Colorado Springs Mini Maker Faire at Library 21C

Last weekend we hosted a booth at the Colorado Springs Mini Maker Faire. Thanks to all the familiar faces who showed up to support us. We love seeing alumni from our camps. Here are some photos from the day.

The Great Ball Contraption

Spin Art

Even the oldest kid wants to do some art.

Can I buy this kit?

Look I can draw a perfect circle!

Brickcon 2015 Adult LEGO Conference

Family portrait.

This past week, we attended the 14th Annual Brickcon Convention in Seattle, Washington. This was the first of its kind that we attended. In order to be part of the 4 day conference, you had to be 16 years old and this year, our in house LEGO expert turned 16 a few days ago! What an amazing event! Thursday and Friday were devoted to setting up My Own Creations (MOCs), attending talks and playing LEGO oriented games. One of the best parts was that after you played the games, you got to keep the sets. Games included Blind Build where you couldn't see the bricks, but you could see the instructions and Box Build where you just got a picture of the final product without any instructions. 

The great ball contraption.

One of the most intricate and largest MOCs.

One of the most interesting talks was from a former employee of Legoland who was a Masterbuilder. She used to work in the shop building models for display. Currently she has her own business, Model Building Secrets, and she is commissioned to build replicas of corporate buildings. It was fascinating to hear the different techniques to building these models as well as hear the outrageous requests some clients might have for building something out of LEGO bricks. We learned that even Masterbuilders just go to the regular LEGO stores or buy their items on Bricklink. No special treatment or discounts for those who build professionally. That's amazing because these folks literally buy a ton of bricks. One of Mariann's commissions cost $10,000!

Can you spot the helicopter flying around?

Finally there was a talk about the LEGO Ideas site. This is a forum where average people submit their builds on a website in order to possibly have LEGO manufacture your idea as their next kit. The geniuses at LEGO realize that 99% of their potential designers don't work for them. They have to look towards the public to help them generate the next big thing. If you build a MOC that gets 10,000 votes online, you will get a chance to see your build on a box after extensive review by the company. Many adult fans take this seriously and contribute lots of time and creativity to helping LEGO. 

Pano of the exhibit hall. Sat & Sun are public days. Kids allowed.

The BEST part of this convention was the experience of getting to see so many detailed, creative and well built MOCs. We now see what's possible to do with a bunch of bricks. 

Most impressed with this LEGO R2-D2
controlled by remote, complete
with the "beeps".

Enjoy more photos here.

Homemade LEGO Gifts

There's a lot of LEGO bricks lying around. Most can be found in my 15 year old son's bedroom. What can you do with all those spare parts? He decided years ago to start making presents for all the "occasions" in our lives. This was a good way to save money on buying presents too. Here are a few things he has made. We still display them on our mantle.

Model of the church we were married in. It was an adobe style church that seated about 250 people. This was made for our anniversary one year.

Closeup view as the bride and groom hold a very large ring. Pastor standing in the background.

This was a model of a heart that would tilt back and forth with the help of a rubber band in the back.

Photographer because I love taking pictures!

This is a runner breaking the finish line tape.

An everlasting rose for Mother's Day.

Birthday cake!

Mother's Day creation.

Don't leave out Dad!

What can you do with those spare LEGO bricks lying around? If you don't have the right parts, you can always supplement them by buying them ala carte at Bricklink.com.

No Spring Break Camp

Every year for the past 3 years, we've run a Spring Break camp. However, this year we thought we might not be able to. It was a gamble, but it was the best decision. The reason was because Jordan's robotics team was so strong this year, we thought they might get a chance to attend the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Super Regional tournamet held in Oakland, CA which happens right in the middle of Spring Break.

Synergists prepare to compete at CO State Championships.

This past Saturday (Feb 28), the team did exceptionally well and are going onto California! Since I'm a leader for this team, I'll take the trip with them. So we have less than a month to figure out logistics like travel, housing and food.

There's always lessons to be learned whenever you get a chance to compete in any sport. This day was a lesson in perseverance. At one point in the day, the team ranked as low as 12 out of 26 teams. The team members stayed calm and adjusted their strategy. Nobody got mad. Everyone pulled together and supported one another while creating such a positive atmosphere. Towards the end of the day, they pulled the highest scoring game in Colorado with a score of 418! That along with being chosen by another team to be their alliance partner gave our team a fighting chance. In the end, they helped the other team win the championship round. That got our team a ticket to Super Regionals! You can see the final rankings here.

Robot just finished dumping balls into the high goal.

We also found out later that we won 2nd Place Inspire Award. This was another avenue to the CA competition. We had it covered anyways, but it was so much fun to see the robot performing well.

So that's the long story of why there is no Spring Break camp this year!