See the Dinosaurs Before They're Gone

There are only a few more weeks to see the dinosaur exhibit at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum before the exhibit closes for a five-year long renovation. The Fossil Hall exhibit will close to the public after April 27th.

K has recently gotten into dinosaurs - or at least pretending to be one. We take a music class at Sitar Arts Center and the teacher does a version of Jim Along Josie in which we pretend to be various animals. Her favorite part is when we "STOMP like a dinosaur, Jim along Josie. STOMP like a dinosaur, Jim along Joe." So I couldn't pass up her last chance to see real dinosaur bones for a while.

Last Thursday we met up with some friends at 10am, when the museum opens. Between the spring tourists and the school field trips, the line just to get in the door of the museum was quite long, and inside it was quite crowded.

The museum has extended hours most days this spring, from 10am-7:30pm. Visiting in the evening is probably your best bet if you are looking to beat the crowds.

After exploring the dinosaur hall, we moved on to the "Ice Age" exhibit. We particularly enjoyed looking at some of the smaller early mammals, but some of the larger ones were declared "too scary."

The kids' favorite part was probably the small circular stair area - it looked like a place where a movie should be playing - next to the scary creature pictured above. The four 2 year olds spent a long time climbing and playing there.

We meandered through a special exhibit on the Mud Masons of Mali and through the Ocean Hall before heading upstairs to the Insect Zoo.

When we'd had enough of the crowds, we took a short walk over to the sculpture garden to let the kids play and eat lunch.

Dreaming of a New Door

This spring we are going to be doing substantial work to update and restore the front of our rowhouse. We applied for and got a grant through the DC Historic Homeowner Grant Program (another post about that process is in the works) and between that money and some of our own, we are finally going to fix up the front of the house.

They'll be peeling off the lead paint, pointing up the bricks, painting, sanding, fixing, installing new windows, and putting in new doors.

I am so excited about ALL of it. But I currently have a bit of a door obsession.

Last week our contractor emailed me some links to new front doors from companies that he has used on other houses in the neighborhood. Buffelen Door has some entry doors that match the style of our home, and Lemieux Door's "Le Chateau" collection also has doors in the style of our rowhouse.

The last few days I've had doors on the brain. I've been slowing down the car to door-gaze. I've snapped pictures at stoplights and on walks through the neighborhood. As I've been door-gazing this last week, I have noticed that actually a LOT of doors in NW DC are half glass or full glass. Some have no bars, but a solid wood interior door that also locks.

Some other glass doors have a bar door, like this one.

Our house currently has an entry that is open to the outside world with a half glass door inside. We have an unattractive grate on the back side of the door for security that came with the house. As my husband says, a "harry homeowner" security fix.

I'm not wild about bars on doors, and I'd like to reclaim the entryway as part of the house. I want a door that lets in light, but I also don't want to have a second interior door to lock in order to feel safe. So for now, I'm leaning towards a door with upper windows. Perhaps something like this door with two upper windows.

Or this one without moulding.

Or even this one with three windows...

Of course, all of this depends on what the Historic Preservation Office (HPO) will approve. I spoke to them years ago when we first started thinking about replacing our front door. I asked about french doors because our opening is 42" wide and it looks like there may have once been french doors there, but they advised against them. On our Historic Grant application they asked for us to price a 3 panel wood door, but they ended up not funding that portion of the application. We have a little more leeway to choose what we like since it won't be funded by the grant, but we still have to get their approval on what we choose.

The HPO has a Preservation Brief on door replacement for historic properties which offers a few recommendations, but I'm hoping that they will offer a little more guidance before I fall in love with something. The person we're working with at HPO has offered to come meet at the house before we sign with our contractor to hash everything out, and I'm hopeful that can happen soon.

Snow Patrick's Day at Jake's American Grille

It snowed again.

Rather than spend another day snowed in with the kids, I decided to brave public transit and join some friends in Chevy Chase, DC to eat and drink St. Patrick's Day away in the Boiler Room of Jake's American Grille. The Boiler Room's normal weekday hours are 4pm-close, but they were open and running some specials for St. Patrick's Day.

