Freestyle: Lego Menorah

This was another outside-the-box project. Building the base was pretty simple. We made it 4 rows thick so it would be durable, it just required a lot of blue bricks. The candles were trickier, but added to the fun. Each night we built a new candle, and when it was time to light the real menorah, we added an orange square atop our Lego candles for the "flame."

Freestyle: Jack-o-Lantern

We built this one without any directions, not from a set, just went to the Lego store and bought a bunch of orange pieces. It was a little tricky to do the mouth and the eyes but I think they came out ok. It was a cool thing to build in early October and display in the window the rest of the month.

Freestyle: Name Billboard

OK, so Chase didn't help me with this one. I did this by myself one night when he was sleeping. Incidentally, the next night when he went to bed he asked me to "build something cool while I'm sleeping." He knows how to spell his name so he thought this was really cool.

Lego 40020 & 40021 Halloween Sets

These were an awesome gift for Halloween. One package contained the pieces for two spides. The other one contained pieces an instructions for a small bat, ghost and pumpkin. Those three were pretty easy to put together, because they came with a 1 to 1 scale drawing. The spiders were a little harder for him to build himself, because the legs had to be snapped in place. Each bag was only $5 so they were quite cheap.

Lego 7942 City Off-Road Fire Rescue

Chase loved this set because it is a vehicle he can drive around once it's completed. Also, it's a fire truck with a fireman minfig. This one has a lot of little pieces, like the ax, the walkie-talkie, which are cool, but easy to lose. Also, the hose is cool but it doesn't quite unfurl easily, unless I did something wrong.

Lego 8426 Cars 2 Escape at Sea

Our most complicated build so far. Finn McMissile and Professor Z were easy, just simple cars, Chase loves putting the wheels on. The ship was a little more complicated. The two pieces that assemble the body were unlike any other pieces we had before. Chase loves putting the finishing touches on these pieces. He loves to put on the faces. And in his one he added the missiles and figured out on his own how to get them to "fire." He likes that Professor Z fits perfectly on top of the ship.

Lego 5933 Airport Building Set

This set contains pieces to build an airplane, a luggage cart, maybe some kind of septic truck (it has a hose) and even a control tower (though while the vehicles are completed you can't build the exact version of the control tower that is on the box). Chase loves driving these cars around. This set came with his first minfigs. He likes rotating the driver and the baggage handler between the different vehicles. He wants to try to assemble some of the alternate vehicles pictured on the box, but those instructions aren't included with the set so it might require a little more imagination and experience before we can embark on that.

Lego 8206 Cars 2 Tokyo Pit Stop

The first lego Chase ever got. He had been dying for a new Guido ever since the forklift broke in his plastic one. The Lego version is good enough. He really enjoyed the stickers, decorating the pagoda. And having the Cars to play with after completing the build is a good feature. A very good introduction to Legos for a big Cars fan.