Nine

Sheesh, it's been a busy couple of months and I've gotten behind again on publishing photos. Here are nine new photo albums all at once.

Photos | Slideshow Audrey Science Fair The Science Fairs at all of the Melrose elementary schools were held at the end of February. Audrey planned her project before we left on vacation since we'd only have a few days to complete it when we got home. She decided to put nails in different liquids and see which liquid caused the nail to rust the fastest. Her hypothesis was that salt water would be the winner. She also tested plain water, vinegar, and canola oil. It turned out plain tap water rusted the nail the fastest! And vinegar didn't rust the submerged part of the nail at all but the vapor above the vinegar caused a cool black lumpy corrosion. I used our new GoPro camera to make a time-lapse movie of the experiment, which ran for about 12 hours. You can see the video here. Audrey won Honorable Mention for her age group. She was very proud and excited!

Photos | Slideshow Ski Bradford Audrey had a taste of skiing two winters ago on a trip organized by my work and then another outing with Carol. Charlotte had no interest at the time. Last winter skiing didn't really exist in New England due to very warm temperatures and very little snow. This year when it started to snow Audrey started asking to go skiing again. Then Charlotte chimed in and said she would like to learn to ski, too. Carol and I both grew up skiing and enjoyed it for decades, but we both wandered away from the sport partly due to cost. Especially since we don't own equipment it costs a small fortune for the four of us to go skiing for a day. Audrey likes it enough that we decided to buy some used equipment for her so that helped a little. The first day we went Charlotte was adamant that she did not want to take a lesson - she wanted Carol to teach her. I was not optimistic about the outcome but went with the flow. Carol did a fantastic job and was incredibly patient. After a couple of hours Charlotte was doing pretty well but still needed physical contact with Carol while skiing. We decided to swap so Carol and Audrey could ski together. I skied one run holding on to Charlotte and the next time I let go of her but stayed very close and gave her encouragement to make turns. One key I found when helping Audrey learn is that a new skier gets frightened in the middle of the turn when they are facing straight downhill. They stop turning, which is exactly the wrong thing to do at that moment because they just pick up speed. I found that if I ski very close to them and keep reminding them to keep turning until the turn is complete they can build confidence quickly and then suddenly they are over the hump. Carol had prepped Charlotte very well and then I was able to get her linking turns and we were in business. That was all on the magic carpet, a type of lift for beginners that is a slow conveyor belt that you step onto. Once Charlotte had gained some confidence with turning she wanted to go to the rope tow. I was worried that she would have a hard time gripping the rope at the right rate and then hanging on but she rocked it the first time! Charlotte decided the rope tow was the best thing ever. Audrey, meanwhile, has become a speed demon. We had to have a talk about skiing in control. That girl is pretty fearless. We bought Charlotte some used gear. We'll acquire some for Carol and myself so that next year we can ski a few more times without going broke.

Photos | Slideshow New England Aquarium Boston has a pretty good aquarium. We've only been a few times but the girls always love it. We can get discount passes through the public library so we take advantage of those when we can. We visited a few weeks ago and saw lots of jellyfish, petted rays, and learned that piranhas don't eat cows or people. Then we had lunch like tourists in Quincy Market. They are in the process of installing a cool carousel on the greenway (the park on top of the Big Dig) between Quincy Market and the aquarium. Instead of horses it has custom-designed New England sea creatures: lobster, clams, cod, etc. I can't wait to visit it when it opens.

Photos | Slideshow February/March Shots Lots of fun photos. The topics are too varied to summarize here. See the photo captions.

Photos | Slideshow 2013 Ice Show Audrey has been taking figure skating classes non-stop since November 2011. The "main" session is from November-March, and in March the woman who runs the program produces a large ice show as a recital. Audrey was very excited to perform and worked hard to learn her routine. We all loved her costume. Unfortunately, Audrey broke her arm two days before the performance. She probably could have performed but her routine included several parts where the skaters hold hands or link arms. Audrey was concerned that something would happen that would hurt and she would disrupt the routine for the other skaters, so she opted not to participate. She didn't even want to attend because watching the routine would make her sad. Poor thing. Oh well, there's always next year. The photos are from the dress rehearsal the week before the performance.

Photos | Slideshow Squishy Circuits Goes Pro A few months ago the Cambridge Science Festival was seeking participants. I signed up the family to present Squishy Circuits, our favorite science activity to share with the world. I decided to step it up a little and have a real banner printed. My friend and former colleague, graphic designer Marita Graube of Pixel Theory, kindly donated her talents and turned my badly sketched idea into a thing of beauty. I also used Marita's design to make t-shirts for the "staff". Thank you, Marita! The festival went very well and we probably taught between 100 and 200 kids how to make simple circuits. It's a really fun activity to present, because every single time a kid makes a circuit that lights up an LED the kid's eyes light up just as much. Jack, a student from the high school robotics team I mentor, volunteered to join us and did a great job.

Photos | Slideshow Bill/Sara Visit Bill is one of those friends who even though we might not see or talk to each other for lengthy periods, when we do we just pick up where we left off. I contacted him a few weeks ago to see if he would like us to come for a visit in Hoboken. It turned out they were planning to come to Boston the following week. So Bill and Sara and kids Cole (10) and Tatum (8) came and stayed the night with us. On Sunday we ventured into Boston to visit the girls' favorite playground on the Esplanade. The kids had a blast. They enjoyed the playground itself, but then they started playing near the water. They found a small plank and decorated it with leaves and rocks and whatever else they could find and then launched their vessel into the lagoon. I kept wanting to guide them and caution them not to fall in but managed to keep my mouth shut. It reminded me of all the time I spent as a kid doing the same thing: playing with stuff in ponds and streams. After they had played at the playground and near the water for a long time, we walked over to the Public Garden and rode the Swan Boats. We hope to visit Bill and family in Hoboken in a few weeks.

Photos | Slideshow April Foolin' Another miscellaneous collection of photos. Enjoy!

Photos | Slideshow Breakheart Reservation Breakheart Reservation is a large piece of state forest land very near to home. It's a beautiful place; I'm not sure why we don't go there more often. It even has a swimming beach with lifeguards that you have to hike into. On the day of the Great Boston Manhunt I wanted to get the girls out of the house and get myself away from the TV. So we headed out for errands and then a hike at Breakheart. We visited the beach for the first time and the girls loved climbing up in the lifeguard chairs. It was the first warm day of spring at 72 degrees. I must admit it felt weird to have warm air on our skin, but the girls thought they were being tortured having to walk for an hour in the woods. They survived somehow.

Phew! All caught up with photos. For the moment.