Saturday, March 8, 2008

Baranov Museum Family Fun Night

Tonight the kids and I went to another fantastic (and FREE!) program at the Baranov Museum. It's always amazing to be in that beautiful building.
The museum was very kid-friendly tonight. Ani showed Megan a basket and explained that it was weaved out of grass. Megan inisted on seeing more baskets.

Ani very patiently allowed the kids to handle many items from the museum as she told about what they were.


Megan decided everyone needed to hear a round of Twinkle Twinkle played on the balalaika. She then colored a picture of the balalaika while listening to some balalaika music.



Daniel enjoyed the balalaika. It made me nervous to see him manipulating items from the museum. Daniel was quite funny tonight. He walked into one of the rooms in the museum that had a large picture on the wall of Father Gerasim Schmaltz, a famous monk. Then Daniel announced, "hey, a pirate, we have that movie". I'm wondering if he has confused this endearing monk with the filthy Captain Jack Sparrow (from Pirates of the Carribean), because I didn't see the similarities.



Ani let Megan play with the Russian nesting dolls during the presentation. We have a beautiful set of Russian nesting dolls that were given to us for Christmas. Our dolls are packed away safely for the move. They feature the Russian folklore story of The Enormous Turnip.


Joshua is lacking from some pictures because he was doing a scavenger hunt trying to locate various items in the museum. After coloring and touring and listening to stories, we got to sample some delicious Russian Easter bread, Kulich. The kids loved it. And I thought it was amazing! I was hoping they wouldn't finish theirs so that I could clear their plates, but no such luck! Joshua confessed on the way home that during his scavenger hunt he went into the kitchen and the lady there gave him an extra peice of Kulich.






There's Joshua enjoying his snack. It was so good.


Megan ate her Kulich, and then asked for another one. I told her she needed to leave some for the other people, but the museum people were gracious in allowing her a second piece.


After snacks, it was time to work on an Easter egg craft. After looking through some books about easter, the kids and I got busy on the porch decorating eggs. The eggs were already hollowed and painted black, then we decorated them with glittery pens.
Daniel was mid-way decorating his egg when he stood up in his seat and announced, "oh, no, Mom, the poops are coming out!" then he waited a second and said, "nope, no poops, just gas". It was a good thing we were all parents of small-ish children because the entire porch errupted in laughter.
Here's a shot of our eggs. Joshua's egg is on the bottom. He saw an egg that had been decorated with a picture of a church on it, and decided to mimic it.

Overall, it was a great time. Joshua enjoyed doing a big boy activity (the scavenger hunt). And he noticed a sculpture, which is exciting because we are studying about 3-dimensional art. Megan enjoyed being able to touch the artifacts. And Daniel always enjoys himself.









2 comments:

Lisa said...

Wow looks like you've been busy with the library and museum. I love museums where they let the kids 'touch'.

Lydia Netzer said...

How beautiful and adorable. Those pictures are priceless. They're learning so many things there! Beyond the artifacts and "official" information. Great job, mom. :)