A Day of Art

Yes! We FINALLY made it to the Milwaukee Art Museum. We had been to the building a thousand times, and even inside onto the top floor looking over the lake. But, we had never made that trip to the admissions counter to actually go in. I think while we were in D.C. we were spoiled with all the FREE, wonderful museums. Paying to go into museums and zoos seems wrong. :) Anyway, Tom had been and Connor went with his class so it was my turn to go with my family. Hooray!
This picture is my favorite because of the story behind it. This sculpture has been there since we moved to Milwaukee 6 years ago. On our first outing to the city, we checked out the Art Museum building. You can go into the building and look at the wonderful view of the lake without paying to go into the actual museum. This sculpture sits in that viewing area. Connor was 5 years old and very excited to see the pile of "balloons." He ran over to the art, went under the rope and grabbed for the balloons. A lady ran toward him yelling, "don't touch it!" It scared Connor to death and I was just watching, frozen, waiting for the whole thing to come crashing down. In the end we were all laughing about it, and every time we see the thing we tell the story of when Connor almost busted all the "balloons!"

Connor posing with the "custodian guy." I thought this guy was real for about 5 minutes, until Connor walked over to him and started posing next to him.

Connor and Tom posing in the middle of the "see no, hear no, speak no evil statues." I don't know
if that is what they are, but that is what they remind me of.

These pictures were hard to capture. We went into a small room about 3 feet off the ground surrounded with a black curtain to make everything black. The walls, ceiling, and floor were glass with little orange lights all around. They were arranged to give the illusion that you were standing on air and floating in space. It was a really weird feeling. I had to remind myself a couple of times that I was only about 3 feet off the ground.

This suitcase was really cool. I had heard about "the suitcase" before, and honestly when I first saw it I wasn't sure what the big deal was. Then, when we walked up to it and took a peek inside it was awesome. There was a grate inside it, like it was sitting on top of a street grate, with water flowing underneath and plants and sunlight. It was so cool. The kids loved it.

This picture is one of my favorites of the day. There is a "chair park" where you can go and sit in all different kinds of chairs. Well of course the chair in the middle is the most popular chair, so my two children were fighting over this chair the whole time. Of course Connor won every time and you can see the triumph on his face, and the frustration on Maddie's. Maddie would finally climb into the chair, which was a feat in itself, just to be picked up by Connor and replaced. Connor was definitely being a big stinker.We did make sure that she got her time in the big middle chair.

Checking out some favorites.

One of Connor's favorites of course. Just in time for Halloween.

After the museum, we took a stroll along the lake. It was Maddie's first glimpse of Lake Michigan, and one of Connor's favorite places to go. A great day.