In the week leading up to Mother’s Day, Maya and Ian had their spring pictures taken at their preschool. We are so happy they worked in the extra picture taking because these crazy photographers manage to get real honest-to-goodness smiles out of our daughter, and they somehow get photos of the kids together where they’re both looking at the camera at the same time AND they both seem happy. We asked Maya later what they do to get her to smile. “Oh, they make me say funny words like ‘fart’,” she told us. Noted.

Maya – age 5, Ian – age 3

I had been wanting to take Ian, lover of rainbows, to the Ellsworth Kelly exhibit at the Blanton Museum of Art ever since it opened. Both the kids are prodigious creators of drawings, crafts, paintings, coloring sheets, etc, and I thought they’d be interested to see just how far the meaning of “art” could be stretched. But I’ll be honest, it’s also hard to *want* to take three- and five-year-olds to the art museum.

For Mother’s Day this year, we decided to go for it. We started our Saturday morning with brunch at a local joint called Holy Roller. I had assumed it wasn’t really going to be much of a kid-friendly restaurant, but they were great about it. They offered a few off-menu things that were a little more tailored to young palates, and they brought them each packages of Wiki Stixx to play with. I was armed with coloring sheets and crayons, but those were quickly abandoned. Those Wiki Stixx were the thing of the day as far as the kids were concerned. Sean and I were able to semi-quietly enjoy our delicious biscuit sandwiches, and in my case, my delicious breakfast cocktail, while the kids nibbled on bacon and eggs and made waxy sculptures with their Stixx.

Wikki Stix glasses

We had been prepping the kids for the art museum. “What’s the number one rule?” Ian: I don’t know. Maya: Don’t touch anything. The girl had it (and was also the least likely to comply). The kids were really into the contemporary art. Sean thought that the abstract shapes probably appealed to their imaginations. A very kind lady that Maya and I chatted with guessed that the kids liked those pieces best because they looked more like something they might make. There was even one exhibit in that part of the museum that the kids could touch. A huge vat of pennies filled a sunken spot in the floor. Bones dangling ominously above it, though I don’t think Maya and Ian noticed. It turns out, patrons are permitted to mess around with the pennies. Ian made a penny cake and then cut it into slices with another penny to serve it. I stopped him short of grabbing handfuls to give to people so they could eat his penny cake. When the guard started eyeing our slightly rowdy daughter, we decided to move on.

Art you can touch is the BEST art

Neither Ian nor Maya cared one whit about the European paintings. I think the only things through most of the rest of the museum to capture their interest were the sculptures and pottery … and the benches. They must have sat on every bench and couch in that place. There was even a wacky red couch that they pretended was eating their hands. When it started to become clear that they kids were just about all done, we walked out to the chapel that is “Austin,” the Ellsworth Kelly installation I was so wanting Ian to see.

“Austin” at the Blanton

While it was the end of their visit, the kids did both seem to find the idea of a building as art to be interesting. And they both seemed to enjoy the rainbow of colors in the stained glass. But honestly, they suffered a few photos, took a cursory look around, and then Ian asked if we could go to his house now. Maya did take a moment to snap a photo of the outside of the building with her little Polaroid camera.

When we asked each of them later what they liked best, Maya unsurprisingly said she liked the pennies because she could touch them. Ian though let us know that the “rainbow room” was his favorite. Sean estimated that all told we spent about 75 minutes wandering around. I think for a first museum visit for two busy preschoolers, that wasn’t too bad.

Good morning!

On Sunday, actual Mother’s Day, we laid low. I made everyone a late breakfast and did a few catch-up chores and some relaxing. Sean No-Minute-Like-the-Last-Minute Woods took the kids to buy supplies so they could make my gifts. We had had such a late breakfast that I figured they could go pick up their stuff and then Sean could grab lunch on the way home. I wasn’t prepared for them having to spend something like a full hour at the craft store. At one point, Sean had texted me nothing more than “OMG.” It told me what I needed to know. With the way things had gone, we decided the kids needed a sleep after lunch before Sean would be undertaking any kind of maker project with them.

By the time they woke up and relaxed a little in front of the TV, it was starting to get late, so Sean tried to get the kids to focus on making my gifts, which turned out to be bead necklaces. They had selected a good assortment of really interesting beads from the store, and they both seemed to really enjoy arranging them and stringing them. Ian, meticulous, dexterous little creature that he is even strung some teeny tiny little jewel beads that I could barely handle and could see even less. And that three year old boy had the focus to string probably 85% of the necklace himself before he got tired of it. It was impressive.

Ian and Maya each strung me a bead necklace.

I think Sean may be a little worse for wear, but I enjoyed my laid back day. And I enjoyed our outings with the kids the day before. We knew going into an art museum expedition that it wasn’t going to be easy, but I think it’s good for them (and us) in the long run. Heck, even visiting a restaurant can be a little bit of an event with those two lunatics. And Maya, for her part, is already planning Father’s Day gifts for Sean. I hope he likes beaded jewelry.

(Included in these photos are a picture of Maya’s elementary school [note the sea creature motif] as well as a few random spring pictures I liked.)