Desperation Breeds Inspiration

One morning while eating my breakfast Spencer came up to me and proceeded to beg me for an itouch. Why in the world would he ask me for an itouch?  To play video games of course.  We already own a wii, which is why I've also refused to buy a Nintendo DS for them.  The iphone, cell phone and ipod they've asked for is also out of the question for safety reasons and also so I don't feel like I've wasted money on something that will be lost in two weeks or less just like a dumb happy meal toy.

Now I have another reason not to buy them these electronic gadgets.  The boys make them! They were so desperate to have their own gadgets that they decided to make their own. . . and they are actually satisfied with that!  Well, for now anyway.  So, here are the projects of last Sunday:

The item that James is giving bunny ears to is the docking/charging stations for the two ipod (the ones with the round pieces at the bottom) as well as the cell phone the reads "extreme ice rally".  The one with the hinge is a Gameboy and the one with the colored dots is a Nintendo DSI.  D.J. made one that was an opening cell phone that turned into a DSi.

So the next time they ask me for something, I will just tell them to go make it! Nice!

Having Thumb Fun!

Every day is April Fool's day at our house.  Spencer received some magic tricks in Christmas of 2009. One of the tricks is a plastic thumb that you stuff a handkerchief in, then put the thumb on your own hand and to your audience you magically pull a handkerchief out of your hand.  The thumb is disproportionate to a 10 year old, but if he does it fast it works OK.  Well, as most Christmas presents come and fade, so did the magic tricks.  But they crop up in other places, where least expected:

We also have a purple snake (I should never have told the boys that I'm scared of snakes) that appears in my bed when I turn down the covers.  Then it appears in D.J.'s underwear drawer. Then it appears in Spencer's pillowcase.  Then back to my bed. Then in the shower.

This is not an uncommon thing in the Wheeler family.  There are baby dolls, coats, flamingoes and other odd items secretly passed from one family to the next.  It is our weird way of saying I love you? I'm clever enough to play a joke, but not to hurt you? I'm a nerd?  I think we just like the anticipation of putting smiles on faces.  I'm sure that's it.