And finally

Thankfully his office was a short walk from the building museum, but then we had to wait for daddy to finish what he was working on.

They do have some cool statues in the lobby so the kids endured a short history lesson about Frederick Douglass and Pierre L'Enfant.

They also have 2 elephants and a donkey that are painted. Ella wanted her picture next to the elephant with flowers all over it.

Finally Daddy was finished and we could 'ride the train' (Metro) which completely made Shane's day.

So let's see

White House Visitor's Center

National Christmas Tree

WWII Memorial

American History Museum-short stop

Native American Museum

Botanical Garden

Union Station

Law Enforcement Memorial

National Building Museum

I have to brag on my kids; they did an outstanding job all things considered. Hank walked nearly the entire time with minimal complaint (if you know him, then you know this is amazing!).

We had just one episode of them scattering (in the NA museum), and I almost keeled over from that. But for the most part they stayed close and listened.

I'm already planning our next visit, but I'll wait until it's a little warmer and not a holiday!

Almost there!

The National Building Museum is just a few blocks from daddy's office. I haven't been there in years and I don't think I ever took Jake so the 'kid aspect' of the visit was new to me.

They have a super cool playroom in there. Who woulda thunk? It has a playhouse, dress up, blocks, books, you name it. Needless to say I was very happy to see it. I could park my buns and rest and the kids were confined but happily playing.

I should note (more so that I remember years from now) that Ella is quite the social butterfly. I think I could drop her on the moon and she would find someone to be her friend. It's very cute to watch. And then later hear all about it, "Mommy, did you see my new friends?" Such an adorable little peanut. :)

There's a little fountain in the lobby. Can you see the wheels in his mind turning? He was excited to see that there were coins in the fountain.

They have a little cafe in the museum and the lobby is open and enormous. I hadn't planned on us being there so late so I didn't have anymore food for the big kids. Thankfully I rarely leave home without extra food for Shane, which was a good thing in this case. The only thing they had that he could eat was dry, bland egg salad. blech!

I didn't realize the museum closed at 5 so we finished our snack and they booted us (very politely) out. We still had an hour and it was getting dark. We read and re-read the map, but we'd have to head back to the mall if we wanted to do anything else. I decided I better not press my luck and we went to daddy's building to wait for him...

But first

We walked with daddy to his office and marched onward

There's a memorial to fallen law enforcement men and women on the way to our next stop. Uncle Potty is a policeman in the Navy; we have a number of friends who are policemen and one of Bill's highschool friends was a DC policman killed in the line of duty so this was a special stop that we hadn't planned on at all.

It's a nice memorial. On the four corners are lions - 2 corners have mother lions watching their cubs on the other side of the sidewalk; the other two have dad lions doing the same. There's a wall along the edge with the names of the men and women who died in the line of duty.

The emblem in the middle of the plaza

Next stop- US Botanic Garden

The US Botanic Garden is right next to the Native American museum so we hopped over there for a look.

The outside garden is dormant for the winter so there wasn't much to see, but it was fun for the kids to just run along the paths playing the instruments they got to buy at the NA museum.

I wanted to go in but Shane was beginning to dissolve so we'll save it for another trip.

Then we headed to Union Station to meet daddy. As we passed in front of the Capitol, we saw this sign:

All the years I've lived in the area, I don't remember being downtown around the time of an inauguration.

So up the big hill (pushing a double stroller) to Union Station we went. Daddy met us part way and helped push (thanks!) and we looked at the train display at Union Station.

My memory isn't very good, but I could swear that years ago (10-12) they had an elaborate train display at Christmas time. What they have now is, well, sad and small. It was just 3 tracks and a handful of buildings. It wasn't a complete loss because Shane loves trains in all shapes and sizes.

Daddy got a phone call while we were there and wasn't able to leave for the day as early as we hoped. That meant I had 2 more hours to kill. 4 exhausted kids and 1 tired mommy. No sweat! :)

But Daddy remembered one more museum that he thought the kids would enjoy....

Native American museum

Ella spotted a rainbow on the ceiling on our way in

Help from big bro

They had a hands-on area for the kids. They could look at different pieces of beadwork - they were so intricate that they looked like embroidery - so anyway, they look at the beadwork and then can open drawers and look at loose beads. Not very exciting at all, but Shane did enjoy opening and closing the drawers.

