Art Museum

On Saturday, Winnie and I headed out for a little mommy and Winnie time at the art museum. Taking her to there has been an outing I've been looking forward to and hope to do often...raising children who know and appreciate art and are able to discuss it is really important to me. It's my thing. I want to share that with my kids. I think W's just old enough to know that what we're doing is special and really appreciate the experience. I tried getting her to say, "Winnie and Mommy's Day of Fun!" in typical Janice on Friends fashion, but she just couldn't get it right--

St. Louis has an amazing art museum located right in Forest Park. I love it! We went to the front desk and got a kids scavenger hunt sheet to help guide our visit. It was a little too old for Winnie so I've been working on making toddler-friendly scavenger hunt sheets with the help of my museum catalog and our copier. I would post one on here, but I don't know what the laws are on that and my mother-in-law is a docent at the museum. I don't want her to have me arrested. But, the one they had was fine for the day...I would lead W to the correct room, then she would have to find the piece. I asked her a few questions about whatever it was, and it was so interesting hearing what she would say. Her favorite scavenger hunt find was a beautiful yellow sofa downstairs in the Decorative Arts section.

In Sculpture Hall, deciding what to look for next

We passed this sculpture several times, and W deemed it "her favorite"

Cute story...Winnie unexpectedly sat down on this bench and questioningly stroked her chin and said, "this is a place you can sit and wonder."

After our scavenger hunt, we had a quick fruit snack (and a snickerdoodle and an apple juice) at the Cafe, then headed upstairs so I could show her all of the modern and contemporary art. She enjoyed the Max Beckmann paintings, or the "art that Max painted" just like her mommy. She also had plenty to say about the girl captured in Gerhard Richter's Betty. I suppose I could have guessed that. We ended up being at the museum for over 3 hours. All in all, it was a great afternoon.

A contemporary pose