W.B.O.E.O. (Lego Club)

Cole dreamed about this for months before it came to fruition.  He talked about it, made signs for it, built Lego creations for it, and constantly asked when we could start it.  At the time, we had golf and tennis, and Scouts going on and we needed to guard what little margin we had left in our lives. As summer approached, I began to ask more questions instead of trying to redirect the conversation:)

The conversations often took place in the car.  One day near the end of April he began dreaming aloud again. He talked of how he wanted both his 8 year old friends and younger kids like our neighbors to be involved and how we could have larger Legos there for them. He brainstormed about how everyone could share their own ideas and how the older ones could help the younger ones with building.  As he continued, Dax suggested the slogan from Clutch Powers ( a Lego movie), "We Build On Each Other" as a play on words with building with legos and helping each other to make something bigger and better.

I could hear in the backseat of my car our family values resonating in the words of my children.  We have had a tradition of sibling camp for several years now, and in the last couple of years I have tried to focus on each of our family values during each week or two week time frame throughout summer.  The values of God's Purpose, Each Other, Authenticity, Character, Excellence, Laughter, and Experience had been easier to illustrate and practice creatively.  But because of their young ages, actively valuing "people" and serving was my biggest challenge to incorporate. 1) A lot of people don't really want young children around serving because they can get hurt or be in the way. 2) The maturity level needed to maintain self control in those situations required a little more time to grow.  We tried little things but nothing really self-sacrificing and intense enough to maximally impact.

That day in the car I chose that we would value Cole and his idea, Dax and his slogan(each other) and use this for sibling camp (experience) to follow God's Purpose to value widows and maybe others (people) and build our (character) through (laughter) and (excellence) of Lego building.  Even though at the time I didn't really want to do so....

Let the planning commence:  I already had ties to the local nursing facility, but wanted to do something for kids too so they could serve peers.  I found the Bags of Love organization that provided food for children who were fed primarily through the school during the school year but were often hungry during the summer. I ordered supplies for Operation Christmas Child, and contacted my friend to get information about school supply donations for the following school year.  Dax and Cole strategized four themes for four different meetings throughout the summer weeks:  beach, 4th of July Parade, Mini-Golf, and Obstacle Course. Cole watched many Lego idea videos online and selected some to show at each meeting.  They also brainstormed other activities for us to include.  We targeted Cole's friends and their siblings first and it grew from there.

First Meeting: Beach
Everyone was asked to bring a canned/ boxed food item for Bags of Love and a beach Lego creation

While there we had some fun two person games to play and of course sand, seashells, and bubbles. The girls created their own game with the hula hoop and balls. Being the first meeting I forgot to get a group picture:(

It was a much bigger success than I imagined! The boys worked hard getting all the food delivered to the church for sorting and delivering!  It was interesting to see the system and the supply closet they had so efficiently set up to serve these families and the bins ready to accept donations at any time.

Second Meeting: Fourth Of July Parade
Everyone was asked to bring a creation of something you would see at a parade.  We went to the Lego Store and purchased the needed bricks for our people project the Tuesday prior.  The kids all took turns adding a portion to Lego flag and signing a poster sized card for us to take to Gracemont Assisted Living and Memory Care center.

We discussed how the older people that we were making this for had served our country in armed forces, as teachers, as parents, as business owners etc.  They had voted and had a say in what American is today; how the parents of these kiddos were building on what they had built and how they would one day be able to build on all of that.  We Build On Each Other!

Then we ran those parade creations down a track for fun and had a snack and drinks provided by the Smith family because it was HOT that morning!!

Third Meeting: Mini Golf

Our third meeting tried to value Dax a little more by incorporating golf into it!:) This was his brother's planning...

Each attendee was asked to meet us for a round at The Oaks in Gainesville bringing a mini-golf Lego creation and a school supply donation.  

We had  a blast! Several holes in one were made, and the boys loved listening to the balls fall down into the ball keeper on number 18! I think it may have been an introduction for some to the experience of putt putt! Then of course there was ice cream as a finale! Thank you to The Oaks for being amazing hosts!!

Fourth and Final Meeting (for Summer 2014): Obstacle Course

Besides golf and legos our family loves obstacle courses.  It started with Sibling Camp and trying to find team-building exercises for boys and then it was reinforced with our discovery of Ninja Warrior and American Ninja Warrior.  Sibling Camp has traditionally ended with a summer finale obstacle course putting together all trust and team building activities of the previous weeks.  As the boys grow, these get harder and harder to make thrilling.  Adding people this year not only utilized our values but it helped this mama up the excitement.

Everyone was asked to bring a Lego creation obstacle and donations for building Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes.  Because it was a end of summer party of sorts, we also requested a "tailgate" type food.

And now for the obstacle coarse for the real people not Lego men!  It started off with logs ("quintuple steps), moving to ladder ball crawl through, balance log, easel crawl under, leaning tower jump, team tosses, team ball carry, a rolling seat/"wheelchair" (rolling log),  a pool noodle (spear throw), tennis target, and a bucket/pole team carry around the house.

To add a little fun for those who might not like obstacles, we set up some carnival games where you could keep your feet grounded:)  We had a Lego man bean bag target, a large box target, Lego toss, and water gun balloon target shoot. 

****We had to wait a few months to drop off our stuffed shoeboxes but the boys took them to dropsite in October.**** 

Fourth Meeting of 2014: Christmas at Gracemont 

We had  a meeting at Gracemont Assisted Living because they expressed so much excitement over the Lego Flag during July.  We took some segments of the tree  and the cottage for the kids to build in age mixed groups where older kids helped younger.  We then took the tree which we pre-build in sections and "decorated" with the residents, assembling the whole display to leave through the remaining season.  Both populations loved it so much more than I could have ever anticipated!! Dax still talked about his elderly friend who was so proud of himself and kept saying "I helped build that! I can't believe I helped build that!" every time he tells the story of our visit.

First Meeting 2015: June "Robots"

This summer we haven't met as much as we had planned to meet.  But the first meeting was robot themed and we had some great robot ideas brought for display.  Cole led a short game of "Living legos" where the people were Legos, Dax shared about how cool robots but how awesome it is that God made us different than robots and gave us the ability to choose.  (He surprised me with all the thoughts he had on this!!)  He also shared a guest robot "MIP" with everyone who really seemed to enjoy his dance moves, funny antics and snoring. They played a "Robot Says" game where one person was the "Programmer" and told the "Robot" what directions to say in a robot voice so that we could all do it. The boys wanted Acts 17:27 to be displayed on the whiteboard, "God did this so that men would seek him and find him, through he is not far from each one of us."  Later, after club was over, Cole found 1 Corinthians 10:23-24 and wanted me to add it when I emailed out the pictures from this club meeting.  It states: "'Everything is permissible'--but not everything is beneficial.  'Everything is permissible'--but not everything is constructive.  Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others."  We took up toiletry items for residents at Bald Ridge Lodge Boys Home as well as laundry detergent to help with the guys learning the life skill of laundry during their stay.