A "hand-made" Swiss Army knife

Bennett loves weekends because he gets to spend a LOT of time with his favorite person, Brian. Most Saturday mornings begin at 7:30 am (the latest minute that I'm able to keep Bennett from bothering Brian!) and sound something like this:

"Daddy! Daddy? DAAA-DY! It's morning time, Daddy." (said with increasing volume as he clambers up the stairs)

"Good morning, Buddy."

"Are you ready to make something? I wanna make a SWORD! I wanna make a CATAPULT! I wanna make a bicycle! I wanna make a bicycle JUMP! I wanna . . ."

Seriously, that little brain starts spinning the second he wakes up. He loves to build things with Brian and they usually come up with some pretty awesome creations. This morning was no different. Of course, there's a back story.

Earlier this week, Bennett found a small Swiss Army Knife in the basement and asked to see all the parts. Together, they looked at the blades, screw drivers, grippers (yeah, that's the official name, right?) and this one has a flashlight which is pretty cool. We put it on the counter afterward, thinking that would be high enough to be out of Bennett's reach. 

I found out on Wednesday that it was not. He had slipped outside after gymnastics while I was working on dinner, as he usually does. I did not realize that he had grabbed the Swiss Army knife on his way out the door. Not five minutes later, he came walking inside and went straight up to the bathroom without saying anything to me as he walked past. I should have been suspicious!

When he came downstairs (mom, you may want to stop reading now!) he came to me calmly and said, "Mama! I didn't even CRY!" Confused, I turned to look at his face and asked, "What do you mean, buddy? You didn't cry when?" He proceeded to tell me that he had just cut his finger on the knife because he had pulled out this blade even though he knew that he wasn't supposed to and it slipped and knicked his finger. But, "I went up and got a bandaid and I didn't even cry, Mama! I'm so proud of me." For the record - he's totally fine. It didn't even bleed all that much and it's already mostly healed.

So - this morning's project was to be a kid-friendly Swiss Army knife. When I left to get groceries, the two of them were huddled on the floor of the basement working with the Dremel and paint sticks, nuts and bolts, and colorful craft sticks. When I came home an hour and a half later, this was the finished product:

From left to right, the components of his knife are: saw, bottle opener, screw driver and blade. It is AWESOME! He kept it clipped to his tool belt all day.