What are you able to build with your blocks?

Castles and palaces, temples and docks.
Rain may keep raining and others go roam,
But I can be happy and building at home.

Let the sofa be mountains, the carpet be sea,
There I’ll establish a city for me:

A kirk

and a mill

and a palace beside,

And a harbor as well where my vessels may ride.

Great is the palace with pillar and wall,

A sort of a tower on top of it all.

And steps coming down in an orderly way

To where my toy vessels lie safe in the bay.

This one is sailing

and that one is moored:
Hark to the song of the sailors onboard!

And see on the steps of my palace the kings
Coming and going with presents and things!

Now I have done with it, down let it go!
All in a moment the town is laid low.
Block upon block lying scattered and free,
What is there left of my town by the sea?

Yet as I saw it, I see it again,
The kirk and the palace, the ships and the men,
And as long as I live and where’er I may be,

I’ll always remember my town by the sea.

___________________________________________________________________________
[Block City, by Robert Louis Stevenson]

We went to the library for the first time all month today, and Jay picked out his old favorite book like always. After we read a stack of fresh library books (including the Block City one) and put Rose and Layne down for naps, Jay and I decided to build a block city. It was quite the bustling port town, with alligators and dinosaurs guarding the harbor, the Nutcracker and Clara as king and queen, Captain Han Solo on the royal ship with Noah and Joan (of Ark) as ship mates, a Sesame street in town, and My Little Ponies as villagers.

I’ve been rather caught up in my megasewing project this week, so it was nice to do a little creative architectural fun with Jay for a little while this afternoon. The good thing about building with blocks is that there are no rules. No limitations (except those imposed by soft carpet and gravity). NOW the fun is over and I have to figure out how to sew button holes…maybe…