the blue blog archives: a boy's life

Wendi wanted to know how we store all the boys' legos. Currently, they take up 3/5ths of a big IKEA bookcase and are stored either in their original boxes or in plastic boxes from the Container Store.

And one of the tea cups from the knitted tea set I made a couple of years ago serves as the repository for found pieces.

The boys' other current obsession, something we get to "enjoy" the whole day long, is these McDonalds toys that they got in Germany. They're like little pretend iPods that play a very annoying pop song (if you have never heard the "Dubi Dam Dam" song, thank your lucky stars right now, because I will never ever get it out of my head). They each have three of these music things with different songs and they like to turn them all on at the same time. Aaaahhhh! S has one with a German rap song and he turns it on and makes a pouty hip face.

And finally, something to do on a rainy day (or a day like today where mommy has to clean and do laundry all day), new boardgames from the treasure chest!

They got this chest filled with boardgames for their birthday and since getting the Dead Man's Chest pirate toy in their last American Happy Meal, they are fascinated by treasure chests. They are convinced that by virtue of being in a treasure chest, these games have got to be cool. So much so that they've already learned how to play Parcheesi and want to learn Backgammon next.

posted by alison at 9:45 am | in games we play , legoland

Comments

A treasure chest...what a great idea!!!! I wonder if the blue one plays the "I Like to Move it, Move it song" from Madagascar? If so, I know exactly what you mean by annoying!

Posted by: Roberta at August 10, 2006 10:05 AM

Wow, you have even more legos than we do! Of course you have more children than we do. Oh, Roberta, I know exactly what you mean about that song from Madagascar! My son sings it endlessly.

Posted by: Jo in Boston at August 10, 2006 10:24 AM

We also have two of this mp3 things and my daughter also loves to play both at a time, not funny :)

Posted by: Sibylle at August 10, 2006 11:10 AM

wow! what an amazing collection of lego!
i guess, your yarn stash is as impressive as the boys lego stash! lego, the new knitting...? ;-)

Posted by: sabine at August 10, 2006 11:25 AM

The Say Anything comment not only totally cracked me up, but filled me with warm, nostalgic fuzzies. :)

Posted by: Amanda at August 10, 2006 11:29 AM

Ok, you sound like the funnest mom ever!

Posted by: Lori at August 10, 2006 11:40 AM

I only wish I had *known* you when my oldest son was 5 and loved legos... I was no where near as organized as you (never will be but that's another story). So, many years and several boys later we have ended up with the world's largest lego bin. Oh well, they don't seem to mind... but I do! I want your IKEA closet!

BTW, my mental recorder plays the Higglytown Heroes song all day if it's been on in the morning... ugh!

Posted by: Tammy at August 10, 2006 11:41 AM

I feel so ashamed. My boys "store" their legos by spreading them out in a 1" layer across floor of every room in the house.

Posted by: Jessica at August 10, 2006 12:59 PM

Oh, you poor gal! We also have "Dubi Dam Dam" as McD toy. When my daughter got it she played it the whole time in the car while going back home. My ears went numb. Meanwhile it is banned in other rooms than hers ;-)
Best wishes from Germany
Petra

Posted by: Petra at August 10, 2006 1:17 PM

Anything stored in a treasure chest *IS* cool - DUH.

;-)

Look at al those legos!

Posted by: Jenny at August 10, 2006 1:47 PM

My son's (now 16 years old) legos are in a huge Rubbermaid container in the garage, waiting for his children. *snif, snif* His idea! more *snifs*

Posted by: Sheryl at August 10, 2006 1:54 PM

Thanks for the Lego tips! Now why didn't I think of that (smacking my head).
I think that what you said about teaching them to pick up the pieces when they hear one drop is probably a key to success as well.
I'm a pretty organized person, but somehow I guess I expect my children to get via osmosis instead of training;-)

Posted by: Wendi at August 10, 2006 2:38 PM

Sounds like excellent rainy day fun.

Posted by: trek at August 10, 2006 3:24 PM

We keep our Legos in rubbermaid tubs and have for years. I like the ones you can see through best. My two sons are now aged 30 and 26, but they still like to get Legos for Christmas. It's not Christmas without Legos.

Posted by: Sallie at August 10, 2006 6:12 PM

Uhh, these McDonalds things really cause pain. We have got the 'Crazy Frog'. It's awful. :)

Posted by: Astrid at August 11, 2006 2:03 AM

WOW that is very orgenised. I can just see Gil messing it all up. I have a plastic container with Gil's airport cars, we got him a set of BA and a set of ElAl...and he keeps opening it up and when ever I put them away, sigh. Gil is quite happy with his Snoopy school bus that he got from McDonalds recently. he wanted one of the movie 'cars' one but, they run out of those before you could say the word. for now Gil just has his explorer legos, he plays with occasionaly, and one of my old lego sets that is like a play house, he is slowly destroying it. I want to get him just regular legos not a set in particular for his next birthday, he'll be 4 so I think he is ready for it, I've also noticed how he plays more and more imaginiation games.

Posted by: Orli at August 11, 2006 7:26 AM

wow, so there is an archivist gene...

Posted by: maneesha at August 11, 2006 11:30 AM

when we lived it europe when i was a kid, you got lil figures in potatoe chip bags. metal men from differnt time periods. i loved those.
and the kinder egg toys. are euro mcD toys better too?

Posted by: heatherly at August 11, 2006 12:21 PM

I love Dubi Dam Dam! Dubi dam dam dam dubi deebi dam...

If the boys like that song, I reccomend anything by the group smile.DK. It's this group from Sweden that plays songs that are incredibly popular in Japan, so now they mostly work there and in Hong Kong. They have a bunch of songs in Dance Dance Revolution...if you're familiar with that game, I'm sure it explains their sounds a lot. If not, that's another reccomendation!

Posted by: Gwen at August 12, 2006 1:50 AM

Wow, uber-cool treasure chest! No question, its contents MUST be uber-cool.

Does the teacup have an endo-skeleton or does it just stand by itself?

Posted by: Ina at August 14, 2006 4:09 PM