Olympic Park

I had been wanting to take the girls out with the cherry blossom in full bloom and get some good pictures of them. Trust me, this is far more challenging that it sounds! We decided to head out a small sculpture park not far from our house. It's an older park, hence not as popular anymore which made it nice and quiet for our loud brood. The sculptures varied from cool, to weird, to nude, to cheeseburgers. 

My children were, of course, enamored with the sculptures. Particularly the cheeseburger. Here in enters a lesson in cultural differences. . .  As Americans we regard sculptures as sacred pieces of art. They are to be admired, looked at, contemplated, at times photographed. Sculptures are never, never to be touched. I mean really, can you imagine me letting my kids touch and jump all over the sculptures at the Hirshhorn in DC? I think not. Korean, though, see sculptures as something that children should enjoy from. . . . well let's just say all angles. The result is Korean kids (and adults) that climb all over the sculptures. They sit on them, pose on them, stand on them, etc. This naturally horrifies me. And this naturally intrigues my children. Trying to teach them how to behave (at least how I define behave) in the face of so many others doing exactly what I don't want them doing is a challenge. I hear lots of "but that kid is doing it" and my response is always the same, "I don't care, we DO NOT do that." Even if it's the norm here, it horrifies the art lover in me. And really, if they are allowed to do it here how do I keep them off those sculpture gardens in the US? And being escorted out by a security guard is not quite what I had in mind. . . . Good life lessons here. And my kids are learning, nothing gets mom crazier than climbing in the art. 

We walked around, enjoyed the sculptures, and the cherry blossoms. The girls loved running through the grass and trees and having stick fights. And Madeline showed no dislike for the grass that way her sisters did at this age. They would both sit and gingerly raise as many limbs as they could to minimize grass contact. Madeline just took off crawling, enjoying her freedom. I experimented a lot with the pictures- different light, poses, etc. Not a ton of great pictures, but it was fun and a great learning experience. I even let Emily and Hannah take some pictures at the end. . .  with my nice camera. We are so loving spring!

This just cracked me up. Totally of her own design. . . . 

The infamous cheeseburger. I didn't even like them sitting where they were. .  . and they wanted to sit on top of the bun!

Sorry it's a bit blurry, but I love her expression. So Hannah.

Look at the that crazy hair! And the teeth. So big!

Lovin' the wide open space. Still a crawler, no interest is walking.

Barely starting to have interest in walking holding hands. Crawling is just so much faster!

Best little buddies.

Don't worry. . .  this one was designed for sitting next to. I told them to go sit on the bench and pretend to read his book with him. Hannah sits right down and says loudly (as she says everything) "Hey man, teach me to read Korean!"

So hard to get all five of us looking at the same time.