Jake's is on Connecticut Avenue just south of Chevy Chase Circle, across the street from the amazing Politics & Prose Bookstore (check out programs for kids) and the kid-friendly Comet Ping Pong. Getting there on the bus in the snow was a bit of an adventure, but I think it would normally be an easy bus ride from downtown.

The Boiler Room is in the basement of Jake's. It is your basic bar, with concrete floors and flat screens on the walls and a mix of dining and cocktail height seating. There's a pool table, shuffle board, and a few video games.

What sets Jake's apart from most bars is a large supply of family-friendly board games in one corner. You can select your games and bring them to the table to play.

We played several games, including The Ladybug Game, which seems like a good game for learning and reinforcing counting for little kids. My two year old really enjoyed filling up the Connect 4 board and then dumping it out.

The kids' menu features the usual burgers (sliders, actually), macaroni & cheese and chicken strips, as well as veggie sliders and veggie sticks. They also offer a kids' brunch on weekends. The regular Boiler Room menu offers a variety of salads, burgers, and wings, as well as 18 beers on tap.

We stayed for a few hours before venturing back into the cold, and I am sure we'll be back again to meet up with friends and kid-friends.

Getting There
Jake's American Grille
5018 Connecticut Ave NW
Closest Metro: From Tenleytown Metro, walk down Albemarle and left on Nebraska about .5 miles
Bus: The L1, L2, and L4 bus lines run up Connecticut Avenue from Farragut North Metro and stop across the street from Jake's

This post is not sponsored, but it does include affiliate links that may result in a small commission for me if you happen to make a purchase.

DC's St. Patrick's Day Parade

Did you know that DC has a St. Patrick's Day Parade? I remember going as a kid, but I haven't been lately (OK, in at least a few decades), so I wasn't sure what to expect.

This is no small production. The parade route runs along Constitution Avenue between 7th and 17th Streets, NW, and the parade website says that it lasts about two hours.

Last Sunday, we met up with some friends and took Metro to the parade route. It wasn't too crowded and we got a spot right along the tape line at 8th and Constitution.

There were lots of Irish Step Dancers

 Irish dogs

fire trucks and police cars from long ago
and, of course, marching bands.

The kids' loved the people handing out green beads and candy.

We watched the parade for about an hour before the kids got tired, then we walked up to Gallery Place/Chinatown to try to find a place to eat. This area has changed so much in the last few years and I sometimes forget that it is now a popular destination, especially when there is a Caps game (there was). We tried and failed to get a table at several restaurants and decided to leave the area to find food.

Rotisserie Chicken Fajitas

Rotisserie chicken. If you can find a store near you that sells a good one, it can save you a lot of time cooking and cleaning.

I have tried most of the chickens available from the grocery store chains in the area, and I have a hierarchy of chickens. My list of the best regular flavor roasted chicken in the DC area.

1. Costco - DC location
2. Giant
3. Costco - Pentagon City location (I don't know why, but the chicken in DC is better)
4. Safeway
5. Whole Foods (I really wanted to like this chicken since the ingredients are more spelled out, but the flavor was off)
6. Yes! Market (needs salt!)

The last time I was at Costco, I noticed they sell packages of cooked rotisserie chicken breast as well as whole roasted chickens. Since I normally use the chicken as an ingredient rather than a main dish, I decided to try it out. Inside the package is 2.5 lbs of chicken breast. It looks somewhat unappetizing because it is vacuum sealed, but once you open it up and pull it out you can tell it's the real deal, not processed food.

I froze half of the chicken, used some in salads, and decided to make the rest into chicken fajitas. I seasoned up the chicken and put it in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Sautéed the onions.

Added the red peppers and sautéed a few minutes more, then added the chicken.

The chicken definitely fell apart more than it does when you cook fajitas from raw chicken. These are not chicken strips. I served them on small tortillas with tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, hot sauce, rice, and refried beans.

My 2 year old loved the fajita, and seemed quite pleased with herself that she managed to keep some of the food in the tortilla. My pickier 5 year old was less enthusiastic, but she did eat the rice and beans.

My husband and I thought they were tasty, and the leftovers were good on salad the next day.

