Things That Are Cold

So this morning was our very first class at the art museum. I woke up bright and early, peeked out the window and saw that it was snowing! No, no, no! No way!

Then I turned on the Weather Channel and they said it was 38 degrees outside, so I decided that the snow could go screw itself because I'd been looking forward to this too long and we were going.

And then Mikey got up and saw that it was snowing and I was afraid he'd try to stop us because he's so anal about safety issues, but I told him that it wasn't cold enough to be icy so he didn't put up much of a fuss and, sure enough, we had no trouble at all getting there.

We started with apple juice and animal crackers while we got our aprons on and waited for all the kids to show up, then we listened to a story about a snowy day, then we played with ice cubes (Britt ate hers), and then we went on a gallery tour. And this is where it got dicey.

We didn't go look at paintings hung up on a wall or sculptures made of metal. Nah, that would be too easy, wouldn't it? We had to go look at the Chihuly glass exhibit, where things are, you know, made out of glass and are extremely breakable! And lots of the pieces sat on platforms that were only about a foot high. And Britt went into high-energy mode and ran me ragged, trying to keep her from touching, climbing, bumping and/or running out of sight.

Happily, the Chihuly exhibit was left unscathed by the time we returned to the classroom, other than some fingerprints on the platforms. And then it was time to paint!

I knew Britt would love it, and she did:



and then we washed up. And still somehow we managed to walk out of there with paint all over us (washable, so the instructor said -- we'll see) with a huge piece of paper covered in wet paint that flapped in the wind all the way to the car.

Anyway, we made it home safely and the picture is drying out in the garage (where Britt can't get hold of it and transfer paint all over the house). Our next class is February 24 and is titled "Chihuly's Colors." But of course.

This week we have playtime at the library on Wednesday and then next Saturday is our first class at the zoo. That one is titled "Scaled Down," but there's no course description so I'm not sure what we'll be doing. I'm assuming there will be animals with scales involved (snakes? fish?), but Britt is leery of creepy-crawly things so perhaps this is not the best class to start her off with, but we're going to anyway.

It'll be my revenge for that heart-stopping Chihuly tour today.