This week my dude turns seven. Seven. I don’t know how it happened and I don’t want to know, but I sure am proud to be his papa.

For his birthday, all he wanted to do was play Minecraft with his friends. I mean, who can blame him? It’s a pretty neat game that becomes more neat as you add people to your realm. So Lu and I decided that we would make it happen. What I didn’t know was to what extent we would make it happen.

Emi posing with the signs

All set up.

So pretty.

Game cave. Testing the server.

Mining bitcoin. Uh. Playing Minecraft.

Hours

And hours

And hours.

Piñata time.

Direct hit!

Get that skeleton!

Good thing he doesn’t have his arrows.

Food

Meat and “Meat”

It’s a huge spread

Make your chest

Gather supplies

Enderman.

Survival postion for the grownups

Shoot the creeper!

Direct hit!

Cake time.

What you see here is the work of Lu. I was just a pawn, catering to her every need. Take a look at the images above and note the beauty of her work:

• Floor to ceiling Enderman
• Shoot the Creeper game
• Skeleton Piñata
• “Make a chest” gift bag, that each kid filled with supplies
• Snacks galore, each with their own Minecraft sign

Of course, I did have my dad-specific projects as well, which included the “Survival Potion” for the grown-ups and the Game Cave.

The Game Cave was pretty neat to put together. I ran two iMacs and a MacBook Air, as well as some additional monitors in case the stations got crowded.

iMac 1 was the “server,” which was hosting the game on our local network. The MacBook Air served as not only the space for an additional monitor, but allowed me to use AirPlay to mirror the display to the TV up in the living room (via an AppleTV.) This made it so that the grown-ups could watch the game that was taking place in the basement, live. When they decided to battle the Ender Dragon, I saw it as it was happening, and went downstairs to offer my advice.

Overall the day was fantastic. We had a blast and so did the kids.

Last night, while putting The Dude to bed, he wrapped his arms around my neck and said “Thanks, dad.” Mission accomplished.