November 16 – “HobbitTown Theme Park”

Well, now we continue our excursion into the realms of interpretation of careers.  First up is a new look at engineering.  When Josh and Christi were gone for a while we had the boys to ourselves.  That meant they were anxious to show us all of the unusual opportunities for creative play they have gathered together over their short life span.  And one of those opportunities involved the ever-exciting dress-up box.  In this case they have a huge Tupperware-type tub full of costumes and accessories.  By the way, why is Tupperware called Tupperware, and why does the computer spell-check automatically capitalize it?  I’m guessing some guy named Tupper invented it and the spell-check thing relates to copyright issues.  Anyway, Zak and Caleb brought out the huge Tupperware-with-a-capital-T box and dumped it all out on the living room floor – the only way to properly display such an array of items.  Astronaut, Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Hobbit (including large, hairy socks), princess (there was a gown and a crown in there), rabbit, cowboy, train conductor.  We all tried on something to get into the spirit.

But as exciting as that experience was, it paled in comparison to the development of a new ride concept for the yet-to-be-funded HobbitTown Theme Park.  Now for some background.  At bedtime the night before we had listened enthralled to an installment of the book, The Hobbit.  In this part of the adventure some dwarves had hidden inside some barrels and the barrels were then floated down the river, bobbing and weaving and crashing into obstructions all along the way.  It was from that snippet of their journey that the germ of an idea began to form.  The pile of costumes was there all right, but what little boy can resist the allure of … an empty box?  Or in this case an empty Tupperware-with-a-capital-T tub?  The boys began to vie for an opportunity to be covered up by the tub, which led to the other pone sitting on top of it to see if the enclosed captive could force his way to escape.  Finally one of them crawled inside and the other snapped on the lid.  And the idea struck.  I made my way over to the tub site.  And suddenly the tub became a barrel and the resident inside became a hidden dwarf.  The tub rocked from side to side, and twirled around in circles, and bounced up and down, and turned upside down, until finally in came to rest on its side.  The lid popped off and the dwarf within rolled out, spent from … laughter.  The other one demanded his turn, and he Dwarf in a Barrel ride for the HobbitTown Theme Park was born.  OK, so maybe that’s not truly a feat of engineering, but it sure was fun.

Psalms 37:37 says, “Consider the blameless, observe the upright; there is a future for the man of peace.”

Father, grant us peace … and a future.  Amen.