Corinne’s 10th Birthday

March 29, 2025 11:39 am

Corinne wanted more Minecraft adventuring for her Birthday. During the past year she was really excited about getting a bees add on so this year’s adventure was focused on bees.

Her adventure started with a return to Blockville from last year. The villagers welcomed her back and informed her of some exciting changes in town. First, the Ender Dragon she helped last year (whose name turned out to be Ethan) had taken a liking to humans and moved into town. Second, bees had appeared and everyone was having a blast raising them and eating honey. They suggested she try her hand at setting up a hive.

Her first task was to speak to farmer Peregrine who knew all about hives and how to craft them. But, alas, a zombie attack had left his hive recipe in tatters. She would need to repair the recipe before she could make a hive.

With the recipe repaired she determined she needed 8 pieces of wood and block of lemongrass to create the hive. So off to the Forest to find it.

With supplies in hand she used the crafting table in the Workshop to make the bee hive. Then she spoke to beekeeper Beatrice, who moved to Blockville to follow the bees, about how to attract bees to her hive. Beatrice told her that her best option was to talk to Ethan (the Ender Dragon). He always had great information about where to find bees. There would be a price to his information, but it would be worth it.

Ethan told her that he had developed quite a taste for honey. He’d tried many kinds, but had heard legend of a special “galactic honey” that he just needed to try. If she could collect the right kind of bees and the right kind of nectar the bees would turn it into galactic honey. He gave Corinne a list of bees and where to find them. (I 3D-printed a bunch of little Minecraft bees in various colors and hid them around the house and outside.)

With the proper bees collected she needed to collect nectar (from in jars with Minecraft flowers scattered about) and then test it for quality. Ethan provided a special testing powder that, when added to high-quality nectar, would cause it to bubble and fizz (I decided to capitalize on Corinne’s lack of a sense of smell; nectar was either vinegar or water, thus the special powder was baking soda).

I apparently didn’t take any pictures of the galactic honey, so we’ll have to make do with this screengrab from the video camera. It was corn syrup with some blue and purple food coloring and some sparkly sprinkles (which mostly sank to the bottom). I had tried to make “rainbow honey”, but the food coloring was far too effective at diffusing throughout the corn syrup even after trying to use corn starch to change the densities of the colors.

Ethan was ecstatic about the galactic honey. To show Corinne his appreciation he gave her a compass he’d received from a wandering trader. The trader had promised it would lead to treasure, so if she found something she could keep it.

The compass was a crowdfunding project I backed last year (Truest North Compass). It uses GPS and a magnetometer to show you the direction and distance to a programmable point on the Earth. Unfortunately, the rain seemed to be interfering with its accuracy. And the magnetometer was confused while inside the van. So it didn’t go quite how I had hoped it would, but we found the treasure box hidden in the hollow of a tree at a nearby park (a friend placed it and kept an eye on it while we made our way there).

Back home to open it up and find it full of coins. Minecraft Coins! (As described in the contained envelope.)

Then Corinne opened some presents. We went to dinner at the location of her choice (McDonald’s). Then back home for cake. Another successful birthday.

Heather’s Birthday 2024

October 29, 2024 6:40 pm

Heather had a birthday / Halloween party this year to start off her celebration. I ran a minigame competition with a “Top Banana” trophy as the prize. They competed in 5 events: jigsaw puzzling (complete a small puzzle), dice stacking (stack dice on a tongue depressor held in your teeth), cup shuffling (alternating hands, remove the top cup of a stack and put it on the bottom until the first cup is back on top), Ping Pong carry (using a tiny, sample spoon carry Ping Pong balls across the yard), and the toilet-paper spray (use a spray bottle to spray a hanging strip of toilet paper that has a clothes pin on the bottom until the strip breaks and the clothes pin falls).

Then there was pizza, treats, and the general silliness of middle-school kids. Then back outside for “ghost pictures” (double-exposures using a flash).

