the education of henry

BIKES! IKEA! LEGO!

2025-04-13

This week we did home school, as usual. I had my college class on Wednesday, and we talked about the events leading up to the Declaration of Independence. And we had recess on Friday with Jonathan, Nick, Kellan, and Annika (but no pictures).

Mom was prepping for her colonoscopy this week, so we had a special treat...

Root beer floats - I just ate the ice cream.

I went to hang out with Jonathan for a few hours on Thursday while Mom and Dad were at the clinic for the procedure.

Lunch with Jonathan.

Reading time.

Jonathan showed me the pianos (Yes, they have two).

I think I have the posture right.

When I got back from Jonathan's, there was a surprise...

Ooooooh!

Can't wait to build it!

But I did have to wait to build it because Dad and I went to look for bikes right after I took it out of the shipping box. I have outgrown the bike we bought in 2021 by quite a bit - so it was past time for a new one. And Dad finally decided to get something different, too. He's been riding the same bike since 1996! We went to the local shop and bought some mountain bikes. I got a Marlin 8 that has a dropper seat post, and Dad bought a used Marlin 6 because he said my bike was way too expensive (even though it was on a really good sale). Technically, we are sharing the Marlin 8 - Dad will ride it when he goes for a ride by himself, and he will ride the Marlin 6 when we go together.

Test riding a new bike.

Our new bikes.

Saturday I worked on the steamboat from 07:00 to almost 21:00, with a breaks to go for a bike ride, read Lamb with Dad, and to have supper and watch Big Bang Theory. Mom and Dad worked on our next house project: finally getting all the LEGO sorted and stored in a more functional way. Dad and I spent several hours hunting for pieces during the week while we were trying to complete a couple of builds, and Dad was frustrated enough to finally just spend the money to buy the stuff to fix the problem.

And fixing the problem meant clearing some space for storage, which meant taking apart his office area in the basement, for a start. Which also meant cleaning and reorganizing the garage so his big drafting table could be stored out there. He also made a space to put the new bikes.

Getting ready to build the steamboat. This set has 32 bags of parts!

A good start.

It's coming together.

All done.

The Steamboat Amelia with ticket booth.

While I was building the steamboat, Mom was working on folding paper containers for sorting LEGO and Dad was hanging pictures.

Mom's project:

We are going to need so many of these! Thanks for doing all the work, Mom!

Sunday we went to IKEA to buy the shelving to organize the LEGO collection. We stopped on the way to drop some stuff off for Grandpa Al, so we also got to see Grandma Wynne and Loki for a few minutes. We also went to the LEGO Store to build the LEGO collection a little more. Why not? We bought our Swedish LEGO at IKEA and then some Danish LEGO at the LEGO Store.

Counting tubs.

The cart is getting full.

We got a little more piled on.

It all fit in the car. Good thing Dad and I came by ourselves - no room for anyone else.

At the LEGO Store, filling some more boxes.

We drove home, unloaded the car and went right back out. This time, we went to Menards and bought some more carpet to put in the basement. Dad had put one of the larger remnant pieces from the upstairs rooms on the floor in his office area and it made the space so much nicer. So Mom and Dad decided to just get a big piece of carpet to cover the whole floor where the desk was and where we walk. It's not fancy and the carpet is just on the floor, but it makes the whole space feel so much better. Mom and Dad said they wished they had done it 16 years ago.

Carpet in the basement.

Looks so much better than the ugly painted cement.

We had supper and watched Big Bang Theory, then I worked on some LEGO projects in the basement, Mom folded boxes (she cut out so many patterns she got a blister!), and Dad worked on putting up some of the smaller shelves and cleaning up.

About the last thing done on Sunday was to get the Amelia on display

And that was my week! Take care!