger workshop or get Denise to agree to leaving the van outside of the garage permanently.

"Can you make .... ?"

Levi loves to build things out of anything he can get his hands on. He has made "alien spaceships" out of a paper plate with a bowl taped to the top; he has rockets hanging from his ceiling made from rolled up paper; yesterday he made mouse "poison" out of sawdust, water, grass, some sand -- just put materials in a zip-lock sandwich bag, close, and shake. A couple of weeks ago, he ran upstairs calling "Daddy, Daddy, come downstairs. Come ... come downstairs." As I started down the stairs he said "Close your eyes" which is always exciting to do when you are walking down stairs. Also, when he says this, it can be either good news or not; many times he wants you to close your eyes so you don't see the mess he has made. Luckily, when I finally was told to open my eyes, with a grand 'TA-DA!' Levi present this creation out of pretzels and marshmallows - a rocket ship flying to the moon.

Other easy creations from Levi's mind include various Tinker-toy(r) creations. At the left is one an airplane that is able to shoot at you from the front, back, or sides. He's also made various rockets, but he always gets upset when it launches and the bottom falls off, or when the rocket starts to go into orbit and the nose falls off.

These are the easy ones because Levi is pretty self-sufficient and adept at using his mind to create what he wants. But when he comes up to Denise or me and says "Can you make ..." then the fun for the parents really begins.

Take the instance of the "Tree-branch and jean blanket Tee-pee" that Lucy and Levi are huddling in. It all started one rainy Saturday when I went out to trim a tree out front. For the last two years this tree has been infested by Japanese beetles, so I decided to trim the tree way back to make it easier to spray (we've resorted to leaning out Anders' 2nd story bedroom window to get the top of the tree).

Levi, who loves Winnie Pooh movies, decides he wants to build an Eeyore "house" out of sticks. Problem is the sticks from this tree are pretty poky. Adding to his misery was the light rain that started to fall. Dad decides to come to his sons rescue by building a tee-pee. First, I had to spend 30 minutes to cut off all the little branches to make the stick somewhat smoother. Then thanks to Lucy, I was able to lash the "poles" together with a length of green yarn. Levi started stacking up the excess branches, but quickly stopped since he was getting poked and caught. What to do? I find an old jean blanket (made out of old jeans, duh) and drape it around the sticks. Viola! Levi and Lucy have a tee-pee with about 45 minutes of work by dad. They loved it so much, somehow they talked their mother into moving it into the house where it still stands 3 weeks later.

Now, a 60 minute project is not all that bad. But Levi likes his dad to build him airplanes: paper airplanes (1 minute); Fokker Dr.I triplane made out of wood (3 days - a nail gun does wonders to speed up the process) to 3 week projects such as the F4U Corsair (blue plane) that Levi gave to me as a "present" for my birthday in 2009, or the AV-8B Harrier -- plastic models that he enjoys flying. It's truly a test of both his and my patience: his, because he so badly wants to get to the paint and play stage and mine, because every 10 minutes of "is it dry yet?" or the disappearing/reappearing plane parts over 3 weeks makes for a very long journey. But any aggravation I might feel quickly disappears when you see the joy of a 4-year-old who is now flying a plane he has helped to glue, paint and put stickers on.

PS: To make plastic models durable for little guys, nothing beats a good dose of hot glue to affix landing gears, rockets, bombs, canopies, wings, propellers and any other part that may come loose during use.

Shutter bug

Thank goodness for digital cameras these days: Lucy is continuing a tradition her dad engaged in -- taking the parent's camera and shooting up all the film. The nice part about the digital camera is that after she fills it, we can view the pictures and empty the camera and it did not cost us developing film.

Lucy shot a ride range of objects in her last photo session, and I have decided to share some of the best of them with you (and I most say, a number of these are not bad for a 4 year-old).

Studies of color, shapes, lines and textures:



Product placement (had to scan these as we have lost the digital images):



Celebrity photography:



(I would have posted other *celebrities*, but I was threatened with sleeping on the couch for a month if any incriminating photos were posted.)

Still life studies:



Self-portrait of the photographer:




Pretty impressive. As a side note: out of the 97 pictures she took, not a single one had a thumb in the frame!

Playing Football

On the day that Anders turns 14, what better way to celebrate than to post some football film and pictures from his 8th Grade season at Linn-Mar.

Anders was a starter on both offense (right tackle) and defense (left or right defensive end). During the course of the season he made a number of very good plays, and in fact, most of the teams after testing his side of the line, would run most plays away from Anders.

You can get a sense of his size (he is #75) as compared to the other defenders on his team. He started the season a little over 5'9" and 160 lbs. He finished the season 5'10" and around 165 lbs. Like most Christiansens, Anders goes to the school where Soccer and Basketball reign supreme, and football can seem like an exercise in futility. But the guys show up every week and work hard. One great thing about the program as well is that they combine the kids from the two Linn-Mar middle schools into one team, so Anders gets to know guys he will see in High School next year.

In this video, you can watch Anders pick up a fumble and rumble towards the goal line. Does he make it? (Sorry for the jumpy video, but the camera-lady was a little excited!)

In this second video, watch Anders shoot through the gap (sorry about the jumpiness, the cameraman was excited!) ...

