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.

Lunches January 13th - 17th

Boogs' lunches are inspired by the books we read at bedtime the previous evening. Each night, Boogs reads one book to me and I read a book or a chapter of a book to him. I usually post his lunches once a week. Click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post to see lunches from previous weeks. We like to pack our lunches in ELBs and Laptop Lunchboxes.

Something Under the Bed Is Drooling by Bill Watterson

In the ELB lunchbox: Calvin drawn on cheese on top of almond butter & jelly sandwich, graham cracker transmogrifier, Calvin transmogrified into a small candy tiger, broccoli, salad dressing power button, and strawberries.

Last Friday, Boogs began reading this Calvin & Hobbes comic collection. He loved it! When I got up Saturday morning, Boogs had been reading it for about an hour. He had bookmarked a few pages where Calvin builds a Transmogrifier.

Boogs asked if I had a large box that he could use to make his own transmorgrifier. We did not have a big enough cardboard box so I gave Boogs a large Rubbermaid container to use. Boogs decided that his transmogrifier would be called a Switch-Which-Which-inator! He spent quite a long time planning and making his Switch-Which-Which-inator. I provided a big bag of crafting/recycled supplies and hot glue gun skills to the project, Boogs did the rest on his own. I love watching Boogs create things.

I bought this knock-off Calvin shirt in Austria many years ago. Boogs uses it as a sleep shirt. When he asked to start making his own transmogrifier, he ran into his room and put this shirt on so that he would really be ready to create like Calvin.

Boogs showed me how he can fit inside. He told me I am supposed to point a fan at the red yarn when he is inside the Switch-Which-Which-inator so it will look like it is really working. The green button is the power button. The black grid of circles is the 6-digit password protected access panel. The little white box on top is an emergency repair kit. Boogs is still in the process of filling out the 5 circle menus of things this machine can turn him into. The pink circle with green grass is "a steam ventilator so it does not get too steamy inside the machine while the transformation is taking place".


Silly Goose's Big Story by Keiko Kasza

Silly Goose always wants to be the hero of the games/stories he plays with his friends. His friends began to feel resentful of Goose always being the star. Eventually, Goose needed his friends to be heroes to save him in a real life situation. He learned that he does not always have to be the hero especially when he has such heroic friends.

In the Laptop Lunchbox: Silly Goose pb&j sandwich with crust crown and fruit leather robe, cheese stick, raisins, Zbar, pineapple, and salad.

Hooray for Reading lunch

I am so happy that Boogs has started to enjoy reading independently. I threw this lunch together and put in a couple of reading picks to celebrate his new found interest in reading own his own. 
In the ELB lunchbox: ham spirals, cheese bites, Ritz crackers, fruit snacks, salad with heart shaped radishes, and mango.

The Popcorn Book by Tomie de Paola

Boogs loves to eat popcorn. He asked if he could have some popcorn in his lunch this week. I had just the book to read before we made another bowl of popcorn. This book explains the history of this tasty snack. Here are a few of the fun facts we learned about popcorn: Popcorn was discovered by the Indian people in the Americas many thousands of years ago. Popcorn was found by archeologists in a bat cave in New Mexico that was thought to be over 5,600 year old. The Iroquois ate popcorn soup. An Indian legend says that popcorn pops when a little demon living inside the kernel gets so mad when his house is heated up that he blows up the kernel. 
Boogs enjoyed this book. We love to make popcorn on the stove, in the microwave, and even by using Jiffy Pop over a campfire. 

In the ELB lunchbox: popcorn, bat boiled egg for the bat cave where popcorn was found (I really messed up the food coloring on the bat, OOPS!),  cottage cheese pretending to be popcorn soup, little mad demon in popcorn kernel on top of a small pb&j sandwich, blueberries, and broccoli. The boiled egg bat was made using the CuteZcute Animal Palz Mini Sandwich Cutter and Egg Press. You can find it HERE.

Someone asked me what I take to work for lunch. So, I thought I would include a picture of one of my salads this week: kale, baby spinach, carrots, radish, broccoli, tomatoes, ham, and croutons. There is nothing cutesy in my lunch, but it tasted great!


Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! 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.