Since our Mosaic Cultures International passes were good for two days, we brought the kids back on the second day in the morning to check out the Insectarium then Jason and I came back in the evening to check out the garden of lights in the chinese garden. It was nice to get out just the two of us especially since I don't foresee it happening all that often with how expensive babysitters are, how busy Jason is and how pricey things to do here are. But for now, I am still enjoying the pleasant memory of getting to go to the Garden of Lights together. It was lovely. We even got to check out the Japanese exhibit which was so cool. I love the Japanese culture. It's beautiful.
Chinese Garden of Lights:
The chinese Scholar rocks were really cool. I seem to think there was another name for them but I cannot seem to remember it. Basically, they are naturally occurring rocks that look like something and are gifted to scholars (or to a hostess...or something like that...I really should have read the information better in here but it was pretty packed).
moon cakes. Jason was pretty over-the-moon (hehe) about these.
Love, love, love the architectural lines.
After I took this photo I turned around and promptly walked smack dab into some man. We're talking a full head on collision. It was pretty dark in those gardens I tell ya. Good thing too, it helped to hide my embarrassment.
It was pretty neat that our pass for the Mosaic Cultures International was good for 2 days and also covered the Insectarium and the Garden of Lights in the Chinese garden. So when we were able to we took our second day and took the kids to check out the insectarium. It took us a little while to get to the insectarium because Milayla was so excited about seeing some of the Mosaic Cultures sculptures a second time that we stopped to take a few pictures. She wanted her picture with every single one. It was so sweet. Though, she asks for a picture, pulls me into the picture and then will smile at me. Perhaps I am too often the one behind the camera. I do like being the one to see those smiles though!
Once we were finally inside the insectarium the kids were hooked. It was pretty cool. And I just have to say that I hope I never encounter any of those spiders the size of a bird. Seriously. Not cool.
The kids got to watch ants at work, hear insect sounds, learn interesting facts and find out all about how bugs can camouflage.
Pretty sure this was the perfect outing for two incredibly inquisitive kids. Loved it.
When we first arrived life was crazy. We saw way too many apartments and had way too much paperwork to do. Well, before that all settled down we decided to take a break and go check out the Mosaic Cultures International at the Botanical Gardens because, by the time everything did settle down, the exhibit would be over and it had come so highly recommended that we didn't want to miss it. So we took the kids on the metro - which they loved. And headed to the exhibit and we're so glad that we did. It was incredible.
I love the way that both kids were holding on to the poles on the metro.
We knew we were in for a special treat when this small display was what greeted us at the gates of the gardens.
Word of advice; family pictures in front of a cool water fountain with two kids who are over-the-moon excited about getting inside the gardens is not a very wise idea. The result; having the kids look elsewhere.
The tallest leaning tower in the world belongs to Montreal :)
No idea how it happened, but took a wrong turn and ended up in a really cool greenhouse. The kids were a little worried to walk under everything.
Oh man. This photo makes me smile. Milayla wanted a picture on her own and is patiently waiting, Atticus is reading the map because he is concerned that we missed a sculpture and Jason is all smiles for the picture. Pretty classic.
Milayla's picture. So happy!
Seriously, these entries were incredible. Just check out this dog that was taller than me!
Or the horses!
This one had an incredible background story to it that made it one of my favorites. It was based on a true story about a girl in China named Xu Xiujuan who loved cranes since she was a little girl. So after she finished her university studies she want to a reserve to care for the red-crowned cranes. One day an injured crane fell into a swamp and she went in to save the crane. The crane was rescued but the girl never returned again to the surface. There is a song that was written about her that they had playing at this sculpture and it was beautiful.
Here is a video of the song:
We all loved taking a little play break at the playground there. The slides went down a giant ant hill and there was a big spider web to crawl on. So creative. Loved it.
Then it was off to explore more sculptures.
Atticus really liked this one made out of apples. Pretty creative!
This one was easily a favorite to all the visitors. It's Mother Earth and it's beautiful!
It was Milayla's favorite.
It was so colorful and graceful!
It was really cool to see how the sculptures were worked into the naturual scenery of the gardens.
The bird tree was incredible. I wish I had of gotten a better picture of it. But we all loved gawking at it regardless.
This one made us all think of The Netherlands - of course.
So close to being done and the kiddos were getting pretty tired! So were we. The exhibit was huge!
The last one we saw before heading back to the metro.
Unfortunately, I seem to be missing the picture of Jason's favorite sculpture; it was a really neat tree with a phoenix flying off of it. Just know that it was really cool and really impressive :).
Well, it was definitely worth the trip and I'm so glad that we went! We spent some time together, learned a lot and enjoyed the views and sunshine.
