When you wander through the Maes home, it's easy to see a Lego fanatic lives there. Pieces are piled in the living room, colorful bins line the wall in the play area, and completed models are displayed throughout the house.  

Minifigures hang on the wall of 9-year-old Race Maes' room. But the mass of Legos is not only the doing of Race. His dad, Rich, is also a committed builder, and together they have filled their home with all kinds of magnificent creations.

Kristen Maes, mother of Race and wife of Rich, takes it all in stride. She realizes that the time Race and Rich have invested together building with Legos has helped deepen their relationship as well.

"They love coming up with ideas, talking about anything Lego, reciting lines from the Lego movie and working on projects together," she said. "They are very close and definitely share the same passion of creating and building."

While Race said he enjoys putting together Lego kits from the Star Wars and Ninjago themes, he also spends a lot of time brainstorming and building original creations. He said the hinge pieces are some of his favorite pieces to work with.

"You can make things move with a hinge piece, like if I want to build a turret gun," Race said.

When he was just six years old, Race won his first Lego competition at the Liberty Lake Municipal Library. For the past two summers he has attended a robotics camp where he learned how to combine Legos and computer programming to overcome challenges. 

An engineer by trade, Rich said he remembers his first Legos being hand-me-downs that he kept in a pillow case. He has since passed those bricks on to Race, who loves to tinker to create his own spaceships. 

Rich said they study and steal ideas from other builders, photos and movies, such as figuring how the Lego Movie did an explosion scene. 

"We sit at the dinner table a lot and come up with ideas," Kristen said. "The theme in this house revolves around spaceships."

Together the father-son duo worked over two years to construct a 6-foot Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser. Race said he enjoyed doing the greebling {Greebling: The use of textures and shapes to make a larger model look more complex and realistic} on the ship, which is a technique that gives dimension to a Lego model.

But it wasn't only the ship they made. They guys crafted an entire story in order to create a scene around the ship. For instance, Zombies were one section of the hundreds of minifigures used in the scene, and Rich said Race developed that story line. 

"I asked Race how the Zombies came to be, and he created with Legos how a meteor crashed and started it all," Rich said.

The entire family took the ship, nicknamed "Sarah Jane," to BrickCon in Seattle last fall. They have participated in this convention for adult Lego fans for the past two years and went as spectators one year before that.

Race was only seven years old when he helped his dad display the Venator at BrickCon. Rich said Race earned the respect of those at the convention with his patience, persistence and creative designs.

"At BrickCon, little kids are generally not welcomed around the big spaceships," Rich said. "But last year a vendor sold him a $5 bag of parts at the show, and Race built a ship that people came over to see. People were really interested in his stuff."

Earlier this year, the Maes family loaned the Venator ship to FigPickels Toy Emporium to display in their Coeur d'Alene store. With that massive ship out of the house, Rich and Race have moved onto their next big feat - a spacefaring goldfish. 

They've gathered tons of photos, sketched designs, started with small models and continued building bigger models. They've also experimented with non-traditional building techniques such as SNOT {SNOT: A Lego building technique that stands for Studs Not On Top}.

The father/son team has had challenges along the way - from finding the right pieces from brokers to having an entire model explode, taking out a creation that Race was working on. But the challenge is what keeps them motivated to work together.

"My dad gets an idea, and we just start building with it," Race said.

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While kids are often told not to play with their food, The Wave is asking kids to have a little fun this summer creating toothpick food sculptures. Marshmallows, gumdrops or fruits and vegetables all can make colorful building pieces. By connecting food items with toothpicks, you can create exotic animals, interesting shapes or enchanting houses.

Kids need to ask their parent's permission prior to doing anything for this contest, of course. Once you've made your creation, ask your parents to take a photo and email it to tammy@libertylakesplash.com with your name, age, phone number and city you live in. All submissions received by June 30 will be entered in a drawing for a fabulous summer-inspired prize. In addition, some submissions may be featured in the August issue of The Splash.

Kids in kindergarten through sixth grade who live or attend school in Liberty Lake are eligible to enter this contest. Only submit one entry per person, please. If you need ideas, searching online can provide suggestions on what materials to use.

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"He draws creepy people with no arms and triangle shirts. They're creepy and funny." - Sania F., 10

"He splashes me in the pool." - Preston A., 8

"When we're in bed, he picks me up and throws me on the bed." - Jocie M., 8

"His snoring. He wakes me up and I'm all the way across the hall." - Cody K., 11

"I get on his back, and he carries me around and then throws me on the couch." - Olivia C., 8

"We watch a funny show together called Dragon Ball Z, and he does the motions for the Fusion Dance." - Sage Wehrman, 8

"He makes really weird noises randomly." - Lily P., 10

"When he tells sarcastic jokes and plays tickle monster with me." - Rebekah W., 8

"He makes funny faces with his mouth and sticks his tongue out at me." - Samee P., 8

"Whenever he hears music, he just has to dance." - Madelyn V., 11

"He can make his eyebrows go in waves, plus he wiggles his ears and his little bit of hair on his head sticks up." - Keegan R., 8 

"He makes a joke out of everything you say." - Alyssa U., 10