Around the House

Several random things. Sarah sent Orion Hagrid's Hut for his birthday as well. We put it together, and it is pretty cool! It has a switch that lights up the fireplace.

Finally got our new trampoline

Cute robot contraption thing - another birthday gift. 

Happy Birthday to Me!

Orion drew me some awesome pictures for my birthday.  This one was my favorite I think.  Along the top you can see fireworks, and along the bottom are balloons, including one that is falling over lol.  I think the best part might be whatever is crossed out though.  There was a time he would have never give somebody something with a mistake on it.  I am happy to see him not being so hard on himself.

The LIG Market in Legos!

So Orion is a complete nut for commerce it seems. He loved the idea of people selling stuff at LIG so much that he made a Lego version of it!

I love how everybody is selling weapons hahaha.

Then I especially loved this expanded version with the winged shopper!  There were several people all weekend wearing wings at the conference, and there was even a wing making funshop, so I wondered if that was what inspired this.  :)

Chinook Winds and Glassblowing!

We decided to take a trip to the coast and chose Chinook Winds. Gambling for Ron, and indoor pool for the kids, and maybe nice weather and beach play. Well two out of three lol. We did have some great food as well!

This was the view from our window. The rooms are right on the ocean, which was lovely, but it was rainy and windy the whole time. Oh well.

This was a project Orion worked on off and on the whole trip. It is a solar factory, complete with panels and batteries lol!

But the highlight of the trip was the Jennifer Sears Glass Art Studio! I had read online about being able to do your own glass blowing, and there was an age limit, which Orion was several years away from. I was hoping they would let him at least watch and do part of the process along with Ron, but they let him do pretty much the whole thing! The lady said most kids his age don't have the attention span or will seem like they aren't being safe, but she goes by the kid, and Orion was GREAT! There were some thing he didn't want to do, so Ron did those, but he was involved in almost all the steps! I did my best taking pictures while holding Akasha. It wasn't exactly the kind of place she could run around lol, and we couldn't go in with them as there were no glasses that fit her, so I did my best from the viewing area!

Picking glasses:

Some of the beauties on display:

Picking gloves:

Picking colors. Not what I would have chosen lol, but I wanted this to be Orion's project all the way!

Learning about how to hold the metal bar. She was telling him how much of it gets hot and where it was OK to touch it. We absolutely LOVED the gal that worked with them by the way. She was so into it and just great with kids.

She grabbed the first bit of molten glass and let them know it was hotter than a volcano in there!

Is there where the term red hot poker comes from? Yowza!

She rolled it around to get the color pieces to stick to it.

Over here they were cooling the rod in a little fountain thing:

Walk and turn, walk and turn, walk and turn. She really stressed how important it was to keep turning it so the shape would stay even.

More walking and turning...

...right into a second oven where the colors were getting melted.

You can just tell from these photos how much she loves what she does!

These next two pics have to do with swirling the color around.

And this is a mold to help make sure it is a true sphere:

Tina (at least I think that is her name) put the first blow into the glass to get it started...

More rolling lol.

It went back in the oven to soften it for blowing, and here you can see the tube attached for blowing:

Ron starting to blow. Tina told Orion his dad's breath would be trapped in there forever, which totally fascinated him! :)

A little bigger....

A little bigger....

"I think it's done."

Can see the colors a bit better in this one, and notice the fairly young boy in the back working all on his own. Loved how child friendly this place was!

Walking over to the cutting area.

It is being held upside down here, about to be cut, and if you look closely, you can see the "BLOW YOUR OWN GLASS FLOAT" backwards on the window. :)

Going into the cooling area!

And that was it! You have to come back the next day to pick up your creation as it takes 24hours to cool.

Another shot of some creations with the Glass Art Studio sign in the distance.

Next day - the finished product! Taken with my cell phone, so not great. Will try to take another one in good light sometime soon!

The little spot on the bottom is a flat area for standing it up. You can also pick a little loop so it can hang, which I would have chosen I think, but again, this was all Orion's project!

Lego Plus

Interesting creation Orion made with several different elements lol.

Backyard Extravaganza

Oh my goodness, the yard is finally dry enough to play in a bit and Orion had a grand idea after watching a Blues Clues. He wanted to make a party in the yard and it became a total production! First, there had to be invitations exactly to his specification. The odd time was because he wanted it to be right after when we were making them haha.And this was his planning list, complete with check boxes!
It started first thing in the morning - the thing that looks like a cake is a stack of pancakes because his day starts with needing breakfast. :) Then the next thing is a shirt to represent making costumes. The thing that kindof looks like a V was for wanting Ron to build a picnic table, which didn't happen that night, and the things that look like volcanoes are actually our two trees in our yard, in between which he wanted to make the stage. And at the bottom are the snacks!

So out we went, with Orion wearing the red sash as a costume. :)

I had a paper with some pictures on it to represent lyrics to a song he is familiar with...
... but he got frustrated with it and decided it wasn't going to be a singing show after all.

Meanwhile, Akasha was doing her own thing.
So Orion decided it was going to be a costume contest instead, only he decided what he was going to give me lol. In the first round, he had the Blues Clues doggy ears...
...and I had the red sash and tried to go with a soldier look. Ron was the judge, and Orion won - can you believe it? :)
Orion's next prop was a peanut and he went for a squirrel pose.
I got the superhero cape and tried to look like I was flying, but Orion still beat me this round as well.
Then Orion said to strike a pose, so that is what I did, but he grabbed the bug viewer and said he was a scientist. He won again! Rigged I tell you!
Well our music party turned costume/pose contest was a big success. I think we may be in for a summer of shows this year!