Shields and Armor

I thought it would be fun to have Jordan blog with me. I showed him the blog and explained how I write about the pictures. Then I let him pick a picture to write about. We started writing and I had to help give him prompts but this is what we got:

"On Saturday, we went with Shawn to the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois. 

We made a project called a garland."

And then he didn't want to do any more!

Here's the picture of him with his garland:

It was neat to let him choose colors and then to cut and put them all together. I love letting kids just go wild with being creative. He was proud of his garland!

Afterwards, we wandered around the museum, slowly making our way to the armor. Shawn had told Jordan she wanted to take him to see the armor so that was our main reason for visiting. 

It was neat to see how intricately the armor was actually crafted. I can't imagine putting all of that on and then not really being able to see out of the helmets. Jordan thought it was very cool.

Shawn had lots of great stories to tell us about the artwork and the artists. She was the art teacher at Chad's school for a very long time. Jordan was especially thrilled when they found a knight, a horse, and a dragon in the gift shop that Shawn wanted to buy for him. He was so excited. Shawn told Jordan the story of Saint George when we found the painting at the museum. He was hanging on her every word as she told the story. After she was done, he said, "Is that really real?" He was so curious about dragons and if they were real. The painting was absolutely stunning. I'm so glad we got to see that after we saw the knights. I can't wait to get books from the library to read more about knights and dragons!

None of the images on the Internet do the artwork justice, but you can visit the Art Institute page that talks more about Bernat Martorell's Saint George Killing the Dragon to see the painting.

Danny was a champ for a 1 1/2 year-old at a museum where you have to be pretty quiet and not touch anything. It was great when he feel asleep. They do have a great play area for kids and he loved all the blocks!

 Chad and Shawn got to catch up a bit as they watched Danny play.

 Jordan helped me find the Thorne Room that matches the cover of Stealing Magic by Marianne Malone. It's the sequel to The 68 Rooms. I was lucky enough to get an ARC and am hoping to read it before it's out on the 24th. We were having fun looking for a white room with a chandelier and yellow chairs! We found it!

 The real Thorne Room and the cover of the book!

It was such a fun trip! 

Christmas(es) 2011!

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Merry (late) Christmas to everyone! We celebrated with lots of small Christmas celebrations with family over the last week. It was lots of fun. I loved watching Danny get excited about opening presents this year. The boys had a great time.