Lego fest!

We went up to Cincinnati this weekend for Lego Fest!  Nyla actually took this picture:

I'm glad we taught her to use a camera; otherwise it's hard to get pictures of both Wyndee and I together.

Wyndee and Nyla made Lego mosaics:

Nyla's (left) is two rafts floating in the water.  Wyndee's (right) is a beautiful, moonlight evening.  Most of the day was spent playing with Legos, whether in the big brick pile:

or in several of the themed building areas.  Nyla's favorite was the girl-oriented Lego Friends area, with lots of pink and light blue bricks, but also a lot of cool pieces for making houses: big windows, columns, arches, pillars, etc.  Celia is a little too young to really build a whole lot, but we watched one of the lego competitions.  In the one we watched, teams of kids had to build a lego bridge about 4 feet long and the winner was the bridge that could support the most weight.  The winning bridge supported 25 pounds.  Nyla also really liked vacuuming up Legos:

But the activity that made for the best pictures was our tour of the Lego model museum:

Unfortunately, Celia and I made Lego Bruce Banner angry:

Wyndee and Lego Hermione became friends:

A giant Lego shark ate our two children, but luckily they later emerged unscathed:

Nyla is reading!

Nyla is really reading lately.  We've been reading isolated words on flashcards for a while now, but she's actually starting to put it all together, sound out words without help, and read whole books all on her own.  We bought some beginning reader books (~20 pages), and she's already read the first twelve.

Cute kids

And they're both smiling!

Lately, Celia has taken to putting on Nyla's dance outfits and calling herself a "dancerina".

Girls in the snow

Well, it's getting warmer here in Kentucky, and I'm not sure it's going to snow any more. So, I thought I'd post the only picture we took this year of the girls playing in the snow (CORRECTION: Wyndee informs me that she took additional pictures of the girls playing in the snow):

Not a snowy winter by any stretch of the imagination, but the girls did get to play in the snow a few times.

Science

Nyla, Celia, and I did two science experiments last night.  In the first one, we tried to mix a spoonful of baking soda and a 1/2 cup of vinegar in a Ziploc bag, then seal the bag.  As the two substances mix, they give off carbon dioxide, which -- in principle -- causes the bag to swell and then explode.  Unfortunately, the off-brand of plastic bags we buy are apparently not airtight, so all it did was swell and then make gas-escaping noises.

In our second experiment, we touched a balloon to a candle flame; it exploded immediately.  We then filled a balloon with water instead, and you could put it in the fire without any problems (because the water absorbs the heat).  I even used the balloon to smother the flame.

Nyla: Now that's what I call a science experiment!

Celia has an identity crisis

Celia and I were in the hallway, where there is a picture of Nyla and a picture of Celia hung next to each other:

Me (pointing to picture of Nyla): Who's that?
Celia: Nyla!
Me (pointing to picture of Celia): Who's that?
Celia: Batgirl!

The play-acting has gotten too real for her....

A visit from Flat Jared.

Here are some pictures of his trip. We have a whole story to go with it but here is a preview. I hope Jared enjoys the story when he reads it.