World Maker Faire 2011

We went, we saw and we loved it! And I can't believe we almost didn't make it to the Faire. Our plans kept changing, but as I mentioned before, all's well that ends well. So here we were, in Queens, going to see... Actually, we weren't sure what we were going to see. Except we knew there would be robots there.

Sure thing, almost right at the entrance, there they were. And the best part was we could touch them, pick them up for a closer look and even play with them!!! Pretty awesome, right?

Most of them didn't resemble people, not even a little bit. So when M saw this little guy, he was practically jumping for joy.

But the fun didn't stop there. First, we came across AnnMarie Thomas' Squishy Circuits. And she was there her own self! A while ago we made a couple of circuits and played with them. We built a couple of circuits using just some LEDs and a motor. So while at AnnMarie's display we concentrated mostly on the motor and the buzzers. This was one of the busiest displays too. One of the things that I really liked was that the Squishy Circuits seemed to attract just as many girls as boys. Also, kids were very active and unafraid to try things. After all, most of them already had plenty of experience with playdough so this probably didn't seem like a whole new thing to them.

All in all, M got to play with quite a few toys and kits aimed at teaching kids the basics of electrical circuitry. The one that really stood out, IMHO, in addition to the Squishy Circuits, was this one above. Basically, it's just black conductive paint. This particular paint is specially formulated to be non-toxic and washable. So you paint with it, wait for the paint to dry, then hook up a battery to one end and an LED light or a buzzer or whatever, to another end. Or you could paint little (or big) wooden blocks with it, attach some mini-LEDs, mini-switches, etc and turn any block set into a circuit-building set. Pretty cool!

Over here on the picture the paint was used to draw pictures of musical instruments. Then kids could play music just by touching the pictures.

I was very happy to see Thinker Linkers at the Faire. M already played them at our local Maker Faire where he spent quite a long time building some very large and complicated structure. This time he was more interested in finding more robots. Still, he stopped by Thinker Linkers area and worked with Chris on assembling "a house for a robot". I really hope Marbles, our local kids museum, will add a huge mega set of Thinker Linkers to its collection of building toys! And if not Marbles, then maybe Durham's Life and Science Museum then even though it's a drive for us.

In the spirit of the Faire, we made not one, but two things - an LED throwie and this recyclables weaving craft. Guess which one took more time, more components and was more complicated?

 And while you're guessing things, guess who in our family has the biggest head. Oh, but before you fall of your chair laughing, I am much taller than this in real life... at least 3 inches taller. Ok, maybe 2 inches. Still...

This was just about the best part of the Faire. Or at least right up there with all the other awesomeness that was going on. You see, the Faire was happening at the New York Hall of Science and the ticket to a Faire included admission to NYHS. Let me just say, if you are looking for something kid-friendly and amazing to do in NYC, put this destination at the top of your must-do list. Just make sure to leave plenty of time to explore the place.

NY - Pictures Only Edition

I am hopelessly late with this post, so it's going to be pretty much pictures only.

So this one is of M on a deck a couple of days before Hurricane Irene went through the area.

And this one - a few hours before the hurricane. Notice the difference? Yep, this gave us (mostly Grandma, really) something to do. We (mostly she) were busy clearning the yard and lemme tell you, it never looked this nice!

Then there was also plenty of baking with Grandma (she's trying all those no-gluten recipes). M actually created his own recipe for a crispy cracker-like bread and mixed dough. Then we baked it and, surprisingly it was very good!

We did spend a few days post-hurricane without electricity, which at my parents' house also means without water. And M did get sick. But all's well that ends well. So we celebrated with a little get-together.

Also, grilled with Grandma

And tried out Uncle's motorcycle

Then one day, tired of staying in and our the house, I offered M a trip to the Bronx Zoo. And he said "NO WAY!". And that's how we ended up at the Intrepid instead.

And it was a huge win for all of us (Grandpa, M and myself) since we all enjoyed it. First, we looked at all the airplanes on the flight deck

Then we climbed all the way up to the captain's bridge for a nice view of the Downtown.

We then went to the lower decks where there was a museum with a very hands-on area for children (and yes, their parents). And as it turned out, there was a life-size model of Mercury landing capsule, complete with all the buttons and switches and all that. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you can guess what M was busy with for the next hour or so.

