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Hold your loved ones hand, and for one day pretend you’re a tiny wooden robot. Or, if there’s no hand to hold, don’t sweat it. With all the advances in technology, it won’t be long until robots become the overlords of mankind. And when that happens people won’t have any time to hold hands.
Today is Lame Duck Day. While the day doesn’t celebrate the animal, there is a real lame duck (distant bird relative of the snipe). We dug through Great-Grandpa’s library and came up with this sketchbook page highlighting the Lame Duck in the wild. It’s like total proof.
Chinese New Year is coming up in a few weeks. 2015 will be the year of the sheep. The Wooden Sheep. How cool is that?
In honor of Squirrel Appreciation Day we give you Super Squirrel, Legend of the Trees.
Think of the furry legends of the trees and marvel at their daring branch to branch leaps and skittering dashes to find buried treasure! Sure, it would be fun to invite the little fellas inside (perhaps for a cup of acorn tea), but it’s best to leave the wild animals in their natural habitat. Though, with our wooden squirrel toys you can play right along without the little guys making a mess of your fruit bowl.
“Where do butterflies come from?” The Kids ask.
The Kids are curious little explorers, they love to learn. Scientists would be a stretch – scientists only in the loosest stretch of enlightenment concept of the profession. So they’re a bit fuzzy on technical process, more interested in spectacular results.
The creation of a butterfly is quite spectacular. “The butterfly is born a caterpillar – a fuzzy little worm, except it has legs.” I think. “Pretty sure is has legs. Either way, it sort of turns into this chrysalis”
“Crystals? Real crystals?”
“Well, they’re real, but not crystals.”
“Awww! No fair.”
“Chrysalis.” I continue. “It’s like shell it makes around itself. A sleeping bag sort of.”
“Can we go camping tonight?”
“Uhm. No. Listen. So it’s in this little sack. And the whole bug turns into this clear goo.”
“Ewww!”
“No, it’s really cool. The caterpillar dissolves and then reorganizes itself into a butterfly.”
“What’s reorganize?”
“What? It’s like uhm. To re sort. Make something new.”
“So where do butterflies come from?”
“Haven’t you been listening to me?” But I just get this blank look. “Butterflies are born of magic unicorns. The unicorns know a magic spell.”
“Real unicorns!”
“You betcha.” Plenty of time for the truth later, I suppose.
Who knows though? Perhaps you have a fairy ring in your back yard. Stir up a little magic, track down a unicorn, poof! Maybe you’ll create some butterflies. Hmm? Well, we can’t help you with the magic end of things, but we do have a spiffy wood unicorn toy you might be interested in. (Click here to purchase)
It’s been well established that toys come to life under certain circumstances (ie: when placed in magic cupboard, or when the kids leave the room); our toys are no exception. Our animal toys are mostly content to graze around the living room or nap under the shade of the couch. The fairies buzz around the potted plants. The cars usually zoom around, always underfoot. But the robots? Oh boy those robots.
The robots are restless and always working on something. Of late they have taken up movie-making. They built their own equipment and took over a corner of the garage for production. They fooled around with physical props and sets, but couldn’t get the look they were going for. So up went a green-screen for later CG work. Everything was going well . .
I made it clear the movie was their project, and I also made it clear they could only have the garage for the weekend. I thought this was plainly stated in the contract. Whoever wrote the thing and whichever bot signed it were two different beings. I brought this to their attention (again) late Saturday evening. Wow! Drama!
Lot’s of yelling squeaks and bloobs and bips (I struggle to understand them when they talk fast). I caught every third or fourth word – lot’s of blame and name calling. But to their credit they worked out their differences, and then worked through the night. They finished up garage photography the next day and my wife and I were able to move the car back in.
The robots finished their movie. It had a limited release in all the art-house theaters (poster below). It’s a big hit as far as small movies go. Robot Lords from Cosmic Space is due for home theater release later this year; certain to be a cult classic.
Pick up your own robots and make your own movie today!
5 cents each or 15 / 50 cents. “I’ll take sixty please.”
The balloon barker was a large fellow. He could hold two hundred balloons and not budge an inch, but the Attleson’s boy? The Attleson’s boys was thin as a bean stalk. He handed over his money, took those balloons in his two hands, and ZIP! Off he went into the air.
