Goreme Open Air Museum - Kapadokya

The previous post in this trip series is here..

After watching the balloons rise and having a nice breakfast we were picked up at the lobby by our tourguide and driver for a Viator all day tour of Kapadokya. She was a very nice person trying to manage the time between giving us history and trying to have fun. She did an excellent job.

To thank her we participated in her promo reels!

Our first stop in the tour was the Goreme open air museum. This place has some amazing history during post crucifixion times when Christianity was a forbidden religion. The cave monastries and the paintings inside that date back to 700 AD were amazing. Unfortunately no pictures in most places allowed, understandably as the flash might damage what is left of the pigments.

Here are the pictures.. the first one was by Jr. who was trying to get the sun flare to land on us.. I got to teach her geometrical optics during this process! She was temporarily impressed with daddy for a good 30 seconds.

There is also a lot of history on St. George here that I found fascinating.

and here is the short video highlight reel..

On the whole this was an amazing place. It was good we started the trip here because by the time we got out to the exit, temperatures were already in the 90’s! We were glad to get back to air conditioning for a while..

Our walkway aka Art Gallery

Most of the artistic creations of Jr. and the little one from their school work are displayed on the doors of our cabinets in the garage. Granted it is not organized neatly but it is a treat to pull into the garage and stare at some of their early work. Brings back memories and makes you forget long work days at the same time. 

We do update the garage drawings on a rotational basis, once a quarter or when daddy feels like it.

The inside of the house is another matter. The walkway is reserved for work they do in art class and we are adding to the collection every month or so. 

Here is the little one's latest work .. 

and our walkway as of today

The display helps motivate them because everytime someone visits our house, they go to the walkway to see the additions and ask the kids questions and encourage their work. 

In the process, I am also learning how to improve the "display" by spacing things out right on the walls and re-arranging pictures in portrait vs. landscape format etc.

They do have other works on glass and on "rocks". They are both painting rocks now. Those are going to be tricky to display. Planning to buy little ledges that go on the wall and put the rocks on top. 

That will have to wait for a few weeks!

Art makes an entry

Decided to buy the kids some art material (Drawing/Painting paper), paints, color pencils (the whole thing was less than 10 bucks) and let them have some fun this week.

It has been a busy week with me going out of control trying to juggle work, sinus problems and the kids.

The materials were a good idea. As an added bonus we are now decorating the shelves in the garage with the kid's art work. Kind of their own showcase to show their friends and visitors how they are doing.

We never realized how good the little one was with a paint brush. As a rule of thumb two things have been banned inside the house for as long as we can remember

a. water/oil paints
b. china clay (playdough)

for fear of ruining the carpet or floor.

That ban has been lifted now. The kids will be allowed to paint from now on instead of just draw with crayons.

The parenting learning goes on..

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