A Shot in the Arm

Up until last week I wasn't having too much fun here.  I'm still working on trying to unpack the house, but not really feeling inspired by the white walls and not being able to change anything because it's a rental, and because I know we won't be here very long. On Thursday I was lucky enough to get to chaperone Henry's fourth grade field trip to the Kennedy Center to see the National Symphony perform Beethoven.  It was a beautiful day and the music was amazing. The conductor was funny and engaging and had thousands of fourth graders singing "Ode to Joy" at the end (I'm not the only mom who got teary-eyed, either).  It was exactly what I needed to get me out of this slump.  Since moving east, our kids have been able to experience so much that they never could have living on Whidbey Island.  Not that living there wasn't a wonderful experience, too, but we'd pretty much milked all we could out of it.



Rectal Escape Kit



Yesterday we took the Metro in to DC to go the Spy Museum, which everyone seemed to enjoy.  Most memorable to the kids was the Rectal Escape Kit, which is exactly what it sounds like.  They also enjoyed the dog poop transmitter. Maturity has never been a strong suit in our family.

 After the Spy Museum we grabbed a bite to eat.  My budding food critic ordered lobster macaroni and cheese, which really should have come with a defibrillator.  I had one bite and my ass grew two sizes.

We felt the need to do a little walking after the heavy lunch, so we went across the street to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, which was by far my favorite part of the day.  When we got home, the girls were inspired to get out their paints and paint portraits for the rest of the weekend.  Jack was inspired to go back to bed for about 18 hours, and Henry was inspired to make a list of things he thought would be important to have in a Rectal Escape Kit. 




Chuck Close's portrait of Bill Clinton

 



The kids were excited that they recognized a few
famous paintings.

 


There was a kids' craft area in the beautiful atrium and the girls made hats and a headband while
 Henry scoped out the naked lady sculptures with Mitch upstairs.



Jack's reaction to finding out that the Stephen Colbert portrait was no longer there,
 combined with eating a giant plate of fried shrimp at lunch.