institute of arts

We made a trip there today, to the Institute of Arts.  It's a huge, rambling building, a maze of stairways and skylights and little rooms and big chambers.

When I say we--these are the people who went.  Little Jay went.  Here he's pictured above with his friend Larry, all decked out for Kirsten's ugly sweater party a few weeks ago.  Larry is back at school, so he did not go.  But wow didn't he look interesting that night.

 She went.  And so did the little girl below:

 And this kid:

 And also this one:

Before we even made it to the galleries, there were complaints that their legs hurt.   We walked a while, looked at a lot of stuff and soon they were looking bored and there was tussling and also some arguing.

You can't touch the art, and I can't stress that enough.   I thought Tim had touched the frame of a painting, but no.  He was inspecting the THERMOSTAT in the room.   "Good LOR-ed.  Did you touch that?"

"Julia quit waving your coat around."

"Stop hanging over the railings!"

They looked drab and frowny, ready to leave.  Then they looked over yet another high railing and perked right up, "Mom! There's a food court down there."

"Riiight.   No.  We're not."

And babies can't run wild, have to stay near their families and not touch things either.  Here's the thing about that little girl--she doesn't like to managed.   By the time we'd been there two hours, she was over all the restrictions, and threw a big, fat fit about putting on her coat.

The fit triggered a big coughing jag--exactly why the coat has to be worn, honey.   Not even the offer of gum impressed her.    Time to go.

Anyway, I love the museum, and I thought the kids would like it more than they did.

But then later tonight, Julia appeared in our room where I was working, and brought me this.  It's a creation depicting us at the museum.  The yellow thing is actually a little crepe paper sculpture.

Wow.

Apparently they got more out of it than it seemed like.    I guess you just never know.

Happy Thursday.    love, Val