DAM! That's Good Art!

We left the Capitol with intentions to go home, but got distracted by things on the way and stayed longer.

The kids happily picked up pigeon feathers, then saw this man feeding the birds bread. I cringed at the thought that just a few feet away was a group of homeless people, and here this man had 3 loaves of french bread for the pigeons who shouldn't be eating bread anyway!

Walking back to the van the way we had come, we saw dozens of food trucks setting up for the lunch hour, and among them was Jessie's Smokin' NOLA! I had been wanting to eat here for a year, but never caught it when we came to Denver.

I told the kids we were eating this for lunch no matter what. They were on board once I explained that this food was the same food in Princess and the Frog, "Hey, everybody! I made gumbo!" Katie got excited with me.

They weren't open yet, so we had to kill time. We stepped into the Denver Art Museum (DAM) and found that kids are free, so I bought a ticket for myself. There was an interactive exhibit for clothes design, a branch from an exhibit of clothes elsewhere in the museum. It was so fun! There were light boxes for tracing and sketching, a video playing about how the costumes for Game of Thrones were designed, and mannequins for pinning fabric to create.

We all took turns using one mannequin. One person would be the designer while the rest of us would assist.

Katie working on her dress.

Tommy went for a Western style, complete with disks for shiny accents.

Of course, we had to pose the mannequin and Tommy with the Western backdrop.

The back view with some fringe.

Dancy's fit her personality...just kind of all over the place!

We took a break for lunch before returning to walk through one art exhibit. We had muffaletta and gumbo. Katie enjoyed the gumbo, I enjoyed both, and Tommy and Dancy were just good sports about it. While we ate, I watched a young man with a backpack walk by us three times, looking at the food trucks. He looked like he'd be a college student and I got the feeling that I should offer to buy his lunch. I did, and he was very grateful. As I was explaining to the kids how we need to listen to those feelings of inspiration, he walked by again, this time to give a huge smile and another thank you. Tommy noted how happy the man was that I had helped him. Tommy has my caretaker personality. 

When we had all finished eating lunch, there was still about half left of the muffaletta and gumbo. Since we were planning on returning to the art museum, we couldn't take the leftovers with us, so I told the kids we'd go find some homeless people to give them to. We couldn't just throw our food away. I gave Tommy the task of picking who we'd give the food to. I told him to let his spirit guide him. If he felt uncomfortable with someone, don't approach them. If he felt comfortable and safe, go to those people. We walked around for a few minutes until he found people that looked homeless and not just enjoying the outdoors, and that he felt safe with. We asked if they'd like our leftovers and they gladly and hungrily accepted the food. Walking away, Tommy said that made him feel good to give food to those people. My heart was happy with the overall lesson my kids got that day.

Colorado Capitol Building

After exploring the streets of downtown Denver, we made our way to the Capitol, which thankfully opened an hour sooner than I expected. It opened at 9:00, despite the website saying 10:00.

One mile above sea level. I love my goofs.

{Tommy, Katie, and Dancy}

Inside the building: A quilt depicting notable women of Colorado's history.

The dome

The grand staircase. The kids thought that was cool because it was like a palace. The lower wall is made of rose onyx. Our tour guide made sure to point out all the animals and people that she's seen in the marbling. Because apparently that's significant to point out. We, the tour group, also had a huge debate here about why there would be three different measured points for 1 mile above sea level. Guys, sea level changes. This isn't that complex.

I pity the people who have to polish the brass daily.

Murals depicting various parts of Colorado history.

Molly Brown!

Beautiful architecture.

Katie, naturally, got all excited over the chandelier!!

This is where either the senate or the legislature meet. I forget.

Another congressional room with another chandelier. This room had a lot of tiling added to the walls to give better acoustics for speakers to be heard throughout.

Very ornate.

I had a hard time keeping a straight face when we walked into this room. I just heard Theodore "Ted" Logan saying, "Welcome to the Hall of Presidents!" as he fanned his arm out.

And then we trekked up all the stairs to the balcony outside.

{Dancy, Megan, Katie}

Someone took a picture of us with the background, but Dancy didn't like that I had her sitting on the railing.

So I sat down and we finally got a good picture of all of us.

