Book Festival and Strong Museum

I was in Rochester this weekend for Emma's gymnastic meet (she was wonderful - her bar routine alone was worth the price of admission), and we had a little time on Saturday to be out and about.

We stopped by the Rochester Children's Book Festival at Monroe Community College. There were a lot of activities and a bunch of children's book authors and illustrators. A highlight was a workshop with Scott Gibala Broxholm, the author of _ScaryFright, Are You All Right?_. He demonstrated how to draw scary things using common shapes. Emma and Soren both did great drawings of bats, spiders, trees and castles. We also got to see Ellen Stoll Walsh, the author of the beloved _Mouse Paint_ book.

We went to Strong Museum after that. Sadly, we weren't aware that the museum closed at five, so we didn't get to spend a lot of time at any one exhibit (the girls wanted to show me everything they liked, so it was a whirlwind tour). We checked out the incredible toy collection, the dance lab, the radio room, the Super Kids Market, and as many other exhibits as we could get to. What an amazing museum! There's enough to experience for many visits to come.

I thought I'd throw in a few words about Emma's meet, because I think the whole event was a good learning experience for her. Gymnastics can be an especially nerve-wracking sport, because even though you're competing with a team, your performance is being judged individually, and when you perform, you're up there all alone with everyone watching. Although she was very nervous about the meet, Emma really had the spirit of doing her best rather than being focused on scores and medals. She got that message from everyone in her family, but she took it to heart in a way that impressed me a lot. The way she conducted herself was also impressive, especially on beam, where she didn't do as well as she would have liked.