The Magical Musical Box

Normally this time of year I would be passionately talking about my ever growing garden.  Seeds starting to sprout, new bed being built, flora and fauna, etc.  Not this year.  It seems we are no longer in Kansas anymore Toto.  Wait, maybe we are in Kansas!  So far we've had sun, rain, sleet, hail and snow.  All in one day.  We are just missing the tornado and I'm certainly not hoping for that!  With all the crazy weather here in the PNW, it sadly means we've been stuck inside for way too long.  I've been starting to run out of creative indoor activities.  We've done the art and craft box, we've done the cardboard boxes, we've even done a garage sand box (under the bed box w/ lid and wheels.  Fill with 1 bag of sand. Play in garage in the rain.  It's portable.)  We have now moved on to The Music Box.  This is a toy box filled with a collection of musical instruments, and not the ones you normally think of.  There are no tubas, or trombones in this box.  Think Kindermusik style instruments.  Sticks, and bars, and clackerheads!  Below is the list of our magical marching band.  Put on costumes, blast some music and bang away!

The Magical Musical Toy box

2 drums, 1 wooden with mallets, 1 plastic with plastic sticks

2 tambourines, big and small

4 seashell castinets

2 clackerheads

2 shaker eggs (we had more but the cats hid them)

1 set of bars with mallets.

4 jingle bells, differing shapes and sizes

spoons, the kind that smack together

2 harmonicas, 1 plastic, 1 metal

1 slide whistle

1 kazoo

1 recorder

2 sets of sticks, big and small

2 sets of sand blocks

wooden spoon with wooden bowl

6 shakers, random collection

2 sets of guiros frogs

An assortment of bowls and spoons from the kitchen sneak out during our jam session as well.  After an hour of this, I'm pretty sure I've met my gym quota for the day and the kids are sure to be ready for lunch!

A Filmaker in the Family

Last week The Cap't came to me and told me he wanted to make a lego movie.  I gave him my camera and set it to video and told him to go at it.  After about 5 minutes he cam back and said, "no mom.  I don't want to be in the movie.  I want to make the kind where the legos move by themselves."  I realized what he wanted to do was make a stop motion movie.  Think Gumby or Mr. Bill.  So we went to the internet and found a plethora of links to teach us how to make a lego stop motion.  So again I gave the Cap't my camera, set it to auto, put it on the tripod and showed him how to frame the picture.  We spent about 5 minutes together and then I left him to his own devices.  He spent 2 days taking about 350 pictures. He picked out music and I dictated dialog.  He made all the decisions, with my guidance.  The pictures were then uploaded.  We deleted the bad ones and I transferred them to imovie.  From there the magic happened!  Below is the final product!  A little over 3 minutes, the Cap't has his creative collective out for the world to see!  Enjoy!