Washington, Part 3

One fun mother-daughter outing we took was to the US Botanic Garden which is right next to the Capitol. It was great! 

Gorgeous.That's all I will say.

Noelle pretends to be this flower.

They had a fun exhibit where you could smell all these different kinds of herbs, grouped by cuisine.

The Botanic Garden is next to the Museum of the American Indian, where we popped in for a very interesting story time that featured some touchable items such as porcupine quills.

Donald Duck, by Joel.

Washington, Part 2

Joel surprised me with his handwriting abilities when he managed to pull out VANILLA WAFERS.

In the Dr. Seuss book, Oh Say Can You Say, one of our favorite lines is that you should never get your father a walrus. Naturally, we wanted to get him this one.

There's a very large dollhouse in the basement/ground floor level of the American History Museum.

Noelle's been devouring the Laura Ingalls Wilder books this year, so seeing an actual Conestoga wagon was a treat for us all.

These guys are from Captain Kangaroo.

Joel enjoys his Christmas present from his cousin, and tells everyone that they shall not pass.

Did I mention that he likes to make things? Like a guy out of oranges and pretzels?

Hands-on Amethyst at the Natural History Museum.

Noelle tries to blend in with the transportation history exhibit.

This is one of my favorite pictures. This is Squidgy. Squidgy is much loved, so much so that Joel persuaded his Amma to knit Squidgy a scarf and boots. Alas, Squidgy is now lost. He was last seen in Cahokia, Illinois. If you see Squidgy, please let us know. Seriously.

Art Museum outing...

Puddle stomping...

In a moment of clarity I remembered a favorite childhood snack--pizza toast. Yes!

Marky will copy anything his brother does. Anything, and he will do it within seconds.

More Shenaningans

Snowflakes!

The boys and their cork boat.

Saving Capitol Hill from Evil-Doers.

February Side Trip to Ohio

In February, the kids and I took a side trip (in what world can 7+ hours in the car be a side trip?!) to my parents' house. We took advantage of the snow, even though there aren't many hills to speak of.  This particular snow was a layer of ice, with a couple inches of snow, topped with additional ice.

 Once I crunched a course out, the track ran pretty well. It was better with a double-person ride. Joel had the most stamina for the sledding. After I went back inside to warm up, Joel kept playing. Grandpa found him crying in the hard some time later, barefoot. He had lost a boot at the top of a run, gone on down the hill anyway, and then found himself cold and without resources at the bottom. I didn't expect to see Grandpa carrying Joel into the house, but he did. Grandpa to the rescue.

I love this kid so much. So much vitality, so much energy. He makes me laugh every day. 

 I tried to help Mom and Dad out with some of the chores while I was there, so I got to wear the Carhartt coat and Orange Hat of Honor. Okay, it's not really called that, but the one who is wearing it has been Out Doing Something, so now that I'm a grown-up I'm happy to be putting it on. The chores this time consisted of feeding/water the chickens and the brood of turkeys, and climbing up into the hay loft to throw some hay down to the larger herbivores. The funny thing about the turkeys was the way that they would *GOBBLEGOBBLEGOBBLE* all together, in response to any provocation. A squeaky swing, for instance.

 We *ahem* borrowed one of my sister's old Barbies and made a dress out of an old sock--because my hand sewing skills are about enough to do a running stitch around the cuff and call it good. I'm glad my daughter's standards in these things aren't very high yet.  

Thanks to generous babysitting from Grandma and Grandpa, I got to head over to Ohio University for Sibs' Weekend with my sister! I had a good time being with her, and being on campus again. So much has changed there for the fancier, but there's still ice cream. :) 

In my spare time, I am a fairy princess. 

We spent a couple of months in Washington, part 1

And just like *that*, Christmas was over and it was time to move somewhere else. I long advocated to Mark that we should not go through Harrisonburg to pick up things; or at least I should not. I thought the brief visit would be difficult for the kids me to handle and create excessive homesickness.  As the time drew closer, however, I had a change of heart. I'm so glad for the few hours we got to spend in the appropriate town--for the friends that so generously lodged and fed us, for the other friends who let us crash their New Year's party, for the Costco bag of craisins that I got to take to Washington with me. The time was too short, and the next afternoon we were on our way to Washington. 

More spacious than anticipated, the apartment was entirely suitable. I feel sorry for Italian intern who had to live underneath us in the basement apartment, though. Of course, the winter was cold and snowy. Our place was ridiculously close the Capitol building, and about a mile from the nearest Smithsonian. I discovered that a mile is just about the farthest reach of our walking endurance, and that the mile home after the museum time was invariably...not very pretty. 

But! When I could muster the energy to strike out, we did. To where did we strike out? 

• National Gallery of Art
• Museum of American History
• Museum of Natural History
• Museum of the American Indian 
• U.S. Botantical Gardens on the Mall 
• National Building Museum
• Stanton Park to use the playground 
• Eastern Market to buy some apples and cannoli
• Lincoln Memorial
• Korean Memorial
• Smithsonian Castle
• Air and Space Museum on the Mall
• National Zoo
• Berwyn Heights, MD (for Aletheia!)
• Circleville, OH
• Dry Fork, WV
• Harrisonburg, VA
• Library of Congress
• Folger Shakespeare Library

 I felt sort of guilty about not taking more advantage of the various places to visit, but actually, with bullet points like that it looks pretty substantial. I kept saying that it would be a bit different if  my oldest child wasn't only six! Somehow... I have been feeling less and less ambitious for sight-seeing as the months wear on. I told my friend that when we get home, I'm not going anywhere I can't see from my house.

The other blessing at this location was its closeness, relatively speaking, to home. We had a couple of sets of friends come to go museum-viewing with us, which was a highlight of the time. THANK YOU, O VISITING FRIENDS!!

 Generally, though, we went to...

The Natural History Museum, where we had yet another opportunity to practice the word ROTUNDA.

 On one trip to the Natural History Museum, I had Noelle bring her notebook so she could sketch things. I do believe this magnetic rock (above left) is the only thing she drew at all, but doesn't this picture make me look like a good homeschooling mom? Hahaha.

 Noelle's favorite part of the NHM was the minerals collection, without a doubt. My favorite part was when they put out things that people were allowed to touch! Here, we paw a gigantic amethyst.

 The boys liked the dinosaur exhibit, especially the "please touch" leg bone cast.

 Most of the time, however, we stayed in, because someone was ill, or it was SO cold, or SO snowy.

In honor of Mark's birthday, we made cookies.

We also went with some friends to the National Building Museum, which featured this big kids' building place that Joel especially enjoyed.

 This is the Police Officers' memorial that happens to be right outside the Building Museum. I really liked this quote on this part of the memorial.

 We popped into the Folger Shakespeare Library one afternoon to see what we could see. Besides a couple of Shakespearean costumes from a film (and a disturbing clip from an old movie version of Othello), we just found this bust of good ole' Will. I'm sorry for the blurry picture--I snapped it in haste because...well, because one of my chief operating princples in such places is "'Above all else, to thine own self draw no attention." You may notice Noelle attempting to resemble the Bard.

I think my next entry will be about our trip to Ohio in the midst of our Washington time. :) So, if you're interested in "Katie visits her family," stay tuned.