Wild Things

One of Jonah's favorite books is Where the Wild Things Are. He says its scary as he picks it up but still asks for it again and again. It's probably our favorite book we don't own but as the library has multiple copies, that doesn't stop us from having it in our house about once a month and if he was having any sort of birthday party (he's not, just us four, cake and presents) I'd probably do a Wild Thing theme. So when we heard our city was having a Maurice Sendak exhibit, we knew we had to check it out.

We had never been to the big fancy library in the city but it was worth the trip.

We went through the official exhibit upstairs where we explored Max's room and his boat.

Then while Craig and the kids did some interactive art, I was able to actually look at and read the exhibit. It was really fascination to see his original art work, including some art from his teen years. He was struggling with public speaking so his teacher let him earn his grade by making a pictorial essay on Macbeth in pictures instead of giving a speech. My first thought when I saw it was - narration! I'm kicking myself now that I didn't take a photo of the pictures but I wasn't sure if we were supposed to....should have taken first and asked later I guess. Or at least asked ;-)

We then headed downstairs to the children's area to meet the real Wild Things. And by "real" I mean, people in these homemade sorta Wild Thing look-alike creepy costumes. There was more than one toddler freaking out/crying as well as multiple parents taking pictures with and even hugging the Wild Things in an attempt to show their children they weren't scary.

Craig included. But Jonah was not convinced. 

This is not a very flattering pictures of me but I can't help but include it because Jonah's face is awesome. The Wild Thing wanna-bes had just left the area and he kept asking "Are they gone? Are they not coming back?" and once he was convinced it was safe....

Then he could play!

They also had a green screen where you could put yourself into the forest. The kids were a little confused at first but I think the results are cute, despite Jonah's lack of a bottom half.

Overall, I think it was a hit. They both got temporary tattoos of a Wild Thing and Jonah told pretty much everyone he ran into at church about the trip as he showed it off. I'm not sure they could understand much of it other than "Wild Things! Scary!" but it definitely made an impression.