More Pictures, Please

Beautiful days are definitely a gift!  We played outside then went down to the Fayetteville Square to eat dinner at Tiny Tim's Pizza, one of our old hangouts.  Ches had an honors convocation at the Town Center on the square that he had to attend, and he didn't finish teaching until 4:50, and the reception began at 5:30!  We ordered ahead, and he went closer to 5:45.  Then I let the kids visit the bronze Peace fountain which they used to play around when they were little.  I worked really hard to find old pictures of them, but it was pre-digital pictures.  Today's will have to suffice!

It's ten feet around!

I wish I had the old pictures when they were tiny to show you.  It's such a comparison.  They are tall enough to see into the water now!

Time out for a dead bug.

Back to climbing and checking out bugs and coins in the water!

Isn't he darling?  He's telling the water his wish (that he gets a plane!) before he throws his coin in.

Aww..how sweet!

Then we walked around the square, where all those tulips are finally blooming-just gorgeous!

Big, fat peonies!  Hope mine are getting ready to pop through the ground...

I just love pictures from the back..can you tell? : )

How wonderful are these tulips!?  Yes, there's a path through the back! ; )

Check out that flower that broke off!

Wait..there's another dead bug!  ..Let us see!

Check out these tulips.

..and he found something else to climb.

I swear she poses herself!

Check this out.  I guess I should not worry about low self-esteem? ; )

So sweet.  They are growing up right in front of me.

Of course they are climbing.. : )

So sweet..except when Ethan refused to get in the car, and yelled that he wanted to stay and take more pictures with the flowers.  Ha!  What a day.

Sculpture Garden

Hey ya'll!  Would you like to take a tour?
We checked the kids out halfway through the day, drove to Missouri to visit Ches' mom, then on to Kansas City! : )  We are staying in Country Club Plaza, and we couldn't make a left onto the road by our restaurant, so when we went too far...we stumbled on an amazing outdoor sculpture garden (the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and KC Sculpture Park)!  I was so excited...I wanted to go right away before I lost any more light, but they were all hungry.  Hungry, shmungry.  So, we ate, and I drove the kids down there (Ches walked!).  Here are some pictures so far:

Don't you love the brickwork?  How hard would that be (from close-up!)

I loved the architecture all around-from rotundas..

to towers..

and..isn't it all so beautiful?

and here's a closeup! (this is above the Cheesecake Factory..which we visited much later in the dark)

This is the beginning of us getting all turned around-isn't he cute?!

We've decided this one looks like: a. tissue, b. whipped cream, c. shell, and d. all of the above!

on the walk to our restaurant!  She's so happy to be out on a trip.

And then we went back to the cook sculpture garden we saw before!

Ethan ran right up to it-he wanted his picture with it!

Rodin's The Thinker-so big!

Clay's Thinking about it...

Can you see these really huge badminton birdies?  Emphasis on huge-I'll show you later!

On the steps to the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art

Such sweeties : )

I loved all the quotes inscribed in the tops of the walls.  This one says, "The soul has greater need of the ideal than of the real"

This is one of the birdies!

I loved these-we used to set up a badminton net at our house and my grandma's house-good memories.  Do you remember how the rubber could turn inside out?

He does scare me up on the ledge-but he's so cute!

Isn't that setting sun gorgeous?

This one says, "It is by the real that we exist - It is by the ideal that we live."

Peace On Earth: I didn't realize that this one didn't come out so well.  But read about it below-awesome:  "It's an optimistic work expressing the transformation of flesh into spirit."

The Large Bather, 1917

Return of the Prodigal Son, 1931

Hyacinths!!!  They were all hidden-but we found them : )

What goes best with pink and flowers?  Mary Claire!  (oops-her tubing is hanging out!)

You have to read about this one below too: Untitled-but can't you see movement?

Can you see the heart in the drying stone?

We went around the west side to see the totem pole..and discovered there was a North Garden!

"Art still has truth, take refuge there."

"Through art we realize our perfection."  I love to see words in print-I'm not sure why.

Standing Figures 1994-98

He's telling us about them: they are fronts only, and they were cast individually in a burlap-lined body mold.

This is the back-you can see they used lots of strips, and they reinforced the weak areas.  There was a tornado watch today (and some touched down north of here), I hope it never takes these works of art!

about the Standing Figures..are they awaiting Final Judgment?  Are they war victims?

Beautiful still water feature-reminds me of the indoor pool at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by the Mummy exhibit!  So calm, but when the wind blew, it rippled so beautifully.

"True painting is only an image of the perfection of God."

We found another one!  There are four in all.  Here's the layout of them:

This one is kinda long to write, but it's about art standing through time even though there are changes going on around it.

Art deals with things in capable of definition being built, unbuilt, and rebuilt in our souls.

"Seraphs share with thee knowledge, but art, O man, is thine alone."  And we just talked about the hierarchy of angels last week in Bible study! 

And then they discovered the reflecting pool!

It's not the best picture, but I wanted a pre-Bosley! ; )

Could she be any cuter?

This is my favorite.

But we had to refrain from wading. heehee

Sweet, sweet day of fun.  I was so thankful for good weather, a safe drive, and happening onto amazing art.  We ended our day with swimming and yummy cheesecakes and cake-delish and perfect.