Cheekwood Part 1

Last Saturday, after a week of horrible sickness, Brett, Declan, and I took advantage of some free passes(thanks Ris!) and went to Cheekwood to check out the last weekend of the "Happily Ever After" exhibit. We had been looking forward to it all summer, only waiting for cool weather to come. Luckily what was left of Gustav brought us much needed rain and very comfortable temperatures. This is the first of 6 posts detailing the different displays they had, each one being a different fairy tale. There were actually 8 displays but I bunched it into 6 based on available pictures. I've opted to post this backwards so that you, the reader can simply scroll down to the next post. I read a lot of blogs and that is the one thing I hate about the layout is that if there are related posts, the reader has to read them backwards unless they happen to catch each post just as it is published. I plan on posting backwards with all my series. Also I am rating each of the displays by interactiveness and explanation of the story. Enjoy

The first display was "Three Billy Goats Gruff" which was a very visually detailed display. This being our first exhibit, it was cool to start the tour with the large flowers(pictured in the background) . The picture shows most of the exhibit. You can see that there is a plaque which is included in all the displays but they offer little explanation but rather quotes from the stories. I don't really remember this story so I was somewhat confused although it's obviously about a creature blocking a bridge to a better place. I guess the stepping stones underneath are supposed to be water? Declan had fun walking on the bridge. B

Cheekwood Part 2

The second display was of "The Sword and the Stone". I had never thought of the story as a fairy tale before. Maybe because it was never included in any of my fairy tale books I had growing up but it is a fictional story all the same. Despite that this was a pretty cool display. I loved that they had the sword in the stone for anyone to play with and Declan seemed interested enough in it. Across from the walkway was King Arthur's castle which somewhat explains the story, but not really. I didn't go inside but I'm assuming there is no details of the story on the wall. Otherwise, any display with a play house is a plus in my book. BThe next two displays lack pictures because they just didn't turn out that good.

Thirdly we have "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves". This display consisted of a structure with mirrored outer walls and a "secret" entrance covered by a tapestry. The inside of the structure had treasures and sand covering the floor. The sand added a nice touch but mixing it with muddy shoes was unappealing. Luckily we had a lot of walking left to do. It had been a long time since I had read the story and I think I have only read it once because it was pretty long if I remember correctly so I was kind of fuzzy on the story and the display didn't really explain much. The only explanation was a plaque that mentioned the famous line "open sesame". Declan liked going into the house and Brett and I walked away puzzled about the details of the story. C

The fourth display was "Rumpelstiltskin". Luckily I remember this story so I was able to explain it to Brett. This was one of the more fun ones because there were three separate structures. First was a structure depicting a castle and the straw room and inside were portraits of the characters painted on the walls. Just outside of that was the spinning wheel. Follow a stone trail and you will see a camp fire set up with a fire painted on wood surrounded by tree stumps. Follow another stone trail, each with a letter from Rumplestilskin's name(very cleaver) and you will find his little house in the woods. Through out the structures are quotes from the story which really helped piece the story together. The only weird part was inside Rumplestitskin's house was furniture that looked very out of place. For example the chair had faux leather upholstery and the table looked like a coffee table. This would have been better with a simple wood table and chair. A+

Cheekwood Part 3

The fifth display was of "The Princess and the Pea". This one would have been a lot better had it not just rained. Luckily this is about as close as Declan got to the display. It doesn't explain the story or offer any literary quotes but it might have been fun just to play on. I refrained from touching it to see if there was anything under the mattress to represent the pea. I'm assuming there had to be because otherwise this display but be nearly as good. C-

Cheekwood Part 4

The sixth display was of "Little Red Riding Hood". It basically was several boards mounted together like a folding book with artwork depicting several points of the story. Although the artwork was very impressive and beautiful, I thought this display was the worst due to a lack of interactive play. Sure to an older child or an adult this is probably one of the better ones in telling the story and for the visuals. For a toddler, however, this wasn't very interesting although Declan liked the wolf. D

Cheekwood Part 5

The seventh display was of the story of Rapunzel. It featured Rapunzel in her famous tower and a portrait of the witch on the back. Also on the back were some different mirrors that distorts the viewer's image. I'm not really sure what that was about but otherwise I thought the tower was creative and fun. Inside Rapunzel's room are different pictures of worldly sights that she is dreaming of escaping to which I thought added a nice touch to show her feeling of isolation. My favorite part was the hair climbing rope which made this display and the alternative climbing ramp, allowing any child to act out the story. Declan opted to climb the ramp. A-

Cheekwood Part 6

The eighth and last display was of The Three Little Pigs. It consisted of a very large and rather strange looking wolf, three randomly placed three little pigs, and a somewhat abstract mobile depicting the three houses in the story. The wolf was made of two large pieces of wood with, surprise, a slide hiding in between. I suppose that makes the slider represent the wolf's heavy blows which is pretty cute. Definitely one of Declan's favorites. He slid down the slide 3 times. Wasn't much to stand and look at for long and I almost missed the mobile in the tree. Also, not much an explanation of the story but then again I guess everyone knows this one. B-










Well I hope you enjoyed my little series. We had a great time looking at all of this and it was fun to get back to Cheekwood again. It was fun just to remember Jill's wedding as it was the last time we had been. Or the time before when we went with Suzanne and the kids. Luckily we had enough time to walk the sculpture trail and we even saw three deer.