In Connecticut: Wadsworth Atheneum Second Saturdays

It was one of those perfectly perfect summer weekends.

The super moon was extra "super" - the super-est of the year, so they say!

We ate outside in clear, cool weather Friday night. Then rose early Saturday morning in search of ripe blackberries.

Half-ripe rubies and shiny onyx - the berries clustered in abundance for easy picking at Rose's Berry Farm in South Glastonbury (a favorite pick-your-own spot of ours for the great playground, tractor rides and farm store!). It's just surprising the boys didn't end up with more stains on their clothing.

With four pints of ripe fruit in hand, we headed into the city of Hartford to the Wadsworth Atheneum, our local art gallery for Second Saturdays. This family-geared event allows kids and their parents to come enjoy the galleries, take a docent-led story-time tour, and create themed artwork.

This Saturday we gazed at Ruben Ochoa's Land and Sky paintings using "real dirt" as our son said (yes, it was!), and household paint to create spare yet striking landscapes.

The boys worked with tissue and sandpaper to create their own land and sky collages (we did too!). They threw coins in the marble fountain, and walked up spiral staircases.

The docent-led tour focused on several landscape paintings with prominent skyscapes and children's stories related to each one: Sir George and the Dragan + Puff the Magic Dragon, and so forth.

Second Saturdays happens monthly at The Wadsworth and is free! Every month there's a new artist and theme, and typically in December they have a huge Christmas tree exhibit that is wonderful!

We ended our day of local visitations by stopping off at the new coffee shop in Glastonbury: Down to Earth Coffee House. We stopped by to support Wendy Paine Miller's book signing event for The Flower Girls, her latest novel (remember her awesome guest post here on my site in the spring? You can read it here!).

Phew! That was a long morning but we love taking the kids to local places and spaces so it was totally worthwhile!