While Anders preference was for defense and hitting guys, he did a very good job on offense as well. Here you can see Anders throwing a block on the opposing team's #75.

Anders continued his starting ways all season long and played almost every single down. He was a true ironman. We look forward to his pursuits in the high school realm starting next year.

Jenna's Baptism

A great event happened on August 23 -- Jenna was baptized by her dad, and then confirmed a member of the Church and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost by her grandfather.

Jenna was very excited that her Grandma Goodrich, and Grandma and Grandpa Christiansen were able to come to Iowa to participate in this special event.

It was a long baptismal event as Jenna was being baptized with 4 of her friends who also had August birthdays: Alena, Sara and James. The family survived the event, and even had the ability to smile for the camera afterwards (although I think that was because of the amounts of cookies and chocolate milk that was inbibed!)

The following Tuesday, the family made a trip down to Nauvoo to see some of the sites: the blacksmith where Jenna received a "baptismal" horseshoe and the family learned about how many processes went into making a wagon wheel (the spokes, the tire, the wheel, the axle, the wheel hub, the chiseling, bending, shaping, curing fitting with no nails used; the bakery where each of us received a yummy sample of molasses cookies and learned about one family's conversion story; the Lucy Mack Smith house where the Prophet Joseph's mother lived after his martyrdom until she passed away (the kids weren't sure if a trap door that locked them in/parents out was a good or bad idea).

One of the most interesting places that the family enjoyed was the Family Living Center where they had many demonstrations and some activities you could do yourself: candle making (at left) had the girls really interested, and we all learned to tie a rock to keep your wick taunt; rope making (right) was one activity where you could actually make a rope and keep your handiwork; there was bread making (where you had a sample of fresh bread where instead of "yeast" you would use "potato water" to leaven the bread; rag rugs (both square and round), barrel making and pottery making were two other activities.

But the most fun the kids had? Throwing rocks in the Mississippi River (of course); but, there is some history behind the place where they threw in the rocks: it was at the end of Parley Street where the Saints drove their wagons across the frozen Mississippi River in February 1846 to Montrose, Iowa to start the trek to Utah, or after the thaw, took ferries across the 1 mile wide river to start the trek.

So while the children tossed in the rocks, their dad took a moment to provide them an historical lesson. "Aw Dad. Enough with the history!"

Crazy Train: Part Two

We decided to take a day and go visit Boone, Iowa.

Why?

Can you say TRAINS?

There is the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad & Museum. We thought the kids would enjoy it -- especially the youngest one.

One thing we didn't count on: Boone, Iowa gets a Union Pacific train roaring through about every 30 minutes. We didn't need to get tickets as Levi would have been thrilled to just watch the trains roar by.

At 1:15 PM we loaded aboard the train for an almost two hour train ride through the hills, across the valleys and over the Des Moines River.

There were plenty of window seats for each kid to sit at and look out (or hang out of as the case may be). Levi enjoyed looking ahead every time he heard the train ring its bell or blow its whistle.

The other great aspect of the train ride besides the family friendly atmosophere and the sites along the track was the ability to pack a lunch for the family to eat on the train.

Levi was having one of the best days of his life so far: watching lots of trains, riding a train and eating pizza all at the same time.

Levi was not the only one having a grand time as all the rest of the kids were enjoying the ride as well.

At the end of the ride, there were many happy smiles. Mom and Dad are even thinking about going and doing the dinner run sometime.

Row B: 101 102

Jenna and I took a whirlwind trip to New York last weekend. We were supposed to leave Thursday night, but a radar went down in Chicago -- so we left at 5 AM on Friday morning.




After the taxi ride, we went bowling with people I work with in New York. I am big enough to admit that she actually had a higher score than I did the first game. And for her 3rd game, she bowled a 100 which is really good (she bowled two strikes in that game).




On Friday evening, I surprised her with tickets to The Lion King Broadway musical and imagine my surprise when our seats turned out to be front row, right on the aisle! The play opens with the title song, and you have all of these "animals" that come walking down the aisle and up on the stage right past you. When the song ended, Jenna closed her mouth (her jaw had hit the floor when the song started) and said "This is AWESOME!"

After getting back to the hotel after midnight (she was hungry, so we walked from 40th street to 60th to find an open McDonald's at midnight) we crashed.

Saturday started at 10 AM with Jenna putting down 3 bowls of cereal and 6 strips of bacon + a donut. Then we headed off to "the Museum" -- the American Museum of Natural History (or as most kids know it -- Night at the Museum from the movie).

Of course we had to find her favorite characters -- "Rex" the T-rex who chases his own rib, and the talking head who wants "gum gum".

After finding all the neat stuff in the museum, we headed off across Central Park to find the Balto statue. On our way we stopped at the Carousel -- this thing is fast! I had troubles taking a non-blurry picture of Jenna flying past.

After a couple of wrong turns, a water, and a popsicle we found the statue.

Now it was time to go to Toys R US to check out all the fun things. Jenna was most excited by the Barbie store as you can imagine. We finally decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel to get ready for the 6 AM flight back to Iowa.



Still, that 6 AM flight gave Jenna enough time to have yet another bowl of cereal to snack on.