"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls."

Yesterday was one of the rare days where me and Opeie didn't need to be anywhere to pick the troops up in the afternoon. Seth was off to his friend Williams for tea and Mrs M had a business meeting so we took full advantage and drove to Wolverhampton. I fancied pottering around some new charity shops and Opeie wanted to go to the art gallery so we wrapped up warm and ventured out.

We mooched through the charity shops when we got there and I found a few books I'm going to use for a craft idea we're going to be starting soon, then we made our way towards the gallery. We went a few months back to see the Ron Mueck exhibition and I was hoping there was something interesting on. Opeie made a bee line for his favourite spot as soon as we got there and sat down ready to create.

Opeie loves the 'build your own magnetic sculpture' and anything that you can look through or listen to. He's very enthusiastic and wants to give everything a try and he loves investigating.

The Ron Mueck exhibition had been replaced by a photography exhibition which wasn't really my thing but it was great seeing all the old fashioned cameras and old photos. Opeie started blowing a raspberry everytime I got the camera out which was funny.

Opeie was soon off and eager to look for some more headphones.

Once he had managed to listen to every hearing device he could find he wanted to dress up. Even though the boys have tried on the clothes many many times they still get as excited (I'd love to be in their shoes for the day)

We had planned to have lunch at the cafe there but the staff in there were so rude that we decided to leave. Sadly when you mention gluton, dairy free in some places they seem to panic. The woman in the cafe offered us a plain potato? And then bluntly said 'we can't help you'. So we headed over to Costa Coffee for a drink, Mrs M had filled my bag up with things for Opeie so he was sorted. We sat upstairs in the coffee shop and had an hour of people watching while we read the books we had bought.

I love just hanging out with Opeie, he is the best company and  really makes me laugh. After a while he started to look tired so we made our way back to the car and set off for home. A lovely few hours spent with one of my three favourite people.

"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. "

Were doing our best to make the most of the school holiday and today we took the boys to Wolverhampton art gallery. A couple of days this week they have activities on for families. The event took part within the David Hancock exhibition: Cosplay. So in keeping with the theme of the exhibition the gallery had laid out a great selection of fancy dress items.

There was also some manga themed images for the boys to colour in, which they both had lots of fun doing and a big bowl of multi coloured plasticine for making models, Seth made a selection of monsters and robots and i made a vampire.

 

 The boys enjoyed the activities they had on but were both more interested in looking round the rest of the gallery. Seth loves taking in everything and Opeie is happy following his big brother around. They are so cute when they are together.

We didn't spend ages there, within a couple of hours we were all getting a little hungry so we headed back to the car to eat our 'car picnic' that Mrs M had lovingly prepared. Half term seem's to be flying by but we've still got some fun things planned for the rest of the week. Tomorrow Seth's friends William and Matthew are coming out with us so visit us again tomorrow to see what we get up to.

 
 

"I love any and all situations where you celebrate creativity."

What a great day we had today, were so lucky to have Seth in our lives. Today Seth decided that he wanted to go to 'The Big Draw' for his Birthday, put on by Wolverhampton art gallery. The big draw is basically an event to bring people together young and old to draw. This year the theme was 2012 and what's happened. There was a very long table and a huge roll of paper and everyone sat down to draw. Mrs M wanted to write the post so here she is...

Hello It's Mrs M.

Today was a very, very special day. It was our baby boys 6th birthday! I am grateful every single day for Seth. He is the most caring, thoughtful, kind and lovely boy I have ever met.... It's not just me who's biased, it speaks for it's self when Seth's teacher welled up, and had tears in her eyes talking about Seth at parents evening last month.  ( She loves him to bits! )

So, We decided after talking at length that we wanted to do something fun for Seth on his Birthday... we asked Seth what he wanted to do on his birthday and he said that he wanted to go to Wolverhampton Art Gallery to the BIG DRAW 2012. I think this was mainly because he'd looked at the photos of Opeie peering into the ceramic multicolour drawers....

We'd told Seth the BIG DRAW was happening on his birthday, because we'd been to the Art gallery a few weeks before. So off we went.... 

Seth loved looking into all the different shaped, textured drawers, not knowing what to expect.... he was so excited which was lovely, as they were filled with the simpleist of items, coffee beans, rocks , shells, lavender bags, fabric, seeds, grain, he loved it all!!!

Seth also loved the horse that Opeie loves, it was very educational, he was asking me what the horse was made from, and why the wool didn't look like the weaved yarn you find in sweaters. . He  loved the 1800's era room mostly, listening to all the different stories on the head phones, and opening all the different drawers again, filled with objects from the 1800s.

I think everyone loves dressing up, don't they? Putting on an item, changing your identity for a few minutes.... Seth certainly loves dressing up, and wanted to try all the different hats, wigs and masks on... which I loved photographing!

( Apparently he was listening to a story about a Doctor in the 1800's )

When Seth opened this drawer in one of the exhibitions, he was so excited as he shouted "LOOK!!! This doll looks just like me!!!" We found that very very sweet indeed!!!

 

The dressing up didn't stop with the wigs! The boys had fun dressing up as 'old fashioned James Bonds' - everything is about James Bond with Seth at the moment!!! 

After we'd walked round the gallery for an hour we decided to join the BIG DRAW - the theme this year was 'Things that have happened throughout the year........... and it was so much fun, I for one could have stayed there all day, but I wasn't feeling well and Opeie and Seth needed to have some lunch.... so we did some drawing and headed home!