Captain America Lego stop-motion

A little over a year ago I thought, "I have tons of Marvel Legos, it would be fun to recreate that scene from Captain America: Winter Soldier where he single-handedly takes down a Quinjet." So I built a set from a big cardboard box, got set up, started taking pictures, then realized how mind-numbingly tedious it is to make long stop motion movies.

Over the past year, Amber has graciously allowed the large box to occupy a corner of our bedroom as I worked on it on random Saturdays every couple of months. I made a final push the last several weeks and finally finished photographing, then post-processing in Photoshop (to remove hangars, color correct, etc), all 424 frames of the 53 second video.

It's a bit choppy (and has lots of continuity errors) and would certainly be a lot better if I did it again knowing all that I learned, but I'm happy with how it turned out, and more happy it's finally done.
Here's the final version.

And here's a combined version showing it compared to the original movie scene in case you're not familiar with it (with a rough-cut bonus feature where you can see the movie magic!)

Quarantine beard

When I started working at home for the quarantine in mid-March, I realized it was a great opportunity to grow out my beard at a time when I didn't have to go to work or church (or anywhere) and inflict it on others.

After 10 weeks, I have to go back to the office, so I styled the beard as well as I could, then trimmed it back down to normal length again.

It was a fun experiment while it lasted. Amber is certainly glad to see it gone.

Mother's Day

While Mother's Day was a little different this year with home church, Amber continued her Mother's Day tradition of having me take a picture of her with the kids.

Damon's birthday

Damon turned 9 on Friday.

He was very excited to open his presents.

He got some clothes, games, books, and hot wheels.

And of course, no birthday is complete around here without some Legos.

His big present this year, though, was a Kano, a personal kid computer that he got to "build".

He was super excited with it ("So much technology!").

As Amber likes to joke, "I wonder what kind of programmer Damon will grow up to be?".

Olivia's birthday

 We officially have a teenager in the house. Olivia turned 13.

Although she is getting older (and taller), her tastes haven't changed too much, and she requested lots of books, My Little Pony toys, and Legos.

She also got a few other random things, like tiny blank books, a lava lamp, a phone case, beef jerky, and chicken socks.

She was happy to share the wealth with Carmen.

Miles's birthday

We are still quarantining, so Amber set up a drive-by birthday party for Miles.

Several families drove by to honk and cheer, and many of them brought presents.

He opened up his presents that evening.

He got some Rubik's cubes, Legos, books, a stuffed dog, and Chinese checkers, among other things.

He also got his season pass to Big Rivers waterpark. When Carmen got hers for her birthday, Miles was worried only Carmen and Amber would be going to the waterpark, so he was happy to get his.

Pepper was very interested in all the wrapping paper.

That night Miles had his now traditional strawberry cake.