Visit to the MIA

Saturday mornings are pretty busy. Twice a month we have Suomi-koulu, and once a month Maisie has Girl Scouts. When those aren't happening, there's a fencing class. This past weekend was fencing, so Ella and I decided to do something different, and took a trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts!

We started out with breakfast at a restaurant on Nicollet called the Copper Hen. I had never been there before, but the menu looked good so we decided to give it a try.

Ella told me jokes and drew while we waited for food to arrive.

I must say, the food was really pretty tasty. I had a skillet scramble with roasted root vegetables, mushrooms, and cheddar. Yum! But as good as mine was, Ella was SERIOUSLY excited about her order.

They have a "toast bar," which is $3 for four slices of buttered toast, and you can order different toppings. Ella chose cinnamon sugar, and got her own shaker! She also got scrambled eggs, which she did not put on her toast, but ate on the side. There are a lot of different choices, both savory and sweet, so you could really make some unique toast creations. :)

After we finished eating, we headed down the block to the MIA. Ella plans to be an artist and a scientist when she grows up, and really does enjoy looking at art. (Although she thinks it's weird that there are so many naked people.) She also liked finding her name on a staircase!

We walked all around and looked at different collections. She liked a lot of the contemporary sculptures and installations, was excited to find the Chuck Close that she saw on a field trip to the museum last year, and generally had a lot of fun. Ella also enjoyed imitating some of the poses and pictures we saw:

And she insisted that I do one, too!

It was a really fun morning, and we definitely plan to head back there soon!

Chicago

Every October, the Minnesota teacher's union has a conference, so all the Minnesota public schools are closed for three days. Even though the union changed its name to Education Minnesota a number of years ago, the break is still mostly called "MEA," after the union's old name, Minnesota Educators' Association.

About a month ago, one of my coworkers went to Washington, D.C. with her family. I was super jealous because I knew they'd have a great time with their kids seeing all the great museums and sights. I wanted to do that, too! But then I thought, hey, we could go to Chicago over MEA! So, we did! The girls were SUPER excited about the trip, and were counting down for days. On Wednesday morning Ella woke up at 5:45, saying "It's time to go to CHICAAAAAAAAAAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!"

We'd decided to fly, instead of driving. I found super inexpensive tickets on Spirit - I'm sure it ended up costing less than gas + roadside food. Plus, that way it only took us an hour to get to Chicago! The girls were excited about their first airplane ride.

(Technically not Maisie's first, but since she last flew when she was not quite 2, she didn't remember it at all.)

Ella was more excited than Maisie, who was super concerned about her ears popping and asked a bunch of questions. What does it sound like? why does it happen? will it hurt???? The actual ear-popping experience was pretty anticlimactic once it actually happened.

I know a lot of people have negative things to say about Spirit, but for what it's worth, both our flights were great. Their thing is the "bare fare" - your ticket gets you and one personal item from Point A to Point B. Nothing else is free... no free drinks, no free carry-on, no free nothing. The personal item has to be able to fit under the seat in front of you, so it can't be larger than 16" x 12" x 14". That was plenty big enough for us! The girls each had a backpack, I carried an old diaper bag, and Aaron carried a messenger bag. We filled them up but it was totally enough room for us for everything we needed for the trip. Aside from that, the flight attendants were sweet to the girls and the flights were on time. No complaints from us, and we'll definitely fly them again!

Once we landed, we hopped on the blue line train...

And headed off to meet my mom's cousin Cathy at her office! She and her husband Jim live on the south side of Chicago, and they very kindly offered to let us stay with them during our trip. We were happy to accept! We dropped off our bags at Cathy's office, and walked over to the Art Institute!

We only had an hour and a half there before they closed, but even in that short amount of time we saw lots of beautiful and famous artworks.

After that, we stopped by a comic shop where the girls picked out some comic books. Then it was time for dinner, and back to Cathy and Jim's for bedtime. Everyone was exhausted!

The next day we had great plans. First we went to the Shedd Aquarium!

We saw dolphins and Beluga whales, a giant puffer fish, seahorses, an octopus... so many interesting animals! Ella spent a long time at the tidal pool where you could touch starfish and sea urchins.

We spent a few hours there, stepped outside to admire the view...

Then we walked over to the Field Museum!

There we saw lots of cool exhibits. Aaron's favorites were the Hall of Gems and the jades. Ella's was the insects, and Maisie's was the ancient Egyptian artifacts. After a few hours it was back to the Shedd for more!

