A Birthday at Yale

Hello friends! I hope you are all doing well! 
I just had my birthday, my actual birthday fell on the week of the TeenPact state class I was staffing, so my family and I celebrated it a few days before.

To me, birthdays are days full of all of the things that make you happy. 
I started the day at around 6:00. I brought a blanket, pillows, tea, a cereal bar, my Bible and some books outside to watch the sunrise. A sunrise picnic of sorts. It was lovely to greet the day in that way, praising God out under his sky with all of his birds chirping a song.
I had decided I wanted to spend the day in the area around Yale University - it is a beautiful area full of history and Gothic architecture. Truly the idyllic university town.
We started the day off at the Yale University Art Gallery.

It's genuinely one of the most incredible art galleries I have ever been too, and it's free! 
The art is incredible, they have everything from ancient art to modern art, the gallery boasts amazing paintings from many great painters - including Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh, Degas, and more! In addition, the attention to detail with the architecture is stunning. The building alone is artwork!
Here are a few of my favorite pieces from the gallery.
This one is a painting by Claude Monet of his own garden. It's titled "The Artist's Garden in Giverny." The colors he used are so vibrant, I love this short escape from his usual water lilies and haystacks.

This next one is by Vincent van Gogh. It's called "Square Saint-Pierre, Paris." Not a very creative name, but this painting is so beautiful. It's such a peaceful image of a gardener working placidly away in a beautiful landscape.

This final painting holds a very special place in my heart. It's "The Ballet Rehersal" by Edgar Degas. I used to be a ballet dancer and have always loved Degas. The way he portrays young women working hard at their dreams is inspiring. This painting is also special to me because when I was 8 or 9 years old my family went to the art gallery and we were each tasked with picking our favorite painting out. For little Belle, this was the one!

After the art gallery we got lunch, then spent some time wandering walking through the Yale Campus. The campus truly transports you to another place, and with the trees flowering and the leaves budding, it felt like something out of a fairy tale!

No birthday for me is complete without doing something bookish. Last year it was a whole two days in Concord, Massachusetts (a Little Women super fan's dream!) This year, it was a visit to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library that is situated right inside of the Yale campus. The library holds one of the largest collections of original manuscripts and other literary related objects in the world.
Not many of the books are on display, but it rotates. Some notable objects are a Gutenberg Bible, Lewis and Clark Expedition Maps, and original manuscripts and very early editions of some of the greatest literary works (yes this includes Little Women ;0 )

{on permanent display - this Gutenberg Bible is the first western book printed with moveable type}

Next we got some coffee from a local coffee shop and drank it on the steps near a beautiful wooden door. A couple of people came through and said we were fine since no one ever used the door except for them. But in the twenty minutes we were there, four people came through the door!

New Haven has quite a few coffee shops that double as bookstores (what a fantastic idea!). We stopped in two and I bought two of my favorite books - Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster, and Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace. For some reason, every time I go into a bookstore I am always more on the lookout for beautiful copies of my favorite books that I am for new books.
At one of the bookstores, my mom bought me adorable Anne of Green Gables themed page flags!

When we got home, I actually had some work to get done, but my family prepared a lovely dinner for me and my parents gave me a gift!
After dinner, we watched the 1994 Little Women and ate cookies and fruit tart!
All in all, it was a lovely day!

This is my favorite picture I took that day!

Goodbye for now friends! Have a lovely week!