Lego, Lego Everywhere
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In thinking about the common bonds between the seven of us one of the things that always comes to the surface is Lego.
The kids pretty much know that I am a pushover for both books and Lego. If they ask me to buy them a book it happens almost immediately. Depending on the Lego it might also happen immediately, especially if it has anything to do with Harry Potter. If you don't know they have a whole new series of Harry Potter sets now available (these are likely to be Christmas gifts around here). I might have ordered 20 of the small Harry Potter Mini Figure bags a couple weeks back just to see if we could get Mad-Eye Moody which was the one Simon was most after (yes, I get that this is ridiculous). We ended up getting all of them except Voldemort, Harry Potter in PJ's, and Newt Scamander. I might have just ordered those specific three from eBay. I also might have sat at the table with Simon and Audrey and fully experienced joy as we opened up those 20 bags to see what we got.
I've shared stories about Lego in the past because they have been a pretty big part of Simon's story.. Here's a look at what Simon was up to with his Lego back in 2010 (a lot of the drawers you'll see in that post are now in Isaac's room).
As I was thinking about it today it dawned on me that if I went into each of the kids rooms right now Lego would be one of the main things I'd find. I decided to go around and take photos of what I found in each of their rooms. I also decided to take some shots of how we store Lego in each of their rooms and share a bit about that.
ANNA & AUDREY
The girls (who share a room) have really been into Lego recently and have been wanting to play with more traditional sets than the ones specifically marketed to girls. They have been going into Simon's giant tub of less loved Lego and finding all kinds of treasures which are now on their floor.
I love seeing what they create and how they play together. I just bought this People Pack set for Anna last week and she was so excited because it came with a bunch of mini-figures. I don't remember seeing these "People Packs" before but I love that they include a whole bunch of different people.
In the girls room we use something similar to these under the bed plastic tubs to hold Lego (and dress up clothes and other random stuff). They really don't seem to care at all about having it organized and I think they actually like the process of "digging" through the bins (by color, shape, mini-figure, etc) so at least this way they have somewhere to go when I get the point where I can't stand them all on the floor any longer.
SIMON
As many of you guys might know, Simon LOVES Lego. Specifically he loves Star Wars and Harry Potter Lego.
He's also a fan of some specialty sets like when they released Ghostbusters (that big red building is the Ghostbusters Firehouse). These kinds of sets are definitely expensive but for a kid like Simon who really does interact with them regularly they are worth every penny.
I'm fairly sure this will be a lifelong love and I'm totally down with that. As you can see, in his room they are literally everywhere.
Over the years we've stored extra sets and pieces in a variety of different ways. When we did our upstairs remodel his closet shrunk and the storage he was using in there went away (now it's just for clothes and two big tubs that you'll see below). During that process he decided to put a lot of his Lego into two big tubs (those are from Costco). He kept some specific sets out and kept most of the mini figures (aka "lego guys") but other than that a lot of his sets over the years went into those two giant tubs. These days those tubs are open to any of the kids who want to come in his room and dig through them to add to whatever they are playing with in their own rooms.
Years ago I shared an image of using one of these vintage type trays to hold mini-figures (you can find these on eBay). We pulled this one out recently and hung it up for him to add some of his favorite guys.
These are the giant tubs filled with mixed up past sets that live in his closet under his clothes.
Across the room are his shelves (from Ikea). Lots of Lego here, including some in plastic drawers and lidded tubs that fit within the shelves. Those tubs are the ones that have pieces separated by color or style (heads, hair, weapons, capes, and then a few that are just separated by color).
Simon is one of those kids that doesn't generally rebuild a set. That said he did recently download some instructions to try to rebuild an older set. Generally he builds a set once and if he loves it it stays together until he's ready to break it apart. The other kids are more into building from scratch from the tubs.
ISAAC
Issac actually had a whole bunch of his sets out on our dining room table and just cleaned those today before heading over to his Mom's. He did leave this little collection out, telling me that he was in progress with a "scene" with these guys.