ROTISSERIE CHICKEN FAJITAS

Ingredients

1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
3 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
juice of 1 lime (about 2 tbsp)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound rotisserie chicken, chopped
1 red bell pepper, sliced into 1/2-inch strips
1 medium onion, sliced into 1/2 inch by 2 inch pieces
salt
2 tbsp cilantro, diced

Directions

1. Combine spices (except salt), garlic lime juice, and 1 tbsp oil in a bowl
2. Add chicken to bowl and mix to coat chicken. Set chicken in refrigerator at least one hour.
3. Heat 2 tbsp oil over medium-high heat
4. Add onions, salt them, and sautée 3 minutes
5. Add red pepper and sautée 5 minutes more
6. Add chicken and cook until heated through, about 2 more minutes
7. Serve on warm tortillas with tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, beans, rice, and hot sauce

Pi Day Strawberry Cream Pie

Happy Pi Day!

 We made two pies in honor of Pi Day (3/14): a chicken pot pie and a strawberry cream pie.

I won't post the recipe for the chicken pot pie, because I basically used the one from the can. I had a feeling my kids would not like it and I didn't feel like putting a big effort in for my food to be rejected. My kids did, in fact, barely agree to taste it (why must they reject every casserole!?), but my husband really liked it.

The kids DID approve of the strawberry cream pie.

V helped me measure out and mix the ingredients for the cream portion of the pie, then I cooked them until they were combined and thick and set them aside to cool.

I crushed the strawberries with a fork and added them to the water and sugar and simmered for about 10 minutes, until the topping was mostly clear around the edges.

While I whipped the cream to finish the filling, we sliced strawberries for the top of the pie and the girls ate about a pint. Then I folded the cream into the rest of the filling & I poured it into a pre-baked pie crust. V helped me arrange the strawberries and spoon the glaze over everything. Then the girls licked both bowls.

Meanwhile, I tortured them both by singing the song made famous by the movie "Waitress." Actually, at one point V was telling K to shush so she could hear me sing it, so that was nice.

  
Because we are impatient, we put the pie in the freezer for about 20 minutes and then moved it to the refrigerator for another hour.

The finished product.

STRAWBERRY CREAM PIE

Ingredients

1 pastry shell, baked

Cream Filling

1/2 cup sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

3 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup heavy cream

Strawberry Topping

1/2 cup strawberries, mashed with a fork

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp cornstarch

3 cups strawberries, halved

Directions

1. Combine sugar, cornstarch, flour, and salt in a saucepan
2. Slowly whisk in milk and cook on medium about 5 minutes, until thick and bubbling.
3. Reduce heat to low and continue to cook, stirring, 2 more minutes.
4. Crack an egg into a bowl and scramble it, then add a small amount of the milk mixture to the egg to temper it and combine. Add a bit more, then return the egg and milk mixture to the saucepan.
5. Cook egg and milk mixture another 2 minutes on medium low.
6. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
7. In another saucepan, cook mashed strawberries and water on medium high heat about 2 minutes
8. Add sugar and cornstarch and mix thoroughly
9. Reduce heat to medium low and cook about 8 more minutes. Remove from heat & allow to cool.
10. Whip the cream (chilling the bowl and whisk in the freezer for a few minutes speeds the process) then fold into the milk mixture
11. Pour/spoon milk mixture into pre-baked pie crust
12. Arrange halved strawberries on top
13. Spoon glaze on top of strawberries
14. Refrigerate (or freeze!) until cold and set

Exploring the National Portrait Gallery with Kids

The National Portrait Gallery hosts an impressive array of family-friendly programs. Best of all, they are all FREE (some require advance registration).

I've taken both kids to several of the Saturday "Portrait Story Day" programs, where you read a book about someone whose portrait hangs in the museum, then do an art project based on that person's story. We love to pack a lunch and play in the museum's large glass-enclosed courtyard, and we often make a day of it by visiting the MLK Library across the street before the museum opens at 11:30am. The building houses both the Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum. Between the two museums, there seem to often be special events happening in the courtyard on the weekends. Last spring we happened across traditional American music and dancing. This fall we went to a "Day of the Dead" event with crafts, music, and face painting.

