Girder & Panel Building Set

When I was young, I remember going to a neighbours house and being enthralled with a building set that allowed me to build sky scrappers and other buildings just like a real builder - so the box said. I have been looking for this building set for years and other than seeing it on eBay, I had never seen one for sale in a thrift shop or collectors store. Finally last week I found one at a local thrift shop, and it was pretty much complete in box. I told my son how much fun I had building with it when I was a kid and he couldn't wait to get home and bust it open.
When we got home, we opened it and began to build our sky scrapper. I was enjoying the experience of building my tower up from the ground up, but my son found it frustrating that the parts were hard to snap together, and he got bored rather quickly and then just sat there watching me build. Once I got a good sized tower built, he disappeared and reappeared a few minutes later with a handful of Godzilla action figures. He then sat and waited patiently for me to finish my work. Once I was done, he moved in to begin attacking the building with his army of giant monsters. Once he was done, it seemed like a good time to do some comic book reading, and he found the perfect comic book to read after the giant battle.

Kaden's Alien Artwork

A couple of weeks ago, Kaden was on another big artwork kick. Here is one of the paintings he did, which I especially liked. Kaden is a big fan of the show Ben 10 and all the cool aliens on the show. He said this is one of his own alien creations.

Hanging out with The Famous SD Chicken

Back in 2008 the family and I got the chance to hang out with the Famous SD Chicken (aka the San Diego Chicken). He attended the February 9, 2008 Delta Ice Hawks hockey game in Ladner, BC vs the Delta Devils of the PIJHL. Being a huge fan of the SD Chicken, my wife requested that we purchase tickets for the game as soon as she found out he would be attending. Being as the Ice Hawks generally draw about 150-250 fans per game, we knew we would have a great chance to meet the chicken. Kaden spent a good part of the game sitting front row, side by side with the chicken, even helping him out with some of his props! I'm not sure Kaden really knew what to make of some guy dressed in a chicken costume making such a ruckus against the glass all during the game!

As well as a ton of photos that I took, both Sara and Kaden got autographed photos for their collections.

Kaden's Comic Book Spinner Rack

A few months ago I picked up a comic book spinner rack from our favorite toy & collectible shop called Toy Traders in Langley. They didn't need it any longer and so we arranged to purchase it. I already had one that I purchased years ago from an old drug store that was going out of business. That one is set up in my basement and is filled with some of my favorite comics. This new one has been sitting in our foyer in pieces ever since I purchased it this past summer. I finally decided to set it up, and my son asked if he could have it in his room to display his comic books. After I set it up, he spent the next hour or so arranging all of his comics just the way he liked. He was so proud of his collection he could not wait to ask mom and grandma into his room to see what he had done!
How many other four year olds have their own comic book spinner rack? For that matter, how many four year olds have enough comics to fill a comic book spinner rack?

Batman Birthday Cake

Kaden had his birthday a while back and he wanted a Batman theme for his party. There were the usual Batman cups, napkins etc, and lots of Batman gifts including a Batman costume which he wore for the rest of the day! He also had a special Batmobile birthday cake that looked just like the Batmobile from the Batman Strikes cartoon series, complete with Batman and Robin action figures. I especially liked the graphics on the napkins which were also from the Batman Strikes cartoon series, which is my personal favorite of all the Batman cartoon series.

Little Golden Book Monday #87

On Friday May 29th, opening night, I went to see Up with my wife and 4 year old son Kaden. We chose to see the 3D version, as both were playing at the same cinema. I am not actually sure why someone would chose to see it in 2D when they could see it in 3D - my guess it that once the 3D showings were full, people were forced to see the 2D version. Our theater was so packed that we could not find 3 decent seats together, so Kaden sat on our lap for the entire movie.u I thought the movie was great and loved the 3D. I was very surprised that 10 to 15 minutes into the movie, my son took off his glasses. When I told him to put them back on, he told me, "no, it looks better without them", to which I shrugged and allowed him to continue watching without the glasses. I tilted my head up a few times to look at the screen without my glasses, and found the picture to be somewhat fuzzy looking with the 3D effect on the screen and no glasses. It wasn't until we left the theater that I realized that after eating greasy popcorn for the first few minutes and then touching his lenses repeatedly, it was like looking through greasy saran rap, which is why he didn't want to wear the glasses.
I was pretty surprised that they did not offer a plastic popcorn tub with the Up artwork. There was a time when every kids movie got the popcorn tub treatment.
After the movie, we made a stop at the Chapters book store to have a look for the Little Golden Book version of the film, and sure enough they had a large stack of them, along with all sorts of other assorted coloring books, sticker books, story books etc. It was kind of cool getting to go home from the movie with little souvenir

Little Golden Book Monday #45

Today's Little Golden Book comes from my Son Kaden's collection. He may not even be three years old yet, but already he has a sizable book collection and has many favorites, including this Little Golden Book about Fire Engines.
The book is originally from 1950, and the illustrations are absolutely wonderful. Both myself and my wife had had to read this book many times again and again, as Kaden just can't get enough of the brave fire fighters.
As far as Kaden is concerned, the book has firemen, firetrucks and a firedog... what more do you need in a book?

