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.

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.

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

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