On Monday, K & I made our first visit to the National Portrait Gallery for one of their "Young Portrait Explorer" programs for toddlers. On select Mondays - check the schedule - the Gallery holds a class to help little visitors explore one of the portraits in their collection.

Monday's class was about Georgia O'Keefe. We arrived at 10:30am and met up with some friends and others who registered for the class, which is limited to a total of 25 adult and child participants. We walked down the hall to a black and white photograph of Georgia O'Keefe, where the class leader handed out a copy of the portrait to each child. We talked for a few minutes about the different things we noticed about the portrait before heading to the Gallery's education room.

We gathered on a carpet for a story about Georgia O'Keefe and we talked about her paintings. Then we all got a plastic magnifying sheet and a silk flower to examine close up. We experimented with how close or far away to hold the magnifying sheet to see the most detail in the flower.

After that, we headed over to tables set with real flowers to examine, paper, and oil pastels. The kids were encouraged to draw the flowers. Let's just say that my 2 year old is not quite ready to do representational drawing, but she really enjoyed drawing with the oil pastels and exploring all the different colors.

 

When she'd had enough of drawing, we headed to the courtyard to have lunch. When there isn't a special event happening, the museum has a very unique water feature that kids LOVE to run through. These water fountains are about 5 feet wide and run the length of the  courtyard with small breaks at the doorways, and the water is maybe a half centimeter deep. I forgot how much fun these were and in retrospect I should have dressed K in better shoes (kids are not allowed to run barefoot) and brought a change of pants.

The museums themselves are fun to walk through, too. You can see some of the most well known portraits of our country's founders as well as interesting exhibits of more contemporary icons and artists in both the Portrait Gallery and American Art wings of the museum. The upper floor of the museum is incredibly ornate and worth a visit just to marvel at the beautiful details. This museum is less well-known and visited than some of the other Smithsonian museums because it is not on the mall, but it is definitely one of our favorites.

Getting there: 

Green/Yellow Line Metro to Gallery Place - exit at 9th Street

Things to know:

Museum does not open to the public until 11:30am

MLK Library across the street has a lovely children's area

Bring shoes that can get wet and a change of pants

Check the schedule online for special events and programs for kids

Bee Season

Warmth and sunshine. Finally.

We went to the playground for a few hours and noticed that the daffodils, which bloomed last winter in January(!) are just getting ready to open. As I went to inspect them, I got a nice surprise.

 Who's in there?
A bee!

On our way home we appreciated all the reflections in the puddles of melted snow. Hopefully our LAST snow until next winter.

  

Rainbow Cloud Craft

 

Another freezing cold March day, another rainbow craft to remind us that spring is coming.

First we cut out our clouds and glued cotton cosmetic rounds to it. K helped with the gluing.

Then we cut the paper. V chose to cut straight strips of rainbow, but I decided to make zig zags. 

We glued the paper to the back of the cloud, and V glued her strips together.

Finally we taped a string to the back and hung the clouds from our ceiling fans. 

After we hung them, I thought about taking them down to glue more cosmetic rounds to the back side of the cloud since both sides are visible. Maybe tomorrow.

 

Easy Dinner: Shake it Up Drumsticks & Purple Coleslaw

When I was a kid, I loved shake and bake chicken because it gave me a chance to be a part of the action during dinner prep. Today I like to make my own version of shake & bake because the kids like to help and it's an easy pantry meal that the whole family will eat without complaint.

I make my own ridiculously easy breading mixture using Panko breadcrumbs, Italian seasoned breadcrumbs, and seasoned salt. V did the measuring and mixing.

Once the seasoning was mixed in, we dumped it into the bag of recently defrosted chicken legs (I bought the value pack on sale last month and split it in half). I sealed up the bag and V shook it up. I followed up with a few more good shakes.

While we shook the chicken, I sang the Cars until V couldn't take it anymore...

I lined a cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper (yay easy clean up) and put the chicken legs on and pressed a little more of the extra panko from the bag onto them and baked at 400 for 40 minutes, flipped them, and baked 10 minutes more. Flipping them gives both sides a little crispiness.

