Marble maze

Pieces and parts, pieces and parts, oh how I love pieces and parts!!

I truly believe that people get my children gifts that need assembled simply so that I can put things together. Which is not a bad thing. I love to put things together! Too bad my busy life only leaves me very rare moments of Lego creations, etc.

Hayden and Lucas received this marble maze thing for their birthday and were determined to play with it as soon as they got home from their party. Too bad with "over 330 pieces" it took me quite a while to put it together. However, once my masterpiece was assembled, there was much awe as the battery-operated gears turned, marbles rose, and then rolled through the intricate levels of pipes and spinning "toilet bowls" and water wheels, and scoops...

My assistant, JJ, gave a water wheel a little tweaking on the first run.

He was content with the patch job and sat back to enjoy with the two birthday boys

I think Hayden was just befuddled at how it all worked. He just sat there for quite a while and watched it...very intently.

I think you could say they were quite pleased with this gift.

Here's some close ups that the boys took -

This is the starting line - the marbles are waiting to be taken up the "elevator" to begin their journey down the marble maze.

A red marble is starting the journey up the "elevator"

This is where the marble comes out at the top of the "elevator"

The boys love this thing! Today Tanner took the entire thing apart (oh my!) and made his own marble maze creation. He's allowed to keep his creation for two days and then JJ gets to have a go at creating his own maze. I think we could be creating and recreating for a long time. We do have "over 330 pieces" ya know!!!