Eric Carle Museum

For the last few weekends we have made the effort to do little day trips in an attempt to explore our new country. We used to do these types of trips frequently when we lived in Switzerland. We would even go to Italy (Aoste) for the day! Sigh.....those were the days.

Well, we no longer can go to Italy, but we can go to Amherst, MA! *grin*

We just purchased a book a few weeks ago called, "Amazing Places To Take Your Kids". In that book we found the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. So, despite a lengthy drive of about an hour and forty five minutes, we made our way there.

For those of you who may not know, Eric Carle is a famous children's author. He has written many children's books, most famously, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.


The very first thing we saw when we pulled into the parking lot was this VW car....painted to look like it had hopped right off the pages of the story book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

The museum features an Art Studio, where they have craft supplies set up for the kids. The day that we visited the kids were making collages using positive and negative shapes. In the photo above, you can see Bekah working away. She loves anything like this....probably because I don't let her do it very much at home. I have a low tolerance for messes. I feel guilty about that. I will feel better once she starts preschool in September because I know she will get to do crafts there!

Bekah's creation.

The other very popular thing with Rebekah right now is any kind of animal. In the studio they had a corner with some toys. Look at what Rebekah found, immediately!

Noah spent a lot of time building towers with these cups.....as many different ways as he could think of!

Contemplation......

The kiddies pose while wearing the tattoos they received at the museum. Those things are still on them after a good soak in the tub! I don't know if they will ever come off.....

The other great thing about our visit to the museum was that it took place during Children's Literacy Week. In order to help celebrate, the museum sent the kids on a gallery hunt. Once they completed their tasks, the received a free copy of The Tiny Seed. It worked out well because that was one of the few Carle books that we don't have!

Thanks for popping by!