It took me two hours, but I did it!

Last spring, my mom got Peter several toys in the Mega Blocks Pyrates series. Peter had just entered his pirate phase and fell in love with these toys. However, these toys were for kids seven and older which meant that mommy had to attempt to put them together. The toy Peter loved the most was the Pyrates Lighthouse. It was a large lighthouse with a light that worked and lots of little islands and ships and men that circled the it.

The concept of this lighthouse was really cool but the execution was greatly lacking. The pieces Would. Not. Stay. Together. I spent many hours quietly cussing under my breath while trying to get them together. Even my brother and my husband who grew up on (and loved) Legos didn't have much success. And since they both had jobs and didn't have hours and hours to spend working on it, the onus of putting this $%^$% lighthouse together fell on to me.

Several times I got it together only to have the thing crumble in my hands at even the slightest amount of pressure. It was more than I or my son could take so eventually he and his friends began just trying to come up with other creations that, while still pirate oriented, had nothing to do with the &^*%$ lighthouse.

So, imagine the concern I felt when all my son wanted for his birthday were Legos Bionicles. Most of these Bionicles were for ages 7 or 8 and up. I told him that he would have to put these things together with the help of his older friend Cody or his Dad or even by himself because I did not want to have anything to do with them. The first morning after his birthday he started working on one himself and decided he better wait until Cody came over. Cody, who is 8, was able to put three of them together in one afternoon! Peter (and I) were beside ourselves!

This morning however, Peter decided that he wanted to put the Bionicle set his Aunt Cathy gave him together. I could not convince him to wait until we saw Cody later so I decided to try to put it together with him. We started right after he got up at 8:15. He didn't want to stop for breakfast so we kept going. We were making good progress until Sarah came down at 9:15. She was enjoying hiding the instructions and sitting on the parts. There was a lot of yelling but finally, FINALLY at 10:15 we were finished!

I am so proud of me! But I better be careful because you know what they say about pride. It goeth before a fall and I have a feeling I could be falling on this thing as we now have many different Bionicles in all stages of completeness all over the house. But Peter is happy and I must say I did feel a great sense of accomplishment this morning. Perhaps the package should read...Ages 38 and up!



Peter was quite pleased with the finished result!

It may not look like it but there were over 200 pieces in this set!

Sarah wanted her picture taken too!

And just for the record....Lego's are MUCH,MUCH, MUCH, MUCH easier to work with than Mega Blocks! I didn't feel the slightest need to mutter obscenities while working with these Legos. Peter can even do a lot of the work on these and he can even complete the sets marked for ages 5 or 6 and up and he can complete the ones that are marked 7 and up with less than 50 pieces. He feels very proud of himself and I am excited that he can do them alone.