Isaac's level of Lego love is similar to Simon's. In his room (which is downstairs in our house) he is using a bunch of the drawers that Simon used to have in his closet (these are similar). He's also got that bakers rack that I used to have in my office tucked into his room. He uses that for in-progress projects. Amazon has a smaller version of a commercial baker's rack here - I bought this one from a local restaurant supply store.
I'm not sure if he's got any specific organization going on with these drawers or if they are just serving as home for all the pieces.
ELLIOTT
Elliott, who is 11 and going into 7th grade, is the one who said recently that he thinks he is growing out of Lego (and didn't take me up on a recent offer to pick up a set when we were at Target). He has the least amount in his room but I still find him interested in them from time to time.
He's got a small shelf next to his bed in his room that holds a couple tubs and a drawer of some of his favorites.
OTHER PLACES
I also happen to know that there are also a couple of these drawers filled with Lego.
So, yeah: Lego, lego everywhere. Always and forever.
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38 comments
My twin boys recently turned 21. Still request LEGOS as gifts and still buying sets and pieces for themselves. Still displayed in their rooms.
Replies to SusanBowers
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A few years ago, when my grandson was born, I decided to sort my son’s giant crate of legos (I had saved most all of the directions for assembly). It took months to recreate the old sets and I spent many hours on the various “brick” sites to find inventory lists and missing specialty pieces. IT WAS A BLAST. Like a nightly treasure hunt. Henry is now 5 and getting into Lego. I started him with new sets (Junior sets from Jurassic Park). But it won’t be long before we watch Indiana Jones and start tackling the vintage sets...
Replies to JaMastin
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My son is 34 and ‘builds’ most evenings after a hard day of being a pretty senior chemical engineer/ mill manager. My son in law still says he wants to be a designer for Lego ‘when he grows up’ ( he’s 31). My 3 young grandsons are obsessed.
Sadly I still see a bit of a ‘sex divide’ with Lego with my friends who have young granddaughters saying that they have never seen them playing with it.
Replies to geordie281
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Love this post! We are Lego (and book) super fans too and it’s awesome to see your kids’ spaces filled with them (and storage ideas!). We were at the Mall of America’s Lego store yesterday and both of mine chose Harry Potter kits take home. Can’t wait to spend some family time working on them together!
Replies to TeresaVictor
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I just wanted to say thank you for being back here on the blog. I love these posts. Though I do not have kids, I love hearing about the "lego" challenges/love and all the other "stuff of life". Though it may seem to some "not part" of memory keeping, but I would say these little pieces of life are EXACTLY what life is all about. Keep the memories and keep the stories coming. Thank you again for sharing and welcome back!
Replies to cruisin_ali
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My son, who is now engaged to be married, played with Lego up into high school. He now works as a project manager/cost estimator for a huge company building hospitals and skyscrapers in SanFrancisco. And yep. He still loves Lego.
Replies to LoriAnde
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Thank you for this post. Because of Simon, my 5 year old grandson is playing and loving Legos. My guy is on the spectrum and I was looking for something that would hold his attention and help calm him. I remembered Simon playing with Legos and his love for those Legos. I introduced my guy a few months ago and he loves them, especially the dinosaur ones. He still needs a little help snapping the blocks together, but we will play for hours. I love seeing your organization, because we have them in different small containers all over the living room. I guess I will be being doing a Target run today to pick up the white drawers.
Replies to princessteach
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Awesome!! My son is 5 and just saved up to buy the police station, in other words a lot of money for a 5 year old. I’ll admit to buying the Harry Potter great hall for myself and desperately wanting to buy 20 packs of characters!! We just spent the whole weekend resorting all the LEGO we do have and changing out the wooden trains in the train table for LEGO. Such a great toy!!
