I found this picture a few days ago and it melted my heart a little and made me very nostalgic ... it is such a cute picture, and Klara is so proud of the BB-8 we built.
During the summer of 2016, Klara was quite taken by Star Wars, and we read simplified summaries of the storylines from the movies to her. She was especially interested in the droid BB-8 and one day she came to me and said: 'Mom, I want to build BB-8!' My heart sank a little as I thought to myself, that I would have to disappoint her. She had her heart set on a version of BB-8 that could actually move and my initial reaction was that this would be 'impossible', or at the very least it would be difficult to a degree that I was not going to entertain taking on the challenge.
But here is how my mind works: faced with a challenge, even though I may have outwardly dismissed it as 'impossible' or 'too difficult', my mind will still be working away quietly thinking of ways that the 'impossible' could be made to happen. I can't help it, my mind does it without much active conscious effort on my part. So at some point, I remembered the remote-controlled vintage Motor Balls that I had found in my decluttering efforts in the attic of the Funhouse. They are hard plastic spheres, made of two hollow hemispheres connected to a motor in the center of the ball. The two hemispheres can spin independently and the ball can be made to move and spin using a remote. I had saved them because they were a really fun and curious thing that I thought might provide some entertainment in the future.
I was right, the time of the usefulness of the Motor Ball had come! We planned to disassemble the ball and paint the two hemispheres. My idea for creating the 'head' of BB-8 was to take a solid styrofoam hemisphere, poke a hole in it, and mount it on the Motor Ball's antenna. So, Klara and I went off to purchase paint, decorating items, and parts needed for the head and got to work. Before we knew it we had a BB-8 that moved!! Admittedly, not as graceful as the 'real' BB-8, but I'd call it a success none-the-less.
It took a dash of luck (having found and saved the Motor Balls), a pinch of creative thinking, and a smidgen of initiative - and the product was a moving BB-8 and a happy kid. Success!