Once our spooky pictures were complete it was back inside for birthday/Halloween trifle and filling up 3D-printed pumpkins with candy to take home. A good time seems to have been had by all.

The Birthday Adventure

On her birthday it was school and homework, but once finally complete it was time for a Warrior Cats Birthday Adventure (Heather’s costume this year was Firestar from the book series).

In the stories, cats train to become warriors who hunt for food and defend their clans. After an apprenticeship they must complete an assessment and if successful they have a formal ceremony.

Heather received a letter inviting her to take her Warrior Assessment which would challenge the five essential skills of a warrior: Smell, Sight, Tracking, Hearing, and Touch.

Her first trial (scent) required matching each scent-marked name to the appropriate cat. The cats were under glasses to help isolate their scents. I found a simple cat model online, modified it to have an empty space inside with holes through the back and then filled them with smelly things: cinnamon, vinegar, liquid smoke, cologne, and lavender oil. It worked pretty well, though oddly, the vinegar had no smell when she played the game just a few hours after prepping them.

Correctly identifying the cats revealed the code to the cryptex needed to begin the second trial (sight). I used the same cat model, but scaled it down to about an inch tall and printed cats in four colors. She had to find all ten hidden around the house and the number of cats in each color provided the combination to the lock for the third trial (tracking).

The trial of tracking required following a prey’s path through the backyard without getting lost until she caught up with the prey and obtained the code to the fourth trial. This involved a string run all over the backyard in one continuous length with false leads crossing it and confusing the issue. Although she made a mistake early on, she made a countering mistake shortly after and ended up with the right mouse while skipping about half the path. The prey was a 3D-printed mouse I grabbed from online and modified to put text on the incorrect ones (“Try Again”, etc.) and the code to the next trial on the correct one.

The fourth trial was hearing. I had recorded the cats meowing as well as myself and Jess and created an audio file for each of us. She had to listen to each file and identify which creature was meowing. Heather found this quite amusing and aced it without issue. The correct identification of the meowers provided the code to the fifth and final trial.

Warriors are sworn to protect their clans and this can require sacrifice. To honor those sacrifices Heather needed to identify four veteran warriors who had been permanently injured serving the clan using only touch. I used the same cat model from before, but modified one to remove the tail, one to remove an ear, one to remove a foot, and one to have a deep scar down the side. I placed each one in a paper bag and she needed to reach in and determine which cat was which. The order of the cats provided the code to the final chest.

The treasure chest contained a letter of congratulations and direction to present herself to the clan leader for the official induction ceremony where she would set aside her apprentice name of Heatherpaw and receive her warrior name, Heatherstorm.

Once the ceremony was complete it was time to celebrate with gifts! She had a blast. Grinning so big she could hardly read the letters and notes out loud.

Then it was off to dinner at Chili’s and home again for cake–pumpkin chocolate-chip cake with cream cheese frosting.

Jess’ Birthday 2024

September 24, 2024 7:36 pm

When Jess returned home from dropping the girls off at school she found a mysterious, locked treasure chest on the table with a sealed envelope. Then she had to wait all day until I finished work to investigate. But in the meanwhile we went to lunch downtown at Maple Street Eatery.

At the appointed hour she opened the envelope and found a letter from a wandering soul asking for her help freeing a friend from a trap. She needed to find a lock and the key to unlock said lock. After telling the soul that she was ready to help the soul communicated to her the location of a map and riddle by flashing the lights in Morse code.

Finding the map she followed a series of riddles with each one leading to a “sigil” and the next riddle. With all the sigils she used information from the original letter to arrange the sigils on the map to point her at the location of the key. With the key was a “magic” flashlight which when shone on the map revealed the location of the lock.

Unlocking the lock released the trapped spirit friend who then flitted across the house leading her into the living room where it made the lamp change colors which matched the numbered and colored sigils to reveal the combination to the treasure chest.


I had a little fun with the home automation stuff this time. I designed and 3d-printed the key (with hidden magnet) and the lock (not a real lock, but it did have a magnetic contact sensor hidden inside) which I’m pretty pleased with.