Meanwhile, I mixed up the dressing for the coleslaw. I use a very basic recipe that always gets compliments at cookouts and the kids scarf it down in surprisingly large quantities. I think the key to good coleslaw is getting the ratio of dressing to cabbage just right. I add just enough dressing to barely coat the cabbage. For the coleslaw, I did the measuring and pouring, and the kids did the mixing.

SHAKE IT UP CHICKEN

Ingredients
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/2 cup italian breadcrumbs
1 tsp seasoned salt
6-8 chicken drumsticks

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450
2. Combine breadcrumbs and seasoned salt in a bowl
3. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper
4. Put drumsticks in a large zipper bag and pour in the breadcrumb mixture
5. Shake
6. Place drumsticks on parchment and press a few more leftover panko crumbs into legs
7. Bake for 40 minutes, flip, and bake 10 more minutes, or until leg registers 165 degrees with a meat thermometer

PURPLE COLESLAW

Ingredients 
1/4 cup vinegar
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp sugar
salt & pepper to taste (about 6-8 shakes/grinds for me)
purple cabbage, shredded (one large cabbage with heart removed, or one bag of pre-chopped)

Directions

1. combine all ingredients except cabbage in a small bowl & stir until sugar is dissolved
2. put cabbage in a large bowl
3. add vinegar mixture a small amount at a time, mixing and adding until the cabbage is just barely coated
4. refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to combine

Snow Day Activities: Rainbow Wreath & a Snow Slide

Today was, seemingly, the bazillionth snow day of the school year. Luckily, I saw this one coming. Yesterday I scanned Pinterest for some ideas and made a trip to the dollar store for some more snow day supplies. My 5 year old ALWAYS asks for an "activity" (or 3) to keep her busy on our days stuck at home.

Today we worked on rainbow wreaths.

Isn't that cheerful? I love a rainbow.

I started by cutting up a cardboard box, then V and I picked out two bowls from the kitchen to draw the circles - one big and one little. She did the tracing while I held the bowls.

Next we cut up red tissue paper into small squares - about 2" by 2". We put them all into a bowl and I squeezed glue around the outer edge of the cardboard. We crumpled up the paper and stuck them to the glue.

About 1/3 of the way around, we realized that the glue was starting to dry out already. After that, I put down smaller sections of glue at a time.

My 2 year old glued down a few pieces before she lost interest. She mostly enjoyed dumping the sheets of paper out of the bowl and putting them back in.

Yes, during all of this, the 2 year old was wearing a bathing suit and the 5 year old was in a party dress. I'm usually not too concerned about what they wear around the house, but on snow days I really pick my battles.

When we finished the red circle, we cut up the yellow tissue paper into small squares and glued that down to the cardboard. We saved the extra tissue squares for another project (maybe stained glass rainbows).

After we finished two rows of the wreath everyone, especially me, started getting antsy.  We took a much needed snack break, then suited up and headed outside to play in the snow.



On our last snow day, I noticed that the stairs to our basement door were completely covered in snow. Dragging the kids far enough to get to a safe sledding hill by myself (my husband almost always works on snow days) sounded unpleasant, so I decided that making a snow slide would be the next best thing.

This time around the snow was very airy and there wasn't quite enough to fill the stairs, but I shoveled some from the yard onto the stairs and packed it down a little and we were good to go.

K is still a bit too nervous to go down by herself, so I made a few slides down balancing a girl on each leg. It's a short ride, I think we have 5 or 6 stairs down, but fun.

I expect this will be a regular snow day activity from here on out. Who needs a playground when you can have your own snow slide?

After we came inside the girls took a bath and then we finished up the rainbow wreaths with green, blue, and purple.

I helped V quite a bit and I'm not sure she would have had the stamina to do a whole wreath on her own, but she enjoyed the project and was really proud to show off the results to her Dad. K got a bit frustrated and pulled off a few of the paper pieces at one point, but she really liked dumping out the paper and putting it back into the bowl and crumpling it up.

When we were finished with our projects, we hung one wreath on the front door and one on the door to V's room.

Rainbow wreath supplies: 
cardboard box
tissue paper in several colors
glue
scissors

Snow slide supplies:
snow
stairs