Thursday, December 04, 2008

Of Christmas presents and politics


My kids love Lego.

I love Lego too. Except when walking through the living room in the dark and 'finding' a piece with the bottom of my foot. That, I don't love so much. So a couple of years ago, I decided to get a Lego table for the girls for Christmas. That way they could play to their hearts' content and not have to put everything away at the end of the day, and yet the tender soles of my feet would remain unscathed.

Then I started pricing Lego tables. They were ridiculously expensive. Like $120 or more. I figured I could do better for less. And I did.

Take 1 Lack side table from IKEA ($14.99):

Add 4 Lego base plates ($7.99 each):


Align base plates carefully* and stick down on table surface with plastic-friendly adhesive ($2.99). Allow to dry.

Add 2 buckets of Lego pieces ($10.00 each on sale):

And you have a great Lego table and almost 1000 pieces of Lego, for around $70.

Not puncturing the bottom of your foot and saying words the kids don't need to hear: priceless.

(*There is a trick that you need to know. First, the plates don't butt up against each other, or the spacing will be off. You need to attach the base plates to each other with Lego (a 4-bump brick at the centre, and a couple of bricks down each line gap in order to get the spacing right) before sticking the base plates down, so that blocks will be able to be attached over the joins.)

It's a great gift, and one my kids are still playing with three Christmasses later:



When I asked what was going on in the above scenario, I was told, "The penguin is being too bossy and the reindeer don't want to do what he says anymore. They want to do stuff their own way for Christmas and they don't want the penguin being the boss of everyone, so they are talking to each other."

Does that sound familiar to anyone? Anyone? Stephen Harper?

(And yes, I do discuss politics with my kids. I guess they take in more than they let on.)

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Just a reminder, this is the last week to vote for Party of Three in the best family blog category of the Canadian Blog Awards. Voting can be done here.

Also making the finals are my good friend XUP who's up for best new blog (go and check her out, her posts are funny, incisive and interesting), and fellow Ottawa bloggers Zoom (best local blog, best activities blog, best personal blog), Watawa Life (best photo/art blog), and Salted Lithium (best health blog).

13 comments:

  1. OK, THAT is brilliant, and since I bought my kidlet Legos for Christmas, will have to do this!

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  2. Anonymous12:36 PM

    You're so smart!

    We have that very same table (minus the Legos) and it's wonderfully durable. You can see it when you come down for Miniblogherstock '09.

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  3. Where were you 15 years ago when I bought a freaking Lego table for WB????
    Your genius:)

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  4. That is such a fab idea!

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  5. You're a lego genius. And a regular type genius, too. Very clever! And thank you for the mention, but I'm only up for Best NEW Blog, not best blog in the whole wide world. Not this year anyway... Mwah-ha-ha-ha

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  6. I am TOTALLY making one of these.

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  7. Sorry, XUP, I forgot the word 'new'. I've added it now, but your comment was sounding a bit megalomaniacal. Do we need to be sending you the Evil Overlord List?

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  8. WOW! I may actually let the kids play with lego again! (lol - kidding.. sorta)

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  9. LMAO... love it.

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  10. could you just come over to my house and make it for me? please?

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  11. Ok. That is just such a cool idea that I'm adding that to the "when we next go to Ikea" list.

    Freaking brilliant. You should win the blogging award for that alone!

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  12. Anonymous8:10 AM

    Awesomeness! Unfortunately, that wouldn't work here...my boys are extremely possessive of "their" Legos. I'd have to have two tables! As it is, they each keep their own in separate tubs and simply build on the coffee table or kitchen floor...NO LEGOS ALLOWED ON THE CARPET!

    Yes, I am THAT mom.

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  13. That is AWESOME. I'm bookmarking this for when I have kiddos :D

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