Mindbenders and a birthday party

Last night i was chatting with my friend Karla, and she mentioned that they had gone to the Mindbender Mansion exhibit at the local museum and that her family had all loved it. And i thought, "Hey! *I* love puzzles! My kids love puzzles! We have tomorrow off...." And so this morning/early afternoon, we headed to the museum.

(First off, the museum has changed its pricing, and now all kids under 17 are "kids," AND if you live in the county, you get a cheaper price, and all of that is awesome.)

Everyone loved it. It's this huge exhibit with a ton of logic puzzles and brain teasers and other fun puzzle-y things. We mostly moved around together but solved things on our own, except for a few of the very hardest challenges. There was only one that we never figured out - building a structure out of giant nails to balance on the head of another nail. There were a couple that i worked on for ages before finding out that there was no solution, which is both super frustrating and also somewhat vindicating. Some were really easy and some were hard, and it was super enjoyable.

And then this afternoon we went to a birthday party for my niece and nephew (Eloise and Micah) who are turning one this week. They are adorable. They each got their own little cake to eat, and it was hilarious watching the difference between the two of them. Micah just attacked his cake and devoured it as quickly as he could shove it into his mouth. Eloise, meanwhile, delicately picked at her cake for quite a while (though she would have just shoved her whole face in it if she could have reached) before finally starting to eat it while holding a fork. So ladylike.