caterpillars and music

We had a perfect day visiting the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA. They were having a big birthday bash for the Very Hungry Caterpillar's 40th birthday and the author Eric Carle's 80th birthday. The event was a perfect blend for us, just enough interactive stuff for Aiden (art, puzzles, story time) and great little galleries for us to peek around. They had a special exhibit of Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton (which is one of Aiden's PopPop's favorites). Aiden asked to search the galleries for horses (just like we did at the Chicago Art Museum - I think he actually remembered that!).

I found out about this event through this kidoinfo website that I really like, and I was looking forward to it all week. I told Aiden that we were going to meet Curious George when we woke up this morning and he was really excited - His direct quote is "woooah!" We were some of the first few people that arrived to the museum this morning and there was a buzz, but no George yet. We were in their "Great Hall" waiting and looking at the illustrator art exhibit. All of a sudden I heard a staff member's radio buzz that "Curious George has entered the building" - oh, he was all of a sudden parading towards us. Aiden's hands went to his mouth and I suddenly realized he was shaking. I couldn't tell if it was excitement or terror. The first verdict was terror, and we were pretty close to just bolting. But Aiden definitely wanted to keep watching what George was up to and a few minutes later he wanted to give him a high five and then he even wanted to hug him - I think he overcame his fear of the santa/easter bunny types at least a little bit...

The part I was most excited about in the event ad was the absolute highlight. It was the performance by kiddo/big kid folk musician Elizabeth Mitchell (one of Aiden's -uhum, maybe mama's - favorite birthday presents was her You Are My Sunshine cd - The P Family rocks.)

She held Aiden's attention and he couldn't stop bouncing and clapping along. He did lose it a bit about half way through because he didn't want to stay in his seat and really just wanted to help play the guitar with her. He eventually came back to dance a bit, and at the end you were allowed to hang out with her on stage. I mentioned to her that he really was most interested in playing her guitar because we let him play at home, and she brought it over to let him play. Wowsers, here is Elizabeth Mitchell helping Aiden play a little diddy on her guitar. She rocks.

AB plays with Elizabeth Mitchell from LB on Vimeo.

I have to say I was a bit star struck (that tends to happen easily to me), but it was easy to talk with her. We listened to her You Are My Little Bird cd the entire trip home.

Here are all the the unedited photos from today: http://flickr.com/gp/brennans/D435ve