Nothing else could match the excitement of the capsule. Not even going onto a real submarine!

And the next day we also went fishing with Grandpa. Let me tell you, last time I went fishing, I was like in elementary school and it was boring. But this time we went to this little pond full of sunfish and in 4 minutes we caught 4 fish.

They were tiny and we were too glad to release them back. M liked fishing, but not the fish themselves who seemed to scare him with all the flapping and jumping. Plus they were cold and wet and slippery and overall not very pleasant to touch, as M noted.

Beach Trip - Part 3

We were at the beach for just a couple of days and it's taking me 3 times as long to write about it. Funny, ain't it? So this is the last post about our mini-vacation on Corolla. And it's going to be mostly pictures (at least that's the plan now; we'll see how well I can stick to it 'cause you know, I loooove talking).

We took a few group pictures while on island. Of course, one of us is always missing, having to operate the camera. I guess we'll just photoshop that person in later. I like this picture above of gals only + the little kids (A. was swimming with her dad).

This picture is not bad either. Vadim is missing from it 'cause he was behind the camera.

Then there's this one, taken on our last day as we were all returning from the beach. This time Masha was taking the picture. No worries, we'll photoshop her in later, I guess :)

When it comes to pictures of myself, I usually don't have many. I generally don't like being on pictures 'cause my hair is never right, my weight is never right and having fun posing for a picture is just not something I know how to do. But seeing Masha and Irina having so much fun being photographed, I decided to give it a try. The result is above. See what I'm saying?!

Photographing others is fun though. Here's my super-sexy hubby enjoying the surf.

Now, before setting out on our trip, we made a list of things we wanted to do while at the beach. Kite flying was one of them. So on the second day of our stay we went to fly kites. It was so much fun!!! I just wish we had the time to make our own kites instead of buying them. But we'll leave this idea for another time.

Another thing we wanted to do was to go out to a restaurant. It wasn't even that we wanted something special to eat. But we hardly ever get to go out and so the experience itself is pretty special to us. We took M with us even though it was pretty late and he was going to miss him regular bed time. But you know, it's just so much fun to take him along. Plus the restaurant we chose was very casual and had this little pier jutting out into the Sound with a little boat house at the end of it. So there was plenty for M to explore while we waited for our appetizers. Something I completely forgot to put on our "beach to-do" list was to dig a giant hole in the sand. Fortunately, we were reminded of it on our last evening there by a family that dug an absolutely enormous hole. Seriously, it was more like a mini-crater than a hole. Very inspirational. So M wanted to dig one just like that. And he wanted to do it all by himself. No fair! It was my idea in the first place!
Fortunately, as he got about mid-way through it, the hole became too deep for him to dig from the outside and he needed my help widening it without crashing the sides in. And then we decided to keep digging until we hit water (although there was a brief discussion of how awesome it'd be if we hit oil instead).
Finally, the giant hole was dug and all the little ones wanted to climb into it. Preferrably, all at once. All except for baby Jake who just wanted to pour water into the hole 'cause that's what he is into.

I honestly planned on getting up early at least once to see sunrise. Every evening I made plans for it. But then, around 5:30 every morning I'd wake up briefly and think "no freaking way" and go back to sleep. Sunrises are tough for me. Sunsets are much better. Except we didn't get to see sunsets either. We tried once, but were late by maybe 2 minutes. No matter 'cause it was beautiful anyway. BTW, Chris is NOT chocking me (this is his manly hug) and he is NOT in the Navy (the word "Old" in "Old Navy" is obscured by my big head).

Did I mention that the house my cousins rented came fully stocked with like everything? Down to board games! So our second night there we all played Life after all the kids went to bed. I'd never played this game before and I wish I did. I almost won too, taking the third place (out of 6). I think nobody noticed that for the first half of the game I wasn't supposed to draw any salary (being a substitute teacher). I didn't notice that for sure, being busy drinking wine.

Like father like son for sure and so adorable!
M was very upset that we had to go back to Raleigh. He wanted to stay for longer. So to soften the blow and help him (and selves) with the transition, we stopped by an icecream parlor in Kitty Hawk on the way back. M got an ice-cream cone, looked at us (we didn't buy any for ourselves) and asked "как на счёт вы вдвоём купите себе мороженое?" [how about the two of you buying yourself some ice-cream?]