James Smithson

Riding the Metro

He only came to the US after he died, thanks to Alexander Graham Bell, but this man's endowment has created in my opinion our greatest treasure. The kids and I have spent the past 3 days exploring all the Smithsonian has to offer and I feel like we only hit the high, highlights. We visited 3 museums the kids loved: Natural History (2 times), Air & Space and American History. I forced them to go to my favorite place, the Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery and diverted them to the First Ladies Hall at the American History Museum to see the dresses and china. We never did make it to the portrait gallery or postal museum or even the zoo. That's the thing about this area, you could spend weeks here and never see it all. I guess that's how some people feel about Disney.

Hey Dum, Dum, Have Some Gum, Gum?

We Watched Dinosaurs 3D at the IMAX

Today we watched Night at the Museum 2 Battle of the Smithsonian and I am so glad we waited to see it. It was fun to hear the "we saw thats" as we watched it. Heading home tomorrow. I am a bit under the weather but if feeling better in the am we're hopping on the metro for a quick visit to the pandas. And the rest will have to wait for our next visit including: Arlington Cemetary to see the grave of my great aunt, Mt Vernon -- we skipped it since even Washington himself wasn't going to be there for his birthday party on Monday due to the weather, the National Building Museum, the Spy Museum and the Lincoln Memorial.

We climbed through the snow and ice to the Washington Monument -- it was freezing!

This is as close as we got to the Lincoln Memorial

Tara Thai with Cousins Aaron, Debbie and Bill

Another trip to Georgetown Cupcake

National Pride

Air & Space Museum

A rare moment with Colin standing still...this was just after we watched the fighter pilot movie in the Lockheed Martin IMAX theater...figured we should see where the money is going since its def not going to the LM medical benefits.

The ruby slippers

Navigating the snow banks

Georgetown Cupcakes -- I bribed them with ice cream yesterday but then found this place instead...we will be back.

At the White House -- I did not capture Colin hanging on the fence crying to get in.

The what at the Natural History Museum

This city is still struggling with snow removal -- people have to scale these snow banks to cross the streets and noone seems to have snow boots.

The mall is one big ice field.

Something about watching the Olympics while sitting in the DC metro area makes my heart swell with national pride. Granted, the Canadians have much cooler and cheaper olympic gear -- can you believe they want $75 for the freakin' US moose hat -- but everytime I see someone on tv waving a US flag, I get a little teary. And yesterday, as I walked by the NTA, FDA, and Dept of Commerce, I had this feeling of pride. (No political jokes, please) Here we are in the heart of government. I've been to DC many, many times but it must be something about being here with the kids and Molly's running commentary that has awoken this pride and wonder...now if only I could pelt a few politicians with snow balls, life would really be good.

new year's resolutions

molly: to be more helpful to mommy, to do my homework, to read more books
colin: i don't know
dave: continue down that road of healthy living
kristin: meander down that healthy living road acknowledging that i will get sidetracked, have fun with my new computer, use less capital letters, blog more now that i know the fam is actually looking at this.

have a healthy, happy, fulfilling 2010!

Family Holidays

Amazing food, 2 heated games of Guesstures, a garbage truck, accessories for the accident prone American Girl, a surprise gift from Mary Grace, Marty's oatmeal cookies, good wine and lots of it, and lots of love. The only things missing were Chris and Honey and Rachel. We'll have to work on that for next year.That was Christmas at my house.

BTW, as hostess, I believe it is well within my rights to give the boys their 2 points and declare the game a tie. The fact that all 4 of you were on the floor at one point makes it all worthwhile.

Mannheim Steamroller

A family tradition that has been passed on to the youngest generation. I must share with you that Molly's outfit came to her in a dream...we had a holiday party to attend yesterday afternoon and I let her wear it. Well the white leggings didn't make the final cut but the top, including the belly sticking out, was present along with a pair of red and green antlers. Oh the genes they runneth strong in my family.

Family Gift Exchange

Tonight we drew names for the family gift exchange. The kids got into it by dressing their parts. Molly came up with her own costumes. Molly picked Dave.

Colin is calling Aunt Kate on the banana phone to tell her he picked Papa Chuck.

"Aunt Kate" raided Colin's closet to pick Millard.

"Kristin" in from a swim picked Lex.

"Chris" picked Molly and "Honey" picked Kate.

"Millard" stopped jumping on the couch long enough to pick "Honey".

"Birdie" just in from the garden and fully accessorized picked Kristin

"Dave" picked Pam (although his eyes were closed so he didn't actually see it.)

"Lex" took time out from playing to pick Chris.

"Pam" picked Colin, windblown from her driving in her convertible to Disney.

"Papa Chuck" peered over his glasses to pick Ginny. Is he not happy about this? No, he was not happy with his shirt. It was a silly shirt but apparently he needed it to cover his belly, according to Colin.

Cyber Monday

I love that some underpaid marketing intern probably came up with this and now everybody is using the term like they've known about it for years. I'll admit it, I never heard about Cyber Monday until I saw it on Amazon. Ah, the power of marketing. Perceptions truly are reality. (To quote a former boss and PR legend.) If you make think people they can get a good deal they'll flock to the stores (Black Friday) or online. I fell victim to both. I went out on Black Friday and quickly realized it was so not my scene. I am a browser and that was no day for browsing. I then thought I'd try my hand at Cyber Monday, since I love online shopping for the very reason you can easily browse, price compare, read reviews, check out quickly, etc. Then this Cyber Monday nonsense started and every website I tried was sooooooooooooo slowwwwwww. I found some good deals on some things I totally didn't need to buy at americangirl.com and after 2.5 hours of trying to check out -- I was multi tasking, thank goodness -- they shut down the site with my wilderness outfits for doll and girl in my basket. Just like that, gone. Imagine, you are in Wal Mart then you all of a sudden you're on the pavement holding nothing. But I have to appreciate the power of marketing and the ability for a well coined phrase has to wreak havoc on the masses.