Exploring Denver

Tuesday morning after Tommy's birthday, I woke up early with Tommy, Katie and Dancy to go to the Denver Mint. Unfortunately, we didn't wake up quite early enough because when we got to the line at 6:45, they told us the tours were full for the day. Maybe we'll have better luck getting in during the school year now.

I was planning on taking the kids to the Capitol after the Mint, but it didn't open for another 2 hours. At 7 am what do you do? We walked around looking at art and architecture, and talked to some homeless guys.

I saw this facility and immediately heard the 24 beeping in my head.

We played on the musical rocking chairs outside the art museum.

Dancy felt a little uncertain about it.

Katie thought this broom and dust pan were soooo coooool!

Landscaping art.

Blue trees! Painted blue trees!

Can you see the bubbles? There must have been a bubble machine on the roof of this building. They filled the air!

Tommy loved the roof on this building.

Katie thought these looked like the monoliths from Brave. Tommy thought dolphins.

Katie and Tom chased a rabbit by the Native American tribute art.

It's always entertaining to say, "Strike a pose!"

I liked the Roman pillars.

Seeing all the homeless people, I decided to make it a learning experience. We had recently read the Kit American Girl series, which takes place in 1934. Kit went to a hobo camp with a friend where she learned that the people there aren't lazy or dangerous like many people thought at the time. Rather, they were just down on their luck with the Depression and unable to find work. I chose poorly with the first homeless man we approached. He wasn't all right in the head. We politely left him and talked to another man, Ben. Ben is not unemployed, but at $16 an hour, can't afford the high rent prices in Denver. He had had a roommate, but left because the roommate was taking advantage of him. He told the kids to stay in school, study hard, and get a good job that will provide for their needs.

{Tommy, Ben, Katie (with her Addy hat!), and Dancy}

We learned from experience the same thing Kit learned when she went to the hobo camp: homeless people aren't lazy or dangerous. There may be some that are, but that can be said for humans in general and is nothing specific to being homeless.

Seven-year-old Tom

Oh, the joys of having a summer birthday! Tommy's birthday and party with friends always stress me out because we're either out of town right before it or right after. And it's always hard to get a well-attended party because friends travel, too. This year, we were travelling ON Tommy's birthday.

Shad took an extra hour off for lunch that day so that he'd have time to take Tommy out to lunch for his birthday. Tommy opened presents, then we loaded up in the van and I drove to Colorado with the kids.

Look at Shad and Tommy matching!

{Tommy, Thora, Katie, Dancy, Samson}

The girls helped me wrap the presents while Tommy was out to lunch. Blankets and towels are the wrapping style Shad started with his family years and years ago. The only break out the real stuff for Christmas.

Tommy's interest in outdoor activities has been growing and growing, so we gave him a camping chair, fishing pole and kit, water bottle with a carrying strap, pocket knife, and lantern set. Our gun store friend, Shane, gave Tommy an old compass.

When we arrived at Grandma's house (my mom), Thora was disappointed that Lori (my sister) was at work and not there to pamper her, but she made use of the time by basking in Lori's room.

And squealing on Lori's bed with all things fuzzy and fluffy and unicorn.

Samson played in the cat's water bowl. Note that Katie is wearing her Addy hat that was explained in my previous post.

{Samson and Katie}

In the afternoon while the little two napped, I took the big 3 to visit our favorite funeral director! My sister Becky was having a slow day at Newcomer Funeral home. She showed us the planning room and we learned about caskets, headstones, and options for ashes. Becky also fingerprinted the kids!

{Tommy, Dancy, Becky, Katie with the crazy eyes}

My brother Jake and his wife Amber came over to hang out. Jake and I were talking about Lego minifigs, so that's what he was doing on his phone.

I was supposed to make Tommy a Lego minifig cake with the silicon pan we bought at the Lego store in St. Louis in April, but I forgot to pack it. Luckily, I remembered that I had this Lego brick cake pin on Pinterest, so I was still able to get Tommy some Lego-ness on his birthday. Amber helped assemble everything. We didn't bother frosting the sides. I'm not a masochist.

Tommy was pretty happy with the alternate cake.

Shad's sister Ruth came to visit, too! Her boyfriend Coltyn came, too, exhausted and falling asleep everywhere after a long day of roofing.

One good thing about frosting in a can: dairy-free! Sam was allowed to eat it!