What-What?! Week of January 6th

Didn't post last week because I was too discombobled to know it was Sunday...

So here's some Christmas pictures!  I swear I had more of these, but I can't seem to find them now.  If I find them later, I will post.

First, Christmas Eve.  This year we opened one present each that night, then the rest Christmas morning:

Our Christmas tree this year -- it was a bit gappy and not the best because there was apparently a tree shortage this year.

Osric was really excited to have this, and we have now played it enough to know where all the ambiguous rules are, because we have argued about them.

This is definitely one of Corwin's favorite gifts -- the Dungeons and Dragons Starter Set.  He immediately sat down and started reading the rules and adventure, and now wants to run a game for the family.

Lego!  Much Lego was had this Christmas -- the house is bit awash in them.

Playing Trouble with Oz

Saffron organized her Lego extensively before building

He is actually happy at this time, but all the pictures of him smiling were blurry. :P

Christmas morning

Giant yeti castle thing -- this goes with his giant yeti thing

This is a pretty cool set -- it's like a cross between Lego and old school Construx.  He's built the crossbow and it works quite well, and also pretty sturdy.  I am impressed.

Saffron got a few Barbie sets this year -- she's gotten a bit back into them.  This is a bee keeper set, and she also got a set with a dog that gives birth to puppies.

Harry Potter GOOD.  This kid got lots of HP this year, much to her delight.

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots.  This game is moderately loud by itself, but turns into extremely loud with the two boys playing/yelling at each other

I don't know where the other T-shirt pictures I took went, but Oz got this one, Corwin also got a ninja one, I got a pyromaniac squirrel with a flamethrower, and the husband got a DnD dungeon diving one

Saffron got a bit of Hogwarts -- the Whomping Willow, and a portion of the castle, including Snape's office and the Gryffindor dormitories

This is a Lego stop-motion movie making set;  expect some movies in the near future...

A Harry Potter dragon -- the wings on it are posable, so I believe right now it's hooked on her bed

I bought the husband a Star Wars Y-wing Lego set -- this is a big model.  It's not as fancy as the special black box edition (which is something like $300), but very nice all the same.  Eventually would be cool to display this and our other Star Wars sets together somehow.

These Hot Wheels city sets are pretty cool -- the kids bought these sets for each other.  They hook together, and also hook up to the regular HW sets, so you can make a giant area to drive your cars around in.  The boys' have used their own money to buy another four sets since then.  Oz really wants you to know that he bought himself a color shifter car that changes color when in hot or cold water.  Connecting all the sets together takes up about half the living room right now.

Finished HP set -- this took her quite a while to do, but she was able to complete it by herself

Corwin got this building set to create a motorized bug -- it walks around by itself!  Pretty cool set, though he needed help with some of the screws, since the holes weren't very well aligned

Finished bug -- this guy will actually walk over bumps and stuff too, so if you get it started and forget about it, you may find it someplace surprising

There is tons of stuff I don't have pictures of -- I got a ton of music, including some stuff by The Sweet, which is really good if you aren't familiar.  Comic books, a few movies, fancy chocolates... yeah, was nice.  I took about a week and a half off work and mostly actually didn't work, sorta.  Did very little of anything, actually. :)

What-What?! Week of December 23rd

Last weekend was Corwin's 9th birthday!

Recently, he's been big into Tolkien, reading The Hobbit and being very excited about Smaug.  To that end, he wanted a cake with a mountain on top, with a cave for a dragon.  I was able to deliver:

It's a simple vanilla cake with buttercream frosting, topped with a rice crispy treat mountain.  This is my first cake that required engineering skills; there are supports in the cake holding the mountain up, keeping the whole thing from squishing.

 

It was good!  Corwin got the mountain top.

 

And then presents!  He got some really good ones.

 

The folding green was greatly appreciated -- but it's burning a hole in his pocket!  I've talked him into waiting until after Christmas before spending it.

 

This was when he realized this present was going to be Lego.

His eyes tell the story here -- really, really excited.  I don't have any pictures from the other side of the table, where his siblings were sitting, but the reaction was similar. :)

This is a Hot Wheels mechanics shop with a gator in it -- the gator pops out and eats the cars (and your fingers too, if you're not fast enough!)

Hilda and the Midnight Giant

And the present the husband and I got him -- a Gameboy!

He has definitely enjoyed having this -- we got him one that has Zelda: Ocarina of Time built in, and a Pokemon game to go with it.  The requirement for playing on it has been to get his homework done, which he has been doing in record time (without mistakes!)

He also got this cute Minecraft set with a bunch of chickens.  There's a release on the back that makes the eggs fall into the chest!  It's pretty funny.

 

Building!  We've had his big set of Lego out in the living room for the past week, and it's gotten a lot of use.  I like the combination of pieces -- there's enough basic blocks in there that you can make whatever, but then enough eye balls and other unusual pieces that you can make it really wild too.

 

His first creation was a dragon!

We went out to Sonic for late lunch/early dinner, which is one of Corwin's current favorite restaurants.  This was the first time we all had gone to Sonic for food, and I believe my first time eating one of their burgers.

Oh, also:  Saffron decided to get a pixie cut:

It's so short!  I don't know what I think of it.  It's her hair though, not mine.