My #AvengersEvent Birthday


Photo-A-Day #3653

Today I was lucky enough to travel from home to LA so that I could attend the screening of Avengers: Age of Ultron. My forty-first birthday was many things. It was an amazing trip to see a great movie. It was the end of ten years of me taking a photo every day and the beginning of my eleventh year.

At this point I’m not posting anything about the movie. I have a bunch of posts coming up over the next month. I saw so much, met so many people and had some fantastic experiences that I can’t wait to share with you all.

The photo here was taken at Legends Plaza at Disney Studios. We stopped here briefly before and after the movie.

Maker Studio Creation – American Ocean

The American Ocean - Maker Studio ThinkFun
Photo-A-Day #3652

We received a Maker Studio Winches Kit from ThinkFun. Eva and I are part of the Maker Recruitment program and were given the task of using the kit to make something brand new. The idea behind these kits is that you use recycled materials to help build your creation.

With Eva, she had a an idea of making something super elaborate. I had to dial it back a bit to build something great but simple enough that we can do it together. We were in the car and there was an empty apple juice bottle caught my eye. I knew that we had two of them and the thought of a submarine popped into my head.

Using the wheels as propellors and then some connecting pieces to put them together. We had to use a drill to put some holes through the plastic of the bottles in order to put the rods through the bottles. We also used a couple of the gears together to make a handle with which to turn the winch.

Eva picked out the colors for the design and she named the submarine, “American Ocean”. Not sure where she got that name but that was her deal. Then we painted some bottle caps to make windows and also added a bubble on top with some LEGO pieces and a figure to drive the sub.

We are looking forward to more of these kits and want to build even more things with them. It was such a fun project.