Archive for January, 2010

Posted on January 9, 2010 - by Slade

Quadrillia Mania

When we first moved to Atlanta, The Estate Manager dragged us out to this really cool toy and kids store in a part of town I still can’t find. They had lots really interesting toys and kids decor items. The one thing that stuck out was that they had a HUGE wooden-marble-set-up-gizmo-thing. The Bird was a bit too young at the time to get any use out if it, and it would have looked suspect if I would have bought it for myself, so I had to file it away as “we’ll get that later”. Later turned out to be me telling Santa that The Bird would love this “marble thing” I saw, but the hard part was telling Santa where to get it. Turns out, after a bit of research on the interwebs, its called Quadrilla, and its made by Hape Toys. I mentioned to The Estate Manager that Santa was looking to get it for The Bird this Christmas, and she was very stoked.

Christmas morning after all the toys were unwrapped, food was eaten, and Meebs was put down for a nap, The Bird and I got a chance to crack it open and start building. The fun thing is that each wooden block has multiple uses for it: some have a single path that the marble can go through, others have a couple of paths in each block, but all can be used as either structural or functional elements, or both, as you build.

Today, the 3 of us (Meebs was again taking her nap) built a giant “city” in the office, and we incorporated a few household items to switch it up. This easily has a Rube Goldberg aspect to it, and I can see us having Quadrilla set ups that launch over a sleeping Tiki, change channels on the remote, and ring the neighbors doorbell.

Posted on January 1, 2010 - by Estate Manager

Christmas Wrap Up

Hearthstone House celebrated Christmas this year in both traditional and new ways this year. We of course made sugar cookies, partook in kids crafts, took our trip to the mall to see Santa and drove all over Atlanta looking at Christmas lights. Christmas Eve we went to church and then had dinner at Tasty China a fancy Chinese restaurant and celebrated together, very much like Ralphie’s family in a Christmas Story. Christmas morning we opened presents from Santa and made a simple breakfast. Here are some images from the week.