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.

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.

 

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