That evening we met up with Cathy, Jim, and their granddaughter Iris at Giordano's for AMAZING Chicago-style deep dish pizza. Iris is 2 and completely adorable. Ella was completely smitten, and I think it was mutual. :)

Friday may have been the girls' favorite day of the trip. We waved goodbye to Jim and Cathy, hopped on a train and then a bus, and landed in Schaumberg. We were going to Legoland!

We got there a little early, so we had a little down time at Starbucks.

Once we were there, we were off to the races! There were awesome Lego sculptures everywhere...

There were rides, and play areas, and of course a store.

I recently re-read Thinking, Fast and Slow, which discusses brain processes and how your brain can be "primed" for certain activities by seeing certain words. So, the prominence of the word SHOP made me laugh. It was literally the only word on this play structure. GO SHOP NOW! EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP!

Maisie enjoyed building with the giant soft blocks - this is her Christmas town.

Ella liked the Duplo pool!

We were leaving pretty early Saturday morning, so we spent Friday night in a lovely hotel (O'Hare Renaissance) right by O'Hare. We swam! We watched cartoons! We went to bed really early because we were all tired! And then we were home by noon on Saturday, so we had most of the weekend to relax before heading to work/school Monday morning. :)

So, it was a very full three days and lots of fun. The girls are great little travelers - there was a bunch of hurry up & wait which is sort of the nature of public transportation, and it gets tiring, but they were very patient. They did great. I should add that we got our admission tickets through the Go Chicago card, which was really convenient. I had them electronically delivered so it was right on my phone. Super convenient and definitely a money-saver, plus you get to jump the lines!

Thank you Cathy and Jim for your hospitality!

We are already thinking about our next trip. The Museum of Science & Industry and the Children's Museum are definitely on our list... it turns out we all love visiting Chicago!

Day at the Museum/Children's Theater

Or, why I enter everything into my phone.

Yesterday morning, Aaron and I woke up to the sound of giggles coming from the girls' room. (It's a nice way to wake up.) They'd woken up before us and, instead of coming and getting us up, had decided to stay in their room and play together. It was pretty sweet.

Anyway, I looked at my phone to see what time it was and there was an entry from my calendar: Children's Theater, 2:00 Today. I said to Aaron "Hey, we have tickets to a show at the Children's Theater today." He asked what time and what show. "2:00. I don't know what show but it's in my phone, so it must be right." And it was! I got up and looked at the tickets, and sure enough we were going to the matinee of Charlotte's Web.

We hadn't been to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in forever, so we decided to go early and check out some art before the show. Maisie was initially reluctant ("There's nothing to dooooooo"), but quickly warmed up to it and ended up having a lot of fun.

She especially liked the statues. And the MIA has plenty of interesting statutes, especially in the Asian art galleries!

So there was plenty of silly posing for pictures.

They also really liked the suits of armor - this one was about 500 years old!

We ended up in one of the contemporary galleries, where the girls REALLY liked this large statue.

Ella, so silly. "I can see his butt, Mama! Take a picture of his butt!"

After seeing some art and a quick snack, we went over to see Charlotte's Web. Ella said, "I hope there's no dying parts in this show!" Uh... turns out, Charlotte's Web is almost entirely dying parts, starting with the very first line ("Where's Papa going with that ax?"). It's a lot heavier than I remembered it being - the show follows Wilbur as he struggles against the inevitability of death, starting with his own, and then being forced to come to terms with Charlotte's death. But even though Charlotte dies, her babies live on, as does Wilbur because of her efforts while she was alive. Wow, these are some pretty heavy themes for a children's story! But I don't think the girls really got all that, any more than I did when I read it at Maisie's age. They both enjoyed the play, thought it was sad when Charlotte died, but were happy that some of her babies chose to stay with Wilbur in the barn. It was one of the best shows I've seen at the CTC - I highly recommend it.

Between the museum and the theater, we had a really lovely afternoon.

Everything I need to know...

So, Maisie's kindergarten year has come and gone.

Here she is, on her first day of school back in August...

so excited! And look how short her hair was!

Here we are, waiting for the bus in the morning and so excited for her last day...

 And here she is, school year complete, now a first grader.

Why Ella's clinging onto her arm like that, I do not know. But it makes for a cute picture!

Aaron and Ella made Maisie a cake to mark the occasion. It was yummier than it was photogenic, which is fine, because cakes are for eating, not for photographing. We also let the girls stay up a little late watching a movie of Maisie's choice - The Secret World of Arietty. It was a nice evening and a lovely way to celebrate the end of the school year.

