We took the family on a travel adventure today. We headed to Amherst, MA to the Eric Carle Museum. I received a family pass to come up and check out the Mo Willems exhibit that is on display until February 24, 2014. I promoted this exhibit back in May and that was when we were first introduced to Mo’s character, The Pigeon. Eva fell in love with the silly story of a pigeon that wants to drive a bus, stay up late and eat a hot dog in peace. I was so surprised that we had not heard about Mo earlier than that. I’m so glad that we are now aware of him.

When we arrived at the Eric Carle Museum, Eva had a fun time with the Very Hungry Caterpillar VW Bug. She even helped make a little video in front of it for our upcoming video about our trip.

Before we went to the museum we stopped at Atkins Farms to pick up our lunch. they make sandwiches there and have a ton of other items. Some of the best looking produce I’ve ever seen was there as well. We picked up three sandwiches and a couple of slices of ham for Andrew. Then we took the lunch to the museum and ate it in the cafeteria. It does not serve food, or at least it didn’t today, but it is a space where you can bring your own and enjoy. Lunch was delicious.

After lunch we enjoyed a series of cartoons that were made from Eric Carle’s work. There was the Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Quiet Cricket, Papa, Please Get The Moon For Me and a few more. These were very nice and Eva loved them but Andrew is just a little, too little to sit still for anything other than a Daniel Tiger episode. He’s just so squirmy. Except when he goes off on his own and gets focused on something. We did spend a lot of time trying to keep him occupied. Luckily there are some things for toddlers to do while at the museum.

We explored the galleries after the films and they were very nice. I loved learning about both Eric Carle and Mo Willems. I’m fascinated by people who make children’t books. Where they get their inspiration, what motivates them to create characters and more. I knew very little about either artist before visiting the museum. I only knew them from their books. I didn’t know much about their lives and am so glad that I got that insight from this trip. I also learned much about Eric Carle’s style of creation. I didn’t know that he painted on tissue paper. I didn’t know how he made all of those amazing animals in his books, gave them such depth and color.

Each day there is a story time in the library. Allison took the kids to that while I walked around the rest of the Eric Carle gallery. Eva is a very active participator during story time. I’m hoping that she doesn’t get herself into too much trouble in school. She tends to speak out a lot and offer her own opinions of the story. She was quite active today. They had some colored pencils and papers there for kids to make their own Pigeon comic strips. Eva made a funny one about the Pigeon and a cow.

We also visited the studio where kids could make doodle flip books. Eva decided instead that she would make her own Pigeon book. She was inspired by a little film about Mo Willems and he mentioned that kids all over write Pigeon books and then send them over to him. She wants to write one as well.

We left the museum and drove another hour up to the Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in the Cadillac XTS. We got into our hotel room and unpacked. Then we headed up to John Harvard’s for dinner. It was a very nice meal. They have some amazing onion rings.

We did hit the Eric Carle Museum before we left and we picked up some nice things for for the house. We got Eva a huge Pigeon activity book. We also got Eric Carle letters to spell out Andrew’s name for his room.