Chimp-Artist Will Paint For You!

Commission a canvas for yourself or an art-loving friend... a genuine primitive by the world's first professional chimpanzee artist! Not a dabbler, not a fingerpainter, talented Pablo uses brush and palette (sometimes 2 brushes) for his spectacular abstract originals. Created individually for you in oils on canvas, the painting comes handsomely wood-framed (12" x 18") with a gleaming engraved metal plaque that tells the world who it's been commissioned for. Included are documentary photos of Pablo at work. Fantastic art value - untouched by human hands! Be sure to specify the name of the fortunate recipient. Primitive Painting... $9.98
This was in an old 60's comic book. If this was available today, I would be sending off my $9.98 right away!

This ad also got me thinking... here is a drawing my two year old son Kaden drew recently. I wonder if we could put ads in he back of comic books today, selling "Toddler-Artist Will Paint For You!". we could sell Kaden's artwork as a PDF file sent to the purchaser via email along with a few photos of him creating their artwork!
Anyone want to commission a Kaden Blaze masterpiece?

Kaden Vs the Alien

I visited my local comic shop today to pick up the latest comics etc. I have been going to Talkin' Illustrations for about 20 years now, and have become good friends with Terry the owner. While we were in the shop a few months back, I took a few photos of Kaden with the full size Alien he has on display in the shop. For fun I took one of the photos and played around in Photoshop and added a funny thought ballon to Kaden. I then sent it off to Terry via email. To my surprise, Terry asked if he could ues it in the poster for his upcoming sale. Of couse I said yes! Terry added a second tought ballon, and his current sale poster was ready. Today, while I was at the shop, Terry gave me a couple of the postcards he is giving out to promote the sale, and once the sale is over, we are getting a couple of large posters with the same image. So this is officially Kaden's first print work. He's on his way to fame and fortune!

Virtual Kaden Action Figure

I am a big fan of Disney's 2001 animated feature, Atlantis, and I recently found a few Atlantis action figures on the discount table of a local department store. The summer that Atlantis came out, they had just opened a cheap theater across the street from my house, and that summer I went to see the movie at least 10 times. A few of those times I went, just to beat the heat, and enjoy the soundtrack. I enjoyed the movie so much, that I started collecting Atlantis stuff, and now have a large glass case full of Atlantis memorabilia.

I needed one of the action figures for my display, so I bough it, along with a few others, and brought them home. When it came time to pop one of the "Milo" action figures open to add to my display case, my son Kaden came to see what I was doing. Once I had opened the package, Kaden asked for the packaging to play with. When he held the package up to his face and looked though it, I thought it looked pretty funny, so I grabbed my camera and took a few photos. Then with a little work in Photoshop, we added his name to the packaging, and voila I had a virtual Kaden action figure.

Ewoks Vs. Jar Jar Binks

When Return of the Jedi came out in 1983, I was a teenager and I hated the Ewoks. I didn't really like the Jedi movie because I thought the Ewoks took up way to much screen time in the movie, and the 1984 Ewok TV movie and mid 80's cartoons were just awful. But when we needed an idea for a costume for Kaden last Halloween, a bear costume ended up being transformed into an Ewok costume so that Kaden could go out with some neighborhood kids who were dressing as Star Wars characters to go out trick or treating. We pulled the cute bear face off of the costume and Sara made a little Ewok vest and voila Kaden's Ewok costume was ready. I guess next year we could dress Kaden up as Jar Jar Binks to continue the tradition of "Star Wars characters I don't like, that Kaden has trick or treated as."

TV Dinner

Just a quick entry tonight. A photo of my son Kaden at about 4 months old, when he was still eating anything he could get his hands on! Recently we got some photos developed at a local fotomat and used their computer kiosk to crop photos, add frames, change to black and white etc. Here is one of my favorites titled TV Dinner!

Jedi Kaden

Here is a photo I took of my son Kaden Blaze and his friend Eric. Eric brought over his lightsaber the other day and Kaden took to it like a fat kid to a smartie. I tried to get a perfect photo of Kaden by himself holding the lightsaber, but at 15 months, he is not the best at standing still for a photo. I took the photo into Photoshop 3 (that's right, I'm right on the leading edge of technology) and whipped up this neat-o black and white photo for your viewing pleasure.