Maisie's kindergarten year was wonderful. She had a great teacher, and she learned and grew so much. A number of years ago there was a schmaltzy book out called All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. So, I thought I'd share with you some of the things she learned this year, which I think will serve her well for the rest of her life.

• Love of reading: Minneapolis schools use the Scholastic Leveling Chart to measure students' reading ability and progress. Maisie started the year at level B, and finished at level I, which is a little ahead of the curve. She enjoys reading on her own (she brought comic books in her backpack to read on the bus!), and especially likes to read nursery rhymes to Ella. (Ella likes that too!) We're very happy that she's developed a love of reading.
  
• Love of art: as a Montessori school, Maisie's school incorporates art into almost everything they do. They really encourage the children to be creative and artistic, and Maisie's definitely taken this to heart. She draws all the time - both things she's made up (princesses and fairies are popular) as well as things she sees around her. If you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, she'll tell you that she wants to be an artist. She's well on her way!
  
• Curiosity about the world: She loves to ask questions and try to figure out why things are the way they are. Her science classes have done a wonderful job at fostering and encouraging this curiosity. Even if her hypotheses aren't always correct, she's putting a lot of thought into them. It's so fun to hear her say, "You know what? I bet this is this way because..." and then to explain her ideas and thoughts.
  
• Speaking and listening: Maisie's a champ at expressing her ideas, thoughts, and feelings. At the beginning of the year, her first reaction to any frustration was to burst into tears, but as the year progressed, she got better at expressing herself in ways other than crying. She does still cry when frustrated, but she's able now to use her words to tell us exactly what's going on. She's also very empathetic; seeing another child upset will upset her, too, and she will do what she can to remedy the situation. These traits combine to make her a wonderful friend and a positive person to have in any group.

So, that's a lot of what Maisie learned in kindergarten this year. There was a fair amount of more academic work, but I think that these things might serve her better, in the long run, than knowing how to tell whether an animal is a mammal or a reptile. (Not that that's not important! But, you know.)

Star Wars Art

So over the last month or so, Maisie has become a real Star Wars fangirl, at least to the extent that a five-year-old can be. She's watched all 3 of the original movies, and plays Lego Star Wars - both with actual Legos and the Xbox game. She told me the other day that for Halloween she wants to be Jango Fett - I was like, I don't even know who that is.

So I guess I wasn't totally surprised to get home from work yesterday to find that she'd drawn some of her favorite Star Wars characters... can you tell who they are?

If you said 1. Darth Vader (she says "Dark" Vader, which is adorable and also kind of apt), 2. Princess Leia, and 3. Luke, you're right!

Not bad, hey?

Minneapolis Institute of Arts

My employer sponsored the Rembrandt exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, so employees got free tickets. So off we went on Sunday to the MIA, despite the girls' protests that "I only like museums where I can touch things" and "I think that sounds boring."

The line for Rembrandt tickets was really long and slow, so we decided to go through some of the galleries and come back for the tickets later. As promised, the girls didn't enjoy very much of it. They liked the period rooms, but otherwise found the older art pretty boring. They also don't like naked people or anything depicting anything scary, which is honestly quite a lot of the collection.

They were a little more taken with the more contemporary art, like this piece, Panda, by Takashi Murakami:

(another view and some further info on the artist here.)

Maisie was very interested in Cy Thao's work. We found a little video that told his story - born in Laos, escaped to a Thai refugee camp, immigrated to Minnesota, became a legislator for 8 years, and now an artist. The museum has 9 of his 50 paintings in his "Hmong Migration" series. She watched the video and looked at his paintings and said "He's really talented!" Yep!

We next found a please-touch art cart, with Native American items from the Pacific NW, that the girls liked. There was a doll, some beautifully woven fabric, jewelery, and other objects that they could handle.

They also really liked this installation by HOTTEA, letting go:

(more info on it here.)

Oh, how was the Rembrandt exhibit, you ask? Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. It had timed admissions and our tickets were for 2:00. But everyone pooped out and melted down and was basically done 45 minutes before that. I ended up giving our tickets to someone who was in line to purchase them.

So, oh well. It was a pretty hit-or-miss excursion, but all in all I think it was a success, even if we didn't get to see the Rembrandts. At least we did show the girls that the art museum isn't all boring.

Weekend roundup

No story to today's post; sorry about that. Just some cute pics of what we did this weekend. What can I say? It's Monday and I haven't quite had enough coffee yet to build a cohesive narrative structure.

