My family loves Christmas. Ridiculously loves Christmas. I’ve blogged many times about
our traditions, and all of that fa la la. This year, the kids got a little high
tech with their wish lists.
At first I laughed.
That was after telling Dylan that there was no way in hell that we were
getting more pets (the kittens hadn’t discovered the Christmas tree at this
point), and we really had nowhere to store a go-cart. But I laughed at the note to Santa about the secret lab,
portal, etc.
Then I thought about it.
It might just work.
Then I would be Mom of the year and rule the world.
Our entire house is full of vaulted ceilings. Except in Dylan’s room where the
ceiling is flat. The attic is
above his room, and the entrance to the attic is a trap door in the ceiling of
his closet that you access by climbing a bookcase that has been built into the
wall, complete with handrails. The
only thing up there is Christmas storage.
Would it work?
The plan started to come together. However, not a whole lot pops up when you Google “Secret Lab.”
So, I started to sketch.
This might actually work.
I asked Thomas for a budget and started ordering things from
Amazon. I got paint from school,
and Thomas and I took a quick trip to IKEA.
We could only work while the kids were at rehearsal, so we
had to be efficient. It also me realize that I am NEVER home alone, but that’s the topic for another blog
post.
We swept, painted, taped a border around the area he would
have, and put down that interlocking foam flooring stuff.
I bought this cool roll of white board that’s like a giant
sticker, and put that up, framing it with the same tape. On the wall, I put up a light-up
remote-controlled moon that shows the phases of the moon, a periodic table of elements, bolted two
IKEA lamps, and put up two pieces of art that I made after the kids went to
bed: Dylan’s name spelled out in elements, and a line drawing of “Science.”
On the desk, I taped blue battery-operated string lights, so
it looks like the desk is glowing.
I bought a Newton’s cradle, made a pencil cup out of the caution tape
and filled it with white board markers, white board eraser, pencils, and test
tubes. Also on the desk are a pair
of safety goggles, a light-up magnifying glass with clip things (not sure what
it’s for, but it’s freakin’ cool), another lamp, a build your own robot, and a
book about Chemistry. Add a chair,
a hook on the wall that holds his lab coat, and the secret lab was ready!
Now, how to get him up there? I made an ID badge online and had it laminated. I typed out a note from Santa saying
that his lab awaits, and put them into a drawstring bag. It’s going in the bottom of the
stocking. We’re not good with
stockings, so I’m thinking it’ll be pretty freaking cool.
The plan its this: open presents, then take a break to
refill coffee, go to the bathroom, etc.
During that time, I will distract the kids downstairs, and Thomas will
go up the lab and turn on all of the lights, so it’s bright when he gets up
there. Then, we begin stockings.
I’m so excited about his reaction that I could pee my
pants. You can bet that I’ll be
posting the reaction video on Christmas morning, so check back on Facebook for
the grand unveiling!
Seriously. I
built my kid a secret lab.
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