There was a weaving class going on and the big kids were allowed to sit in if they wanted. Ella wanted to actually weave so she wasn't happy to just sit and watch. Not that I minded...it turns out it was a 2 hour class. ouch!

This sculpture reminded me of the big tree at the animal kingdom park at Disney world. It had all sorts of animals, arrows, people, etc carved into it.

Hank the wolf

All in all, I"m glad we went to the museum if for no other reason than to satisfy my curiosity. It really isn't for younger kids. Most everything was 'look at, read about and don't touch' Not very exciting if you're 6, 5 or 2.

I'm pleading mercy and heading to bed. Tune in later to see where we went next. :)

Playtime

We're going to begin a Native American study in school so I thought we could mosy down to the Native American history museum for a looksee. But we stopped to play first. Much of the grass on the mall is fenced off right now for "turf rehabilitation" We did find a square that was open for play close to the Capitol and the NA museum.

World War II Memorial

My Grandfather is a 3 war vet; the first being WWII. My grandparents live in Texas and haven't been able to come up to see the new WWII memorial so I was happy that we had a chance today to stop by and take some pictures for him.

It is a really big memorial with 3 (4?) fountains, pretty sculptures and a wall with 1 star for each soldier who died. Jake told me he read there were 400,000 stars on it. Very sobering.

I called my mom to see what state Grandpa was deployed from. She couldn't remember if it ws NY or KY so I took pictures of both.

There's a bridge between the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial and the WWII Memorial. We stood on it - look one way and you see the Washington Monument

The other way is the Lincoln Memorial

Our next stop was the newly re-opened Americal History museum. It seemed everyone else had the same idea. There were lines to get into the different wings of the museum - not exhibits, but the actual wing. Needless to say, we didn't stay! We'll take advantage of our flexible homeschooler schedule and go back when everyone else is at work or school. [smirk]

National Tree

The Maryland Tree- decorated with drawings of black-eyed susans, orioles and blue crabs

The Guam tree, for Uncle Potty, decorated with animals made out of little shells. Pretty cool but all my pictures of them turned out blurry.

The big tree

And then off to our next stop...

White House Visitor's Center

'Tis the season for spontaneous day trips.



I've wanted to take the kids to the White House Visitor's Center for some time. I checked the weather yesterday, and decided today would be a perfect day for a day trip downtown.



Our original plan was to arrive close to 11:30 and do the ranger-led program. We arrived around 10 and I should have taken the kids to see the National Christmas tree or something instead of trying to wait for so long. Shane reached his limit around 11 and we finally bailed at 11:15. No worries, there is plenty to do down there that would keep him happy. Follow us on our very full, but very fun day! (I'll try to get all teh pix posted tonight but I"m pretty fried so we'll see)


In front of a white chocolate replica of the white house with little chocolate soldiers. Check the roof and you'll see Barney and Miss Beasley riding in the sleigh.

A silver sculpture of Hiawatha. We'll be reading Longfellow's poem "Hiawatha" in a few weeks so I thought this was pretty cool.

Hank took a picture of his favorite president.

My monkeys outside the White House

The visitor's center was more appropriate for older kids, but my cute kids schmoozed the volunteer and got a signed Christmas picture of Miss Beasley, Miss Beasley wallet photos, and a pets in the White House book. But she balked on the Jr. Ranger booklets. She didn't want to give one to Hank because he's not an independent reader. Um, what?? She did finally give him one and he and Jake started working on it. The volunteer, however, would not budge on Ella. My little peanut wanted her own book so bad and it was a no go. I guess it will make turning 6 all the more exciting.

We left there, checked out the White House and then headed to the National Tree.

Christmas at DeeDee's

Group shot by Dee Dee's tree

Hank loves his light sabers. He also hugged the fishing pole Uncle Keith and Aunt Cindy got him. Strange kid, indeed. :)

No we didn't give this little man Whack A Mole. We know better than to give Shane a mallet and free reign to whack things. This is in the game closet high on the top shelf.

Supervising DeeDee while she cooks breakfast

Then he supervised lunch by eating brown sugar out of the bag.