Saturday, February 8, 2014

Snow Day Time Machine

This past summer, Boogs and I made up our own countries based on the book I Need My Own Country by Rick Walton. You can find out about it HERE. Since we had a snow day (see the lovely note I left for him before I went to bed) and were not going to school I had set up an attack outside Boogs' bedroom country. We had several battles this morning. We had a great time!

Boogs discovered the awesomeness of Calvin & Hobbes last month. He even made his own Transmogrifier, you can read about it HERE. This week, I gave Boogs The Authoritative Calvin & Hobbes Treasury by Bill Watterson. Boogs immediately stopped everything else he was doing so he could start reading this book. As soon as Boogs got out of bed the next morning, he told me I had to listen to what he found in this book.

He was so excited to find out that the transmogrifier he had made could be turned into a time machine. As soon as our last battle was over, Boogs decided he had to turn his Switch-Which-Whichinator into a time machine. Boogs got everything set up and then told me I had to find the note to find him that he left back in time. I searched all over the house with Boogs yelling from his time machine, "You walked right past it! Too far! Look around you! Can you see the note in the glass bookcase? It is right there in plain sight, rolled up into a tube, and stuffed inside the cup with a hinge lid (Austrian beer stein) behind a picture frame of me."  I guess I am not very good at finding things that are clearly in plain sight.
Here's the note. Yes, I know my 7-year-old needs to work on his handwriting and spelling. He hates writing with a passion. I love that he wrote this note for me to find.
Translation: Help! Trapped in hyperspace! Food supply low!

I immediately jumped in my upside down stool time machine, kicked it into hyperspace drive and rescued Boogs.
Boogs was thankful that I rescued him but he let me know I needed some help with my time travel equipment. He showed me another Calvin & Hobbes strip to make sure I was properly outfitted for time travel.
So, I had to make a pair of time travel goggles for myself.
Yes, we did stay in pajamas all day. After all, it was a Snow Day! Boogs and I got into our time machines and traveled back in time. Boogs asked me to guess what time period we had traveled back to. I guessed the time of the dinosaurs. Nope! Boogs then gave me some clues. "We are back in time as far as we can go, I see animals & plants all around, angels are blocking two people on the outside of the gate. Now, do you know where we are? We are where the snake tricked Eve with an apple." I responded, "Oh, we are in the Garden of Eden." Boogs said, "I could not remember what it was called. Wouldn't it be weird if it were called the Garden of Edith? That would make it sound like a Despicable Me character. Do you think we can discover some animals that have not been named yet and name them ourselves?"
Suddenly, Boogs pointed to the sky and exclaimed, "Look! Uh-oh! Power grids are falling all around us. There must be a rip in time and space where stuff from our time is falling into the Adam and Eve time. Their stuff must be going to ours. We will have to fix the rip on this side and then travel in hyper speed and go fix the rip in our time. We have to do this fast before humans from our time start falling through the rip." (I had a piece of paper on the kitchen island where I kept jotting down the things Boogs was telling me. His imagination makes me smile!)

We had to prepare for our mission. We needed extra food supplies (lollipops), protective gear, and we had to replace our broken power grid with one of the new ones that had fallen through the rip in time and space.
Unfortunately, Boogs time machine malfunctioned (he put a dent in the side of his container). Boogs was thrown into space. Luckily, I was there to rescue him and return him to his time machine. We repaired the machine and then saved civilization as we know it by fixing the rip in time and space.

After our mission was complete, Boogs decided that we needed to make some box pets to keep us company on our adventures. We looked through our recycles for art stash and found two boxes to use. Boogs started designing his pet and wanted to put wings on it. He asked me to cut out the wings because he could not think of how they should look. I told him to simply put some scissors and paper behind his back and cut without looking to come up with a completely original design. He loved that idea! 
Boogs named the tissue box pet Cackletooth because it looks like he is laughing. He named the wipe box pet Terrible Trio Face because you could lift the lid to show three different faces - adorable face, mad face, and anxious face. Terrible Trio Face fit perfectly in Boogs' time machine.

We took a break from time travel for a late lunch around 2 p.m. Of course, I had to make a Calvin & Hobbes time travel lunch. In the ELB: Calvin & Hobbes drawn on cheese inside a salami sandwich, Time Machine cheese cutout letters, berries, broccoli, carrots, and cottage cheese. Boogs stated the the last Calvin & Hobbes lunch looked a little bit better than this one.
After lunch, I sent Boogs outside to play. By the way, the weather forecast was incorrect. The snow, sleet, and ice never showed up in our area. We could have been at school this day.

When Boogs came inside about two hours later, the first words out of his mouth were, "Momma, let's get ready to blast into the future!"

Just two months ago, Boogs was reluctant to read independently. Now, he wakes up early so he can read and re-read his Calvin & Hobbes books. Thank you Bill Watterson for creating such engaging comic strip characters! Boogs wants to take the pictures from today's adventure and make a comic strip of his own from them.

Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! This post is linked to the After School Linky Party. If you want to see more book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post or go to My Story Themed Lunches board on Pinterest. I would love for you to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by.

18 comments:

  1. Looks like so much fun! And the lunch rocks!

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    1. Thanks, Jenn! We had a great deal of fun blasting through time and space.

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  2. Keitha, this could be a book. Wish I were your child.

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    1. Thanks, Mom! I remember how you used to play along with me when I was growing up. I am simply carrying on your tradition.

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  3. I love the imaginative play that you have fostered from a very young age. It is truly inspiring. Thanks for sharing more of your journey on the kid Lit Blog hop.

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    1. I am so excited by enthusiastic my son is about reading Calvin & Hobbes. Maybe other parents with reluctant readers will see Boogs' excitement and try comics for their kiddos. Thanks you for stopping by.

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  4. It would have never occurred to me that Calvin & Hobbes can inspire so much imagination and creativity - which just goes to show how much I still don`t know! Thank goodness for these kid lit blog hops... I wonder how my nephew might like this,,,

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    1. I was really surprised at how much Calvin & Hobbes inspired Boogs' creativity. He has already asked for more supplies for the next thing he wants to make from another Calvin & Hobbes comic panel.

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  5. That sounds like an amazing Snow Day! I'm all for adventure, imagination and PJ's! Thanks for sharing in the Kid Lit Blog Hop. :-)

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  6. You are so creative! What a FUN day!!! Thanks for sharing on TGIF! I hope you and your family have a wonderful valentine's day =)

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    1. I can't take credit for any creativity in this activity because Boogs led it all.

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  7. I love a snow day, looks like you had so much fun, cute lunch too!
    Thank you for linking up at Fun Food Friday!

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  8. What a fun way to spend a snow day or a non-snow day! I love Calvin & Hobbes. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!

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  9. YOU TWO ARE SO FUN!! I have loved Calvin & Hobbes since I found one of the anthologies at my grandparents' house in middle school. My husband gave me the complete collection when we were dating, and I'm pretty sure that's why I married him ;)
    Thank you so much for the smiles! I appreciate you linking into the KLBH!

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    1. Thank you so much for this kind comment. I keep wondering if I will get kicked out of the KLBH since I don't write "proper" book reviews. Your husband is a smart man.

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