World Statues

A few Sundays ago we went into downtown Arnhem for the World Statues event. Living statues from all over the world compete in the categories of kids, amateurs and professionals in order to go home as the grand winner on Sunday. Saturday night from 10pm until midnight was the first time the statues were featured. We both thought going to see them under the spots lights would have been really cool, but with Ella it just wasn't going to happen. On Sunday the event started at 1pm, but again with Ella's naptime we didn't get there until 3:30 and at 5:30 there was the award ceremony, so we missed a lot of it. It would have been nice to really see all the different people dressed up pretending to be statues, but the ones we did get to see were very cool.

Next to each living statue was a sign telling where they were from and whether they were considered professional or amateurs. We saw a few of each and both Doug and I agreed that some of the amateurs were better than the professionals (although some of those professionals were quite amazing). The people being statues were from the Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Peru, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, Chili, Honduras, Ukraine and Poland.

You really needed to see these living statutes in person to get the true effect. Of course in the pictures you can't see how still they actually were. Between their costumes and their completely (for some) painted bodies, they truly looked like plastic figurines or old bronze and stone statues. They barely moved, other than to blink (but even that was not very often). They each had a small container in front of them where you could drop in change. When you did (because the containers were made of certain materials that helped the coins to make a "click" when they were dropped in) the person or persons creating the statue would reposition themselves to create a different pose or even stop their pose to shake hands with a spectator (mostly the children).

If you click here you can view all our pictures of the statutes.  World Statues

I wish we weren't so oblivious last year or else we could have gone then too. Even though Ella had napped before we went, after about two hours she was getting a bit cranky. We tried a little of everything to distract her.

 While it worked for a little while once it was time for the awards she was completely done (again, a bit disappointing because the statutes we missed walking around we could have seen on stage). She was screaming in her stroller so it was time to head home. Of course once we started pushing her back to the car she was as happy as a clam. We stopped for some ice cream (which was actually Italian ice) and Ella really liked the mango flavor.

But before long that wasn't enough and she was crying the whole way to the car. The sweetest little boy happened to be walking by us and he never said anything to us or Ella, but he walked over to Ella in her stroller (as she's crying her head off) and handed Ella his McDonald's balloon. She was instantly happy again!!