Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction (Candy Glock 33)

(If you have not already seen this post, I would recommend reading it before reading this one.) If you remember from that post I mentioned, I have 2 out of 5 books called Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction. For my 12th birthday, I got 2 more, so now I have 4 out of 5 of the books. (The last one is just tear-out targets, so I am not really interested in that one.) I have made a very powerful Mini Weapon out of one of the new books, called Build a Secret Agent Arsenal. The Mini Weapon I made is called a Candy Glock 33. It is a gun made out of everyday items (Index Cards, Balloons, Glue Sticks, Ext...) that shoots hard candies. (However, I am shooting little plastic BBs.) It uses a balloon in the back to pull back and launch the hard candies/BBs. The barrel is index cards, and there is a spot to put extra ammo right underneath the barrel. The handle is made of a large binder clip and of index cards. Here are some pictures:

This one shows the gun itself:

Here you are looking down through the barrel:

This is the same point of view, but with the extra ammo area open. (The cap of a glue stick is glued to a small binder clip, so it can snap open and closed.):

Here are my two new books. The one on the right is what this came from:

Here is the first page of the instructions:

I hope you enjoyed this blog post, and were interested in the Mini Weapon! It shoots really fast! You can barely see the BB fly through the air!

Genius Hour

Every Friday in school, the students in my class individually work on projects called Genius Hour. My class is a GATE (Gifted And Talented Education) class, so we can do cool projects like this. The best way to describe Genius Hour is that you pick ANY topic, and study it. You can build a robot. You can bake a cake. You can build a guitar out of cardboard and describe its anatomy. However, you have to make something. For example, I can't just show up with a slideshow and no physical thing. What I did for Genius Hour was to explain Rube Goldberg's life. Here is my slideshow:

(The blue link on this last slide says My First Rube Goldberg Machine (I was 6!) Since you can't click it on the slide, just click it there.)

This phisical object I made was a very short Rube Goldberg Machine. Unfortunately, I do not have any videos of it, but the last slide talks about it.

I had a lot of fun doing all of this, and also had fun for watching my friends present!

Wings of Fire Series

At my school, my friends were suggesting I read a certain series called Wings of Fire. So, I checked the first book out from my school library and loved it. Then, I put them on my wish list and my grandma got me the first 8 out of 11.

They are about five young dragons who have a prophecy. They are the Dragonets of Destiny, and they need to stop the war between five tribes. They were raised in a cave and have no idea how to do anything. The warring tribes are SandWings, MudWings, SeaWings, SkyWings, and IceWings. The SandWing queen was killed, which started the whole war. So, they would battle to see who should be the next queen. The daughters of the queen were Blister, Blaze, and Burn, and each of them has recruited tribes to help them. However, the Dragonets of Destiny want a peaceful ending to the war. They get to choose who will be the next queen. But suddenly, the mysterious NightWings and lazy RainWings get involved. How will everything turn out?

I would definitely suggest these books to anyone who likes books about dragons, or just wants a good story.

Here are pictures of what they look like:

The first five are based on the five Dragonets of Destiny. According to what I have heard, there will be 15 books eventually. There are also other series. I will try to read them all, and I hope you liked this and read them, too!

The Giant Carrot

On Sunday, we did yard work. One surprising thing during our yard working was a giant carrot. We found it in a bed that held tomatoes.

We washed it off, and it was delicious! We expected it to be woody or tough, but it wasn't.

I have no idea how it got there! I have never seen a carrot that big!

Spring Break

During Spring Break, I went to my grandparent's house. I saw my Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle, older cousin Timothy, and younger cousin Allison. My Mom and I left on Wednesday, and we got back on Sunday. We did lots of game playing, movie watching, and other fun. On Thursday, the first Eastery activity we did was egg dyeing.

In the next picture, I am with Allison.

Then on Friday, we fought with water balloons.

Like I said, we played lots of games.

On Easter my Dad arrived, and we went to church, present hunted, present opened...

...egg hunted...

...and egg opened. (I got $10.25 from coins in my eggs!)

Finally, it was time to go.

I had a great Spring Break. I enjoyed seeing family, especially since my grandparents will be moving up to Idaho with my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins.

Oregon

On Saturday, my family set off on a 10 hour drive to Portland, Oregon. We saw friends, went to museums, and ate at restaurants. I had an independent study for school, which means I do all of my schoolwork on the trip, and turn it in when I get back.

After we had dinner, went to bed, and woke up, we started an Urban Adventure Quest, a scavenger hunt on your phone.

It led us to many places, including public drinking fountains that were installed to give loggers water.

For lunch, my mom had a Bubble Waffle!

Then, we went to the Oregon History Museum.

After that, we took a tour in Powell Books, the biggest bookstore in the world! (The size of a city block, about 4 floors, and about 1.5 million books.)

Then we ate at a very fancy restaurant.

The next day, Monday, was my mom's birthday. We went to the Oregon Zoo, saw lots of cute animals, and lots of bronze sculptures. Portland has public transportation, and we took a bus/train/thing underground and went back up in an elevator to get here.

Then we went to the World Forestry Center. (It teaches you all about forests.)

Then, on Tuesday, we toured Bob's Red Mill, a milling company with a friend. Bob was inspired to mill from a book he read.

I even got to use a hand grinder!

Then we went to OMSI, a science museum.

On Wednesday, we saw an art museum with a special exhibit about Laika stop-motion animation! To make one, they have about 1,000 faces for each character, and they clip them on and off to make facial expressions. They also have bendable bodies so they can move.(They are the company who made Coraline, ParaNorman, Boxtrolls, and Kubo and the Two Strings.)

It also had other art.

Finally, on Thursday, we drove home. We passed by the Capitol building on the way home, too. We got back at 8:30 P.M.

This was a great trip! We saw all we could, but there was more.