Replies to Ojyma
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What's better than Legos? LOL! Lego maniacs are the best! That's how we felt for at least 15 years in our house! We were lucky enough to also visit the Lego store in Disney Springs fairly often - at times I think my son enjoyed it more than the parks! Recently kept a couple of special creations and gave the rest away to a family that will use, love and appreciate them. I'll always fondly recall both the joys of completing a build, and the anguish of things like "she just lost one of my pieces" or "he just dropped what I worked on for hours!" Good times.
Replies to ScrappinMyHeartOut
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So much love for this post! We have recently begun our journey into minimalism-a light version and lego is one thing we will never downsize. We get just as much enjoyment as the littles!
Replies to mrscourtney555
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Love this post. We are LEGO obsessed over here too. Every Christmas we buy a big set (LEGO Friends for my 8 yr old girl) and we spend Christmas break putting it together. She also has all the sets they released for the amusement park collection. Recently started buying the 3 in 1 sets, so they have more rebuild appeal.
Replies to kcp_
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Lego family in this house, too! My Jack has the white under the bed bins and that's what we do with them, too! He loves the dig and hunt to find just what he's needing! My OCD self tried to help him organize by color one time - that lasted a day! Ha! ;)
Replies to KProffitt
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Loved this take on an “around here” post. So interesting to see the various kid spaces through the lens of Lego. A unique way to see the less-obvious bonds between family members. From the looks of it, you could do a similar post through the lens of Star Wars!
Replies to YolandaL
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Some of my favorite stories you share are ones about books and Legos. My grandson has played with bigger Duplo sets and loves them, he just celebrated his 6th birthday and he got his first set of Lego Minecraft and he loved them. I already snagged up the Harry Potter sets from Target for Christmas presents too but probably for another year. He already said he is asking Santa for Legos for Christmas.
I never deny a child a book I always try to encourage reading. Was walking around the bookstore recently and over heard a child begging for a book and being told no that it couldn't be afforded my husband and I bought the book and gave it to them.
Loved seeing how all the kids store their Legos.
Replies to RhondaN
Such a kind offer for purchasing the book. I’m sure you made that kids day.
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I love this. We’re also a Lego-loving family. The Hogwarts Castle is currently in hiding, ready to make an appearance for someone’s 10th birthday in a couple of weeks. I think we will all want to participate in the construction! 😁
Replies to SarahGiles
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I really enjoyed reading this and the part about ordering 20 of the Harry Potter mini bags reminded me that when my girls were young, they were obsessed with some of the toys that came with McDonald's Happy Meals; particularly the ones that were released in connection with their animated movies. My best friend, who has children the same age as mine, was in the same situation and we discovered that McDonald's would sell the toys (at a reduced price) without the meals. Since we didn't want our kids eating McDonald's, we'd take turns going to McDonald's once a week to get the latest toys. And on more than one occasion, one of the workers would let us get whatever was available all at once. Thanks for sparking this memory for me - I need to scrapbook about it!
Replies to SusanB
We also did the same with the Happy Meal toys. We purchased w/o the food. Loved when they would let us buy the whole set at once. We came across the Kung Fu Panda Happy Meal toy set and gave them to our nephews (6 and 9 yrs old) and they loved them! So many memories and I agree it should be scrapbooked!
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Great post! :D I loved reading it and seeing the pictures!
My brother is 25 and two or three years ago, I don't remember it right, he suddenly asked for Lego for Christmas. My mum was confused and asked if he is serious or if it was just a joke. But I only made sure, he really wanted it and got it for him. It's so cool! I would get some sets myself, if I only knew where to put them!
Replies to Smartis86
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I well remember the days of Legos in our house. Super fun and creative for our kids. Cleaning them up with a dustpan and stepping on them barefoot are two of my prominent memories! I’m glad that you documented this for your family, and it brought back great memories for me. Thanks, Ali.
Replies to birdnscrap
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Loved reading this! 😍
Replies to Anle717
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Oh yes! We can relate. I only have one child at home now but he is all about Legos, our family room is Lego central. Loved seeing all of your pictures, as well as some other ideas for storage.
Replies to sheenajohnson
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