Tag: Corinne

Corinne’s 11th Birthday

March 21, 2026 3:20 pm

Corinne was excited that this year her birthday wasn’t on parent-teacher-conference week because it meant she’d get to spend more time with friends at school. Her school day went well and back at home she entered the land of Reveria from the Fantasy Life i which she had recently played.

Edward greeted her with urgent news: Trip, his bird friend, injured a wing while flying through the woods and needed help getting home. His path home was blocked by a golem, an orc, and some vines. She would need to practice her skills in many different “lives” in order to rescue Trip. In the game, your character takes on various lives to learn new skills (e.g., a carpenter, a wizard, a fighter, etc.).

The first task she decided to tackle was to take up the tailor life and make a dress for the golem’s doll. After cutting and sewing the dress she took up the artist life to decorate it.

The dress prepared, she took up the angler life to make a fish stew for the orc. She caught some fish in the pond and took them back to the kitchen where she took up the cook life to prepare the stew. In the game, many of the “lives” have mini games associated with their activities. So to be a cook Corinne needed to chop the fish on the cutting board (using her hand as the knife), flip the fish in the frying pan, and stir the fish in the pot–jumping from task to task as I called them out. She had a blast with this part.

With the stew ready she turned her attention to the final task: prepare a potion to pour on the vines to wither them up and allow her to pass. For this task she’d need to take up the carpenter life to build a box in which she could carry the three potions she would make with the alchemist life. The carpenter life had a similar mini game in which she needed to hammer, saw, or sand at the workbench. And as the alchemist she needed to mix up 3 potions of the appropriate colors from the available dyes.

She was now ready to head out to the forest, clear the obstacles, and rescue Trip. She gave the golem the new dress for its doll and it ambled off. She poured the potions on the vines and they withered up. And she fed the stew to the orc who settled down for a nap. She collected Trip and returned him safely to Edward who rewarded her with presents!

A birthstone necklace.
Battery-powered string. A big hit.
She’s been getting interested in jewelry, so a box to keep it in.
She’s chewing right through this series.

After dinner we were off to Panda Express for birthday dinner then back home for a shower and cake. Heather decorated the cake after Jess frosted it.

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.