Ella and I played Candy Land at the Chatterbox on Saturday, while Maisie played Mario Brothers.

Then the girls drew pictures. Maisie is always drawing and writing these days; we go through little pads of paper faster than you could believe. Here's Maisie's picture of two cows, a mama and a baby.

Ella's taken up drawing too, like Maisie. Unfortunately I have no idea what her picture is... she told me but I can't remember.

On Sunday the "girl team" (me and the girls) went to the zoo. Here's a penguin fight!

The girls posed for a picture on the tortoise statue, at the top of the Tropics Trail.

We also went through the Minnesota Trail, part of which goes outside and past a bird feeder. There was a huge wild turkey hanging out there, eating bird seed off the ground. Maisie was suitably impressed by it.

When we returned from the zoo, Ella took a nap and Maisie and I went to Target. Check out her addition to our shopping list...

That's WILD TRCEE (wild turkey). She thought it was hilarious!

Public Art

A little more than 5 months ago, I started a new job. I'm now working in downtown Minneapolis. I was pretty excited about working downtown for a lot of reasons. But one thing that's making me happy on a daily basis came as kind of a surprise: there's art everywhere!

I think I was kind of aware of this already, to some degree. There are lots of beautiful fountains and things all around. But I guess I'd forgotten just how easy it is to find. For instance, here's a drinking fountain and a tree planter that are right next to the stop where I get off the bus in the morning.

Aren't they pretty? And really, for no good reason other than to be themselves. I love them.

There are some Minnesota-themed manhole covers on the 1000 block of Nicollet mall.

Corn:

Walleye:

There are also ones with pine cones, showy lady slippers (our state flower), a loon family, and a few others. I wonder how many people walk over them every day and never notice?

There's also murals everywhere. This one is tucked in an alley next to a bookstore:

And finally, this one is totally iconic. There used to be a Schmidt Music store in this building. It's gone now, but the music remains. I took this picture walking into work:

This mural has been around for decades. Here's a much older picture of it, with another Minneapolis icon:

More art from Maisie

An octopus family:

Maisie likes to draw me pictures to bring to work. I like it too, especially now that I'm working in a somewhat bland cube. Mostly it's a lot of princesses, but every once in a while I get a gem like this one.

But even when the pictures are predictable, they always make me smile!

Seeing Stars

Maisie drew this picture for me yesterday.

It's me (in the middle), her, and someone else (not sure who that is on the left!) looking at stars, the moon, and a planet through a telescope. She likes to read and learn about stars and planets, but we've never actually looked through a telescope.

Carleton has open observatory nights every month... I might need to take her down to Northfield for that, to get a REAL look at the stars!

Science Museum trip

Yesterday was that most festive of holidays - Presidents' Day! Maisie and I both had the day off, so we all celebrated with a trip to the Science Museum of Minnesota. We wanted to check out their new Real Pirates exhibit, and I figured the girls were probably old enough for an OmniTheater movie. So off we went!

Unfortunately we weren't alone in our idea... there was a huge line! But we braved the crowds and got our tickets.

We had some time before our 11:00 movie so we went through various exhibits. The dinosaurs are always a hit. The girls also really enjoy an exhibit where they get to play with various colored lights. And they were quite taken with this big chair.

I don't remember quite what it was supposed to be illustrating... perspective, maybe? Anyway, big chair!

We saw the OmniTheater movie, which was really good - Under the Sea, narrated by Jim Carrey. It looked at undersea life in and around coral reefs. Lots of footage of cuttlefish, which I quite enjoyed. Maisie enjoyed the whole thing, and Ella fell asleep on my lap with about ten minutes left in the movie. I carried her out and down to the Pirates exhibit!

We had to wait in line again, which Aaron did not enjoy and which Ella slept through. She woke up just in time for us to go in! It was a really well done exhibit - it worked for kids, but didn't gloss over some of the harsher facts of life at that time. Of course, there were some cool artifacts recovered from a shipwreck -

several cannons (including this one), guns, treasure, and jewelery, along with more mundane articles of ship life, like plates, spoons, and tea kettles.

Afterwards everyone was hungry and cranky, so we went to the Cheeky Monkey
for lunch - it was a favorite of mine when I worked in that neighborhood, and I missed it. While we waited for our sandwiches, the girls kept themselves occupied with drawing.

This is Maisie's Jolly Roger. It's flying on bones (scary!) instead of a mast. The skull has a bone beneath it, is wearing a pirate hat, and also has a mustache - so as not to be too scary.

It was a very busy day but a lot of fun!