She opened the chest and received her presents which included tickets to an American Authors concert next month (You can’t get fun tickets these days, so I made my own).

I took the girls shopping a few weeks ago. We went to the outlet mall and I asked them to think of things that Mom would like and gave them a budget to work in. Heather selected a box of fancy chocolates. Corinne selected a necklace and earrings from Claire’s (given that she was extremely excited about this selection and that she met the criteria I couldn’t in good conscience discourage her from the idea).

Then it was off to Melo’s for dinner (they have a potato-bacon pizza which Jess likes). And back home for caramel cheesecake.

Kyle’s Birthday 2024

June 10, 2024 4:19 pm

We went out to the Chabot Space & Science Center on my birthday as we’d never been and it seemed interesting.

We got to sit in the actual-size Mercury capsule (smaller than I thought!), the girls made and launched paper rockets, we saw a show in the planetarium, and built a cart.

And then it was time to head to Martinez because….this year Mom & Dad were in the midst of one of their around-the-country trips and they arrived by train on my birthday.

So we picked them up from the station and drove back to Livermore to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant and then home for cake and presents. Lots of games to add to my oversized collection. Going to need to start pruning them really soon.

Corinne’s 9th Birthday

March 25, 2024 12:10 pm

For Corinne’s birthday this year I designed a Minecraft adventure. She’s been big into Minecraft this year. Since her birthday was on a Sunday we had lots of time for the adventure. Jess took the girls to lunch at Panera while I set everything up.

I was actively involved with the adventure as it happened and I asked Jess to take video, so I don’t have any pictures during the event, but you can watch the whole thing if you like (55 min):

When she arrived home from lunch she was welcomed to Minecraft and given an inventory bag and a map. She was told that Blockville was being threatened by an Ender Dragon because someone stole the dragon’s End Crystal. She needed to follow an old legend about a lost end crystal, recover the End Crystal, and return it to the Ender Dragon to save the village.

Her first stop was to see Shelly the Shepherd in the meadow. All of her llamas got loose and needed Corinne’s help to gather wood, build fences, create a pen, and then bring all the llamas back.

Once the llamas were corralled Shelly was able to tell Corinne some information about the lost End Crystal and referred her to Farmer Peregrine on the Farm.

Peregrine wanted to help, but there was a wild pig loose in his crops. He needed Corinne to mine some stone, build a trap, and trap the pig.

With the pig trapped, Peregrine was able to dig through some old family documents for some information about the crystal. He suggested Corinne visit Annie the Archaeologist who has been studying ancient relics and runes.

Annie found a locked chest and determined that the combination was related to the coordinates of a nearby statue. Corinne needed to measure the coordinates from the origin indicated on her map. In the chest was the last piece of information she needed about the End Crystal. She now had all 3 coordinates for the crystal and just needed to find the location.

In her closet she found the lost End Crystal and then activated the portal to The End. Inside was the ferocious Ender Dragon.

With an acceptable substitute for the stolen End Crystal having been returned, the village rejoiced, showered Corinne in gifts, and threw a party in her honor.

Along the way she crafted a sword/pickaxe and some diamond armor. Here she is with her new friend, the Ender Dragon:

I designed and built the llamas, pig, Ender Dragon, armor, and End Crystal. They’re all made from cardboard and hot glue. The dragon includes an aluminum skeleton of 1/8″-thick flat bar running from head to tail and wing to wing. Jess painted the llamas, pig, and dragon. Some concept art of the process:

Celebrating after the adventure with presents!

If you couldn’t tell by the gift selection, she’s really into Minecraft right now.

The rest of the family was recovering from sickness, so we stayed home for dinner (for which Corinne chose Taco Bell). Then it was time for cake!

The following weekend Corinne had a birthday party–the first we’ve hosted since the pandemic. She invited a few close friends and they made name tag headbands (so your name shows up over your head, like in Minecraft), assembled Lego kits, decorated cupcakes, and painted on canvases to take home. She had a blast.