Rainy Day

Last rainy Saturday, Parker and I decided to get back to our typical weekends of doing fun free things around Cincinnati.  Luckily the night before I was looking at the Cincinnati Art Museum's website and found out that the first Saturday of every month they have family fun day.  Naturally it fit the next day's rain.

Last summer, Parker and I spent the afternoon hiking around Eden Park and we had walked by the Art Museum.  That day he wanted to go, but it was too wonderful outside to spend the afternoon inside....so we kept hiking.  It was perfect timing last weekend.  There is a new exhibit that just started there too, American Circus Posters.  It was really neat.  I love old propaganda posters from any point in history so it was something that both of us could thoroughly enjoy.  (expect the clown posters....why are they so creepy?)

We started our afternoon there with a scavenger hunt.  There were clues that took us all around the galleries.  Each one had to do with a specific piece of art on the walls.  At first I wasn't sure about the scavenger hunt and whether Parker would enjoy it but it turned out to be a great way for him to connect with the art.  He was excited about finding the right piece before me and writing down the information needed to answer the question.  One of the tasks was to redraw a painting of a clown....it was great to see what Parker drew based on his own interpretation.  We also met an artist who is in charge of a gallery in Northside.  When Parker had to ask him a question, he suddenly became shy...it's funny to witness your very outgoing child suddenly have fear of speaking to a new person.  I wonder why that happens......but anyway.

At the very beginning of the day, they had clown noses that they passed out to all of us because of the theme of the day.  And again, based on that theme, there were performances.  The first one we saw was by the kids at My Nose Turns Red Theatre Company.  It was hysterical!  Parker laughed so hard at the other kids performing.  His eye lit up and I have a feeling he would fit right in at the camp they have over the summer.  They kids did great juggling, hulu hoop, tightrope and balancing tricks.  They were very comical.

The next performance was from Happen, Inc.  They did some magic tricks that we unfortunately missed but the part we saw was great.  Although we really only got to see one group perform, I would have never heard of either of this places without having visited the museum.  I haven't been able to look further into Happen, Inc, but I know that it is a youth service place where Parker and I can go for more fun stuff to do that is really close to home.

It was a great day and I plan on going to this even every first Saturday.  I hope that Parker will continue to have interest in the Art Museum.  The only down side to the activities that they had were that they were more for school age children....which is fine for me, but other parents who have younger children would not have the same experience.