A Day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

We left are house early to navigate our way through the subway's in time for story time at the Met.  Sometimes plans just don't work out, we arrived 15 minutes early and Nolan's Library was already packed to capacity.  The girls were disappointed and honestly I had no clue what to do or where to start in this ginormous building.  I had packed sketch pads and colored pencils thinking they may like to use their own abilities to recreate the art but as I looked up at the space around me I felt completely overwhelmed as to were to even begin.

I had no idea how the girls would do or if we would last 30 minutes but I decided to spend the little extra money and get them their own auto tour and once we were all situated we set off on a treasure hunt.  Every time one of the girls found a code to enter into their head sets they would say, "I found treasure," and then we would enter the codes and dive into learning about the art.

We actually went on a search to find some Degas and Monet but the harder we looked the more lost we became.  We ended up giving up on our search and decided to just roam around and go with the flow.   As I looked around I couldn't help but be charmed by the museum itself, It reminded me of the estates in a Jane Austin novel and I wondered if this is what she had in mind when she wrote about Mr. Darcy's Pemberley. 

 Some of our favorite exhibits where some furniture pieces from Louie the xiv, the hall of rare musical instruments including some of the very first piano forte made during the early 1700's,  the department of arms and armor and the period rooms from different era's.

Estee in the department of arms and armor

I think the girls favorite section was the department of Egyptian Art.  Coppelia is a bit obsessed biblical stories and some of her favorites are the ones of Moses.   If you ever visit my children you may be asked to play the 10 plagues of Egypt, this has become a common act out in our home.  The girls entered the room, saw a giant statue and began calling it the Pharaoh and Moses room.  

At one point Coppelia asked me to read what one of the plaques said and I began reading about Ramesses and she says, "Hey Ramesses is Moses's brother."  I'm not sure if we were reading about the same one there were a few Ramesses, but I was impressed none the less that she knew that.  At another point we walked into a room where a tour guide was giving a speech and with the mention of Moses the girls ran straight to the tour guide and finished the lecture.  

We ended up spending 5.5 hours at the museum and we would have stayed longer if it hadn't been for the fact both of their audio tour's batteries had died.  It was a wonderful day and place we will have to revisit on our next trip to NYC.  Maybe next time will catch the story time but even if we don't make it I know that we will be able to spend a day finding and learning about all sorts of artistic treasures.