It was a steady breeze that day so he made it a good two miles before he thought to let go of a balloon or two. He loosed a few more and finally landed in John Southwick’s sorghum field. If you can believe that.
If you can believe it. Our grandmother believes it. She swears by this story, says it happened when she was a kid herself. Though she lost the newspaper clipping, and wavers on being at the scene or simply hearing about it second hand.
Still, it’s a FUN story, One of our favorites, and we’ve recreated it here in toy story-telling form.
Want to act out your own adventures with toys? Well, click here to purchase some.
You can’t flip through a family magazine, play a parenting podcast, or tune into a talkshow without being bombarded with advice, tips, tricks, and strategies to spend more time with your family and lead a happier life.
Want to spend more time with your children? Have more quality family time, happiness, and all that? Forget all the articles and books you’ve seen. When it comes to spending more time with your family there is only ONE SIMPLE TRICK you need to know.
And honestly, feel free to substitute anything you’d like in place of spending time with your family. This simple trick is fairly universal.
And unlike all those silly internet advertisements, this simple trick is real.
Looking for a way to spend more time with your children? It’s easy: JUST SPEND MORE TIME WITH YOUR CHILDREN.
But before the spade of “buts” come, there is one simple catch that accompanies this one simple trick: YOU’LL ALMOST CERTAINLY EARN LESS MONEY AND HAVE LESS TIME FOR YOURSELF.
My wife, Liz, and I have been testing this trick since the day our oldest child was born. We work(ed) very hard to spend a lot of time with our children. On workdays we have breakfast at home, some days we even make pancakes or waffles from scratch. We hunt for bugs under rocks or blow bubbles on the porch. At a time when most people are still working at their desks, we’re sitting down to dinner.
The best of all, with few exceptions either Liz or I, if not both, have spent Fridays with our children. For us three day weekends are the norm. For us Fridays aren’t that slackadasical last day of the work week, instead they’re trips to the less-crowded zoos and museums, picnics in the park, hikes in the woods, puzzle-building in the dining room, block building in the living room, and all around fun-having.
Though we didn’t take up this grand experiment so willingly. Initially we had no choice in the lifestyle. I was laid off from my job as an architect when our oldest child was just four months old. I made due with part time and odd jobs for a few years and in doing so Liz and I came to cherish all the time we had together with our growing family. It’s nice to be up every morning before the sun is.
I had time to make some playthings for the Kids and heard a few too many “you should sell these” comments. So I did. Thus Happy Bungalow (famous wooden toy company) was born in our basement. It has been a tremendous amount of work, but has allowed me to earn enough money while working from home and spending more time with my family.
Now every morning isn’t berry topped oatmeal for breakfast. And every Friday isn’t a Mary Poppins inspired romp through the chalk drawings. We have to leave early or work late sometimes. Fridays see sick or grouchy kids (or parents). And now that our oldest is in school, mornings have become much tighter (and funny enough, the school doesn’t subscribe to our three-day weekend schedule).
The catch though? Working less to spend more time with our children means earning less money. This means we’ve become even handier at fixing lawn-mowers, repairing leaky gutters and toilets, and getting by with clothing that’s more worn than we’d like. We make pancakes from scratch, because it’s so much cheaper (they taste pretty darn good too). We eat in more because we can’t afford to eat out as often as we did pre-children.
Then there’s the stress, the worry, the anxiety, and the occasional fight. Liz has had a full time (though flexible) job throughout our children’s lives, but I’ve largely had unpredictable work. Initially as a part time architect, then as a newbie professional toy-maker. So for several years the burden of supporting the family financially fell on Liz. Again, very stressful for everyone.
Sticking with this lifestyle hasn’t been easy on the accounting end, but it’s been wonderful on the personal side. Our children will only be young for so long. We’ll play catch-up on the monetary side in a few more years when the Kids aren’t so into spending an afternoon playing made-up adventure games in the park.
I know, this isn’t easy, and it may not be possible for you. Though I will say that before we were put into the situation, we wouldn’t have thought it possible for us.
Smell the popcorn, taste the cotton candy, and hear the calliope music filling the air! It’s a Three Ring Circus! – right in your home. The circus will always be in town with this fantastic wood play set. The children in your life will love the lions, tigers, elephants, dogs, ponies, and people. And become a kid again as you relive your own circus memories.
Take home the excitement of the circus with Happy Bungalow’s 70+ piece wooden circus toy set. (click here to purchase)
