Niki in the Garden

Last week my sister and I took the kids to see the Niki in the Garden exhibit in the city. It was soooo cool, these amazingly huge structures with all mosaic design. I wish I knew how to put them in order, but well, I am not that computer savvy. You'll get the idea. For more info check out: http://www.nikiinthegarden.com/

The best part is, though while the kids didn't particularly appreciate the plants at the conservatory, you can actually touch, climb, feel, hug, whatever, almost all of the structures in the outide exhibit. Plus, they got to make iced tea in the discovery garden using fresh mint, and bonus: They got to dig in the dirt in the kids area too. What's better than digging in dirt?

Nate in the skull: My, what BIG TEETH you have! Probably the funniest photo, only due to content. There was this huge alligator thingy while Steph and Jack were checking out the other statues. I had the littlest 3, and Nate kept saying 'Booke!" and poking her in the back of the head and laughing hysterically. She kind of just ignored him. Too bad she doesn't have any big brothers, just big boy cousins to aggravate the hell out of her!
This is of course, Michael Jordan. The style of the structures is modeled off of Gaugin's artwork http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gauguin/. Just to get an idea of how HUGE these were, and all adorned with Mosaic tiles, I had my sister stand next to MJ. Pretty wild!
Family photo in the lion. You just can't see Jack. It's hard to get all 3 to cooperate.
The BEST part of the trip. Maddie was sleeping too, right next to Nate.
One of my favorite sculptures, a 5 headed snake in the grass. The colored tiles on this one were beautiful.

The skull. Another favorite, my sister's fave by far. See Jack next to it? This thing was gigantic, with a bench inside and everything. It reminded me of the sugar skulls used to celebrate El Dia De Los Muertes. The ceiling in the skull. Very cool.

No Gingivitis here.
Brooke eating in the skull. She didn't stop eating lunch that day for about an hour. Funny.
I thought getting 3 kids together was hard?. 4 was even harder. This piece, creatively titled "Chair" was inside the greenhouse.

Look closer. Maddie's in there somewhere.
Maddie reading in the children's garden. She may look like her dad, but maybe she'll have my passion for books!
At the indoor children's area. The boys are checking out "what's inside a seed". The answer is really, not much. Some roots and stuff.

See Jack pointing? The boys thought this was a maze, like in the wizard of oz, but him next to it gives you a sense of the size of the structure.

We had fun that day. I love exposing the kids to art and whatever I can while they're so little. Isn't it supposed to enhance their brain power? Well, THAT remains to be seen, but at least they've had the exposure.