4 Days in DC

Since the big kids were studying American history this school year, we decided to wrap things up with a trip to Washington DC.  The idea had been swirling around in my head since 2006 (!) but this was the year we finally made the journey.

DAY ONE

When we woke up our first morning in DC, we took a 2-hour trolley tour of the National Mall and surrounding area.  It was a good introduction and helped me to get my bearings.  Since we planned to be walking everywhere, I wanted to feel comfortable about where we were and where we were going!  Our tour guide was fantastic and gave live narration explaining the sites and the history behind them.  "This is a city of symbolism..."

Ready for our tour! Yes, we are wearing matching shirts...

                                                 

"DC" Steven, our trolley driver and tour guide

Rockin' Out!

After the tour, we splurged for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe - what fun!  Delicious food - this was Samuel's favorite part. If you've never seen this boy really eat, consider yourselves blessed. So many rock-n-roll "artifacts" - Drew and I really got into this, looking around for artists we knew. They even took requests for music videos.  We asked for POD "Rock the Party" - and they played it! We were most definitely the coolest family there, and I don't mind saying so :-)

Me & Billy
 Sing us a song, you're the piano man...

So you're a Methodist pastor? Interesting...

Ford's Theatre was just a block away and next on the agenda.  (Talk about a gear shift!  But this was one of my favorites of the entire trip.)  We made our way through the museum before going into the theatre and hearing about the evening that President Lincoln was shot. The tour was narrated by audio guide and by a National Park Ranger.

Little man pulling up the introduction on his audio guide as we wait to enter the museum.  So much information about the Civil War, Lincoln's Presidency, Washington DC and the theatre itself, as well as the evening of the assassination.

The Presidential Box

Ford's is now a working theatre.  While we were in DC the musical 1776 was playing there.

Late that afternoon, we split up:  the boys jumped back on the trolley and headed to the National Cathedral (pictures still on Drew's phone.  We're working on that.) and sister & I walked down to the Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery.  All of the official Presidential Portraits are there:

Washington

Lincoln

JFK

...as well as folk art, photography, sculpture and paintings from every era of America's existence. I was so excited to find a bust of Nathaniel Bowditch! (Find a great family read-aloud about him here.) Stephanie and I relaxed in the courtyard, listening to live jazz music, while we waited for the boys to return. Oh, and the museum even had a gallery dedicated to the History of Video Games!  But we'll visit that later.  Now it's time for dinner and propping up our tired feet.

For Aunt Tetney, By Request

Hot But Happy

After the first soccer game of the season - and a win! - the big kids were hot but happy. (Honestly, their faces did not look this red in person...) Stephanie made some key defensive stops. Samuel scored a goal in the first half and stopped a penalty kick as keeper in the fourth quarter. But the best part was watching them high five each other and celebrate afterwards. The little guy had a grand time as well, running up and down the sideline kicking a soccer ball. "I'm playing in that game too," he told me. I'm sure he was.

Coccus and Spirillium and Paramecium, oh my!

High school means biology class. I don't know about other high school biology classes, but if you have my biology class, you get to do some pretty cool......or gross......stuff. For example: last week I had to go down to the creek to get four samples of water. Then I had to put rice in one cup, dry grass in another, egg yolk in another, and soil in the last one. The purpose of this was to grow some bacterium (fun, right?). Well, today, I got to observe the bacterium I'd grown.
Here comes the fun part.

I set up my microscope, got a little bit of the bacterium-infected water sample onto a slide, and put it under the microscope. First of all, let me just say that the water STANK. It didn't just stink, it STANK. Second of all, there were all these wormy-thingies in the water, and things that looked like swimming bubbles, and these really gross ones that twisted themselves around and around to move. It was cool. But it was also really gross and nasty.
And now I get to gross you out, because my microscope can take videos of whatever it is I'm looking at! Hahaha, enjoy!


Getting the slide all set up.....

Getting ready to look at all the nasty bacterium.....

And here they are!

~by Steph

Play-Dough Mario

So, Simon and I are playing with the play-dough one day, when he says, "Sister, can you make a megashroom out of play-dough?" (megashrooms are his favorite Super Mario Bros. item). Being the artsy big sister that I am, I said, "Sure, Simon, I think I can do that." Then after I made the megashroom, he wanted a fire flower. Then a mushroom. Then a minishroom. Then a blue koopa shell and a star of invincibility. Before I knew it, our stereo was decorated by all of the aformentioned items as well as a bob-omb, coins, an extra life, a somewhat-decent red koopa, a disfigured Goombah, Mario's red hat, Luigi's green hat, a fireball, and a Big Bullet. He tried to get me to make some more, but I couldn't remember if there were any other items, and besides, we had just about run out of play-dough. They're still sitting on the stereo because Simon didn't want to smoosh them back into the play-dough canisters.

Here we are making the items

Simon-Mario and his megashroom

All the Super Mario Bros. items!

~by Steph

Crock-Pot Chicken Jambalaya

Especially for Susan and Kelly!

Adapted from Leanne Ely's Saving Dinner

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 pound turkey kielbasa, sliced
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp Cajun seasoning
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped

Coat bottom & sides of crock pot with a thin layer of olive oil. Put everything in - chicken first! - and turn on low for 7 hours. Before serving, cook up 5-6 servings of rice using chicken broth in place of water. Mix cooked rice into the crock pot and enjoy!

Samuel writes about Lipizzaners

We went to see the Lipizzaner Stallions perform. The stallions are horses and have strong legs which can do amazing things. They can do the Courbette (standing on his hind legs and jumping), the Piaffe (marching in place), the Capriole (leaping into the air) and the Levade balancing on the hind legs.) Most Lipizzaners are white. But one of the horses in the show was a brown horse and his nickname was Elvis and in the show he danced to big band music. Lipazzaners are white but when they're babies they are black. You can read more about the horses here.

We went to see the show because we read a book called White Stallion of Lipizza by Marguerite Henry. In the book a boy named Hans delivers bread for his father, but he wants to be a Lipizzaner Riding Master. He watches the horses cross the street every morning on his way to make deliveries. He dreams about them and thinks about them. He cuts out pictures of them and tapes them on his mirror. One of my favorite parts of the book is when Hans falls off the horse and plops on his bottom.