What we did on our Spring Break Vacation

It was nice to have a week off from school! We spent lots of time with friends and family visiting parks, going on bike rides and having fun. 

We decided to spend Easter Sunday as a family day in New York City. What a perfect day!

We started our bright and early at the Museum of Modern Art. For those of you who haven't been there, you have to check out their MoMA Family Gallery Talks. We did the A Closer Look for Kids program, for kids ages 5-10. They have other ones for younger & older kids too, so check out their site. The programs there are amazing and our tour guide, Ada was so engaging. (thanks again Ada!!) 

Tours start at 10:20am and are FREE (yes, free!) Get their early, as tickets are given out at 10am on a first come, first serve basis. 

We got there at 9:30 and spent some time hanging out. MAP saw this work by Andy Warhol and instantly was inspired for a joke!

"Bessie, where are you?"

One of the pieces on our tour was The Sleeping Gypsy by Henri Rousseau. Our exercise was to make up a story of what happened next in the painting.

 MAP described the scene as taking place in Egypt, where a curious lion walked by a sleeping woman in the moonlight. She had come to gather water for her husband's farm in the jug next to her lute. 

 

One of the special exhibits featured The Scream by Edvard Munch. Very moving. You truly feel the emotions....

Another special exhibit was applied design, which featured items that were unique and beautiful and also useful. For example, this piece above is designed after a tumbleweed which is brought to warn torn lands and used to detonate land mines. They are cheap to produce and keep people safe from the mines. 

After we finished exploring MOMA, we stepped outside and found ourselves in the middle of a massive gathering for the Easter Parade. Look below to see some of the fancy hats.

Love this one!

We also saw a parade of Easter Bunnies carrying signs. This was the best picture I could get due to the crowds, but it was quite a sight.

After a quick lunch, we headed uptown.

Central Park has the BEST rocks for climbing!

We ended up at the Museum of Natural History. 

This is a geode. Geodes look like rocks, but if you crack them open, YOWZA! They are gems. 

Impressive rock from the Hall of Gems. 

A beautiful ancient ammonite (ammonites are an extinct group of marine invertebrates for those of you keeping score at home) A beautiful girl too. :)

This massive tree was perhaps the oldest tree on Earth when it was cut down. Just look at those RINGS!

Squid vs. whale. Who will win?

(Full disclosure - the image captions were created with the help of MAP. He felt that a little humor would make you want to read this blog post instead of "yawning and exiting the blog" ah, kids ;)

After many more halls and many more pictures and facts learned we were starving and headed out for dinner. 

I have to say, it was a perfect day. I think I feel a new Easter tradition coming on. 

Summer is quickly approaching and we'll have many days to fill. Drop a comment if there are some museums and/or shows we should visit!

Go and get your Art On!