Strong National Museum of Play 
On Saturday we went with Steve's brother-in-law James and his sister Shelley to the Museum of Play. Shel has three kids: two boys and one daughter named Madeleine (above). When I walked in the museum the first thing I noticed was the huge quotes on the wall and the feeling of "We are going to have a great time!" "Almost all creativity involves purposeful play." Abraham Maslow "Life must be lived as play." -Plato 
Jeff's favorite part of the whole day was finding original drafts by Tolkien Jeff fills notebooks with his own "chapter stories" but gets discouraged when he has to erase and re-write portions, so we were both very happy to find that Tolkien scribbled and fixed sentences all over his paper. Tolkien has such unique handwriting it looks like he dipped his pen in ink which makes me think of a heavy wooden desk with candle light and the smell of pipe tobacco and the sound of tip scratching on the paper. 
They had oversized chess sets and Connect Four. "I am having a so much fun time!" -Coco
One room had a wall that would light up to your movements, that's Coco in the middle of me doing her best dance moves. 
Here is the whole group of cousins sitting on the steps to Sesame Street, we were on the way to see the giant from Jack and the beanstalk and no one wanted to stop here, although Madeleine who is called Magpie seems to be getting some amount of delight from it. Ethan in orange is just cool, he is the type of kid that does not have to try, he is just cool, Chloe is making a fish face, Simon has had enough and is on his way to see the giant, Jeff is distracted and Eti is just busy being Eti. "Deep meaning lies often in childish play." -- Jahann Friedrich Van Schiller 
Simon is Chloe's age. Doesn't he look like a clone of Jeff?
"Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play." -Henri Matisse 
I wish this was for sale, Steve and I both fell in love with it, and have been discussing ways to make one.  Green house The last time I went the library I took only Coco and found her a book on doll houses, most of them were Victorian houses from the 1800s and she sat there and studied every picture. So here we were just a few days later looking at so many real live doll houses. My Grandfather made one for my Aunt and when I was growing up it was still at Grandma's house, the little lights worked and everything. They're so magical, these miniature worlds, they set the imagination on fire. 
"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play then in a year of conversation." -Plato 
Right before we left, I rounded the corner and found them like this, all completely spent, and how perfect to collapse right under the sign. We picked up some Ethiopian food on the way home which I have never had before. | 
i shall add this museum to my list of places to visit!