LEGO Hogwarts

So I am a HUGE LEGO fan.  I have been my entire life.  I still have (almost) all of the sets I ever received growing up, including (almost) all of manuals.  Don't get me wrong--it's always more fun to create your own thing, but it's nice knowing that I could still build those sets from my youth.

Unfortunately, my kids historically have not been interested in playing with them.  That is, until about seven months ago, when a new family moved in down the street.  Their kids are almost identically aged to ours, and they have become great friends.  One great thing about their kids is that they are all LEGO fanatics.  They have more sets than I had and have many creations on permanent display.  This, of course, prompted my kids to get interested in them.

We've purchased a few sets for my kids, and they are really enjoying playing with them.

My middle boy is a huge fan of LEGO Heroica.  We've played a lot of that since Christmas.  We have four of the five sets and really get into it.  I plan on writing a longer post about Heroica another time, so more about that then.

My oldest received the Haunted House for Christmas:


She and I have been slowly putting it together since Christmas.  It has made for some really nice father-daughter time.

She and I are also reading the Harry Potter series at bedtime.  Before now, I had only ever read the first book.  Together, we are 15 pages from the end of Book 2 and about to start Book 3.  We are really enjoying it.  The reading is making for some really nice father-daughter time as well.

Tonight, as I was browsing the interwebs before dinner, I came across this photo:

                                 

To see more, go to this Flickr page and look through all of the photos.  How absolutely amazing is that Hogwarts LEGO creation?  I wish that I had that kind of free time on my hands--or the disposable income to buy all those bricks.  Of course, I flipped through those photos with my kids oohing and aahing the whole way.  Pretty impressive.

Then we came to this picture.  I asked, "What is a thestral?"  Keep in mind that my daughter has NOT seen any of the Harry Potter movies yet, and that we haven't gotten to any thestrals in the Harry Potter books.  (Frankly, I wouldn't have been able to tell you that there was such a thing as a thestral in the HP books until I came to that photo.)  My daughter answered, "It's kinda like a ghost horse." "Oh, well, how do you know that?"   Because, seriously, I was curious to know where she had heard of them.  She replied, "Dad, when you read as many fantasy books as I have, you just come to learn these things."  I LOVE IT.  My daughter is a huge fan of fantasy, and I didn't even have to try.

If you want to read more about that LEGO Hogwarts, go over to The Brothers Brick to read an interview with the woman who built that thing.