Fossil Fest 2013
Back to the Alf Museum for more dino fun. This time with friend, Cora, in tow. G loves having her friends with her, so cute!

This was in the afternoon of the Princesses at the Castle thing hence the tiara on G's head :-)

 Bobby is a goof

 How cute are the girls' poses in this picture???

Dinosaurs!
The Alf Museum --named after the founder, Raymond Alf, not the TV character --is located on the campus of the The Webb School which is the school my older son went to for high school. Its the only high school in the country with a fully accredited museum on its campus! Pretty neat.

We decided to check out their family day. Cute! They did a short presentation about flying dinos then took the kids around to look at some displays. They had a little craft --decorate a dino hat-- and then we checked out the displays. It was a pleasant little outing. I think we might try to attend these in the future. Georgie's never expressed too much interest in dinosaurs. Maybe this bit of exposure will strike an interest??

Yes, we're dinosaurs :-)

Digging for fossils

I think this is an imprint of an actual dino track

Norton Simon
We went, primarily, to see the Van Gogh self portrait that was on temporary exhibit. It was the last weekend so it was pretty crowded but still super enjoyable. I think that the Norton Simon is my favorite art museum. Its pretty small but the number of famous works of art in that one building is amazing. Its hard to believe that it all belonged to and was collected by a single man over a 30 yr period. Unbelievable. Walking through the various galleries feels like flipping the pages of my Art History 101 book from college.

They do regular kids programs. Its a pretty nice and low key program. They feature an artist and then have the kids sit on blankets on the floor and look at their works on the wall as they read a short story about them. This time it was Paul Klee. They follow up with a very open-ended art project that falls loosely within the theme. Of course, Georgiana loved this. She was the very first kid to begin working on her project and she was the very last one to finish. In fact, when she stopped, she wasn't actually finished but the program had ended for the day so she had to give back the materials :-)

After that we toured some more of the galleries. G was particularly interested in the religious paintings of the renaissance. She liked the Madonna and Child images and was fascinated by explanation of the of crucifixion and resurrection. It must have been on her mind because she asked me questions over the next day or so about it. Once I assured her that no one gets crucified anymore she seemed fine with it. That's my girl!
:-)

 Notice during the story time where G is sitting... could she get any closer???

 Hard at work on her project

She was very proud of the result. I asked her to tell me about it but other than the little square thing being a window I can't remember what she told me :-(  Next time I'll have to write it down more quickly.

 haha!

Bobby isn't really a lover of art museums. He tolerates them because he knows that I love to go... ahh, what a good guy, right? Anyway, Bobby finally found a painting that he liked: Meleager and Atalanta and the Hunt of the Calydonian Boar. He was intrigued by all the images of the dogs. There really is a lot going on in this painting.

 My walking girl with Rodin's Walking Man... haha!

Huntington Library
with Grandma :-)  My mom hadn't been in many years so we made a day of it. Just the girls! I built up some anticipation in Georgie by showing her pictures of Pinkie and Blue Boy... who doesn't love them, right? Georgie was fascinated by the sad story of Pinkie who died at the age of 12, probably from the flu. It brought up a good discussion about how lucky we are to live during a time where there are good medicines and doctors. Art history is full of death and sadness some of which is pretty heavy for a five year old.

Anyway, we'd booked the tea for lunch but we got there a little early so we checked out some of the galleries. Its funny because we've many times in the last year or so since we've had our membership and we've spent a surprisingly small amount of time in the galleries. The gardens are so beautiful you can spend all your time there. We got G an audio headset and explained how it worked and how to locate the "kids" audios. G was really into it and would search around to find the two digit codes, punch the numbers in and listen intently. I'm not sure how much of it she was really picking up but she was having a good time doing it :-)

Finally, it was time for tea! Georgie loves tea and the Rose Garden Tea Room is pretty great. After a lovely lunch we moved on to the gardens. It was a bit early in the year so not everything was in bloom but they are beautiful no matter the season. We managed to cover most of the property--there are still a few gardens I've never seen--before we were all exhausted and it was getting close to closing time.

Wonderful day!

After looking at Pinkie and Blue Boy, Georgie was wandering the European gallery looking for more kids audios when all of a sudden she gave out a quiet shriek! She'd found a painting of Georgiana Cavendish... she was so tickled that they shared a name! She immediately asked me to take her picture in front of her namesake.

The gardens are filled with endless photo opportunities... next time I might have to bring my big camera so I can get some really great photos.

 The camelias were one of the few flowers in bloom in mid February.

 Breathtaking...

 G loves her Grandma!

We always spend a lot of time in the Chinese garden. Its so beautiful... the kind of place that makes you want to sit for awhile.

 Georgie's ferocious face :-)

The cherry blossoms are in bloom by now... time to go back!

Huntington Library: Santa Days
We hadn't been able to use our Huntington Library membership for awhile. When I saw they were having a special Santa thing just for members I thought, heck yeah! I almost backed out the morning of because it was pouring down rain. But, I'd already told G we were going to play hookie so I figured we'd give it a go. Plus it gave G a chance to wear her much beloved rain boots.

First stop: tea! I love to go to tea. I don't go as often as I'd like. G likes it too. Its wonderful that G is getting to an age where we can do these types of things, just the two of us, and enjoy a nice conversation. She's quite the little talker. We discussed her friends at school, her current fav movie Sofia The First, and other things she enjoys. And of course we had tea (which for G is actually pink lemonade) and lunch. The tea house at Huntington in that it is a full on lunch buffet. They have these delicious little salmon, cream cheese and cucumber creations that are to. die. for! G went for egg salad and did a bit of damage on the sweets. Yum.

After that we were off to the Santa activities. I truly love G's pairing of the holiday skirt with her purple boots... adorable!

Bob Baker's Marionettes were there doing a show. The operation of the puppets was quite complex. They were at the same time fascinating and creepy :-)


G loved them!

Even after a big lunch G still had room for a Christmas cookie.

G decided that she had a question for Santa... which reindeer is his favorite? G and Santa had quite a serious conversation about it. I haven't the slightest idea what was being said but G seemed to be listening very carefully.

He then leaned over and whispered something in her ear. Unfortunately, I have no idea what he said because when I asked G about it later she said she didn't remember.

I'm not really going for a record or anything but I'm pretty sure this represented G's 6th visit with Santa this year :-)

By that point the rain had finally stopped and G immediately switched out her shoes for something she found more fashionable.

A perfect 10 Mommy-Daughter day :-)