Preschool Museum of Art

Cutie Pie’s preschool art and music program was this morning.  In true creative style, the mom who usually plans the event outdid herself.  It was truly a thing to behold.  I have lots of pictures to share but they simply don’t do justice to how cool it was.  I don’t know what could possibly be done to top it next year…

The show began at 11 AM in the church sanctuary where the children assembled to sing lots of fun springtime/Mother’s Day/Father’s Day songs.

The preciousness was almost too much to handle.  *sigh*

After the music portion was complete we met up with Cutie Pie at his class table in the fellowship hall.  There waiting for us were lots of fun Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gifts that Cutie Pie had made.

We made our way out into the hall to see Cutie Pie’s class art display in the art gallery.  Each class had an 8′ table and an 8′ x 4′ board on which to display all of their artistic treasures.  It was amazing to see what all of the children have made over the school year!

This year, the food was set up outside on the breezeway between the chapel and the church administration building.  Each snack was staged to look like famous paintings.  Ingenious, I say!

There was a photo op for the girls and a photo op for the boys set up on the lawn near the iced coffee and punch table.

One of the newest features of this year’s art show was the sculpture garden.  I take credit for this idea and I also took a lot of crap from some very stressed out teachers who did not want to participate.  In the end, everyone managed came up with a class sculpture for the garden.  I was amazed by how lovely and different all the pieces turned out!!!  For all of their complaining, the teachers ended up thinking the garden was a nice addition to the art show.

Cutie Pie’s class worked with a local artist (who happens to also be one of the student’s grandmother) to create Tilly the sea turtle.  It took the class many work sessions over a couple of months to create the sculpture from paper mache and I think it turned out beautifully!!!

In the end, I managed to survive not one but two heartwarming/heart wrenching performances this week.  My little boys are growing up in the blink of an eye.  What can I do to slow this down?  I simply don’t like this brutal march of time.

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Capitol Tour

As it turns out, Memorial Day is an awesome day for a tour of the Capitol building.  Most tourists are outside waiting for the Memorial Day parade to start.

Our flight did not leave until 5:30 PM  so we needed a short, fun activity to fill our time before heading to the airport.  I was able to reserve 4 tickets for a Capitol tour at noon.  When we checked in for our tour we were able to change our time to 11 AM due to the low volume of visitors.  It was perfect!

We had just enough time to cruise the visitor center to see some of the statues before our group was called in to watch a short movie about the history of the Capitol.

Helen Keller is one of the newest additions to the visitor center’s collection.  She is the only person depicted as a child and the only one with disabilities.

May I just say that our Capitol is a breathtaking building?   Simply stunning.   Brumidi’s Apotheosis of Washington was reminiscent of the Sistine Chapel for me.  The fresco was so lovely, yet so far away!  It was hard to see all of the beautiful details of the masterpiece at the top of the dome.

All of the details in the Rotunda were almost too much to take in.  I was on artistry overload.  It was all so beautiful.  I love how the band of scenes from our country’s history is painted to look like a relief sculpture.  Amazing!

The above photo is just because I read The Lost Symbol…  Those who have read it will get it 🙂

We saw other cool things like the exact spot where John Quincy Adams sat during his time as a House Representative.

Ronald Reagan’s statue was particularly interesting because it had pieces of the Berlin Wall embedded into the pedestal in a thin band.

I liked this unfinished bust of Abraham Lincoln.  Half of his face has one expression and half has another.

When we finished our tour we had enough time to take the tunnel over to the Library of Congress.  I have seen photos of it’s famous Reading Room and wanted to see it for myself.  Unfortunately, it was closed to the public.  I was able to snap a quick photo through a window in a door.  It’s not the best picture but you get the idea.

We had a quick lunch back at the visitor center before heading for the airport.  Let me just say that the restaurant over there is outstanding!  So many healthy and organic food choices.  I was very impressed especially after consuming so many unhealthy things while on vacation.  It was a welcomed treat for us.

This concludes my five part vacay re-cap.  Hope you enjoyed reliving the trip with me!

National Harbor

We flew out of Melbourne last Wednesday afternoon for Washington DC.  It was our boys’ first plane trip.  And, boy, were they excited!  They absorbed everything about the airport and the planes while we waited to board.  The TSA officer gave them badge stickers to wear on their shirts which made them feel pretty special.

J was already in Maryland for a training class so I flew alone with Wildman and Cutie Pie.  I made sure to pack plenty of activities and snacks in their backpacks to keep them occupied.  They were remarkably well-behaved but super chatty due to all the excitement.  It was really very cute.  They charmed many of the passengers and crew members.

*****

J left us the rental car while he was in class on Thursday.  It was just me and the boys with the entire day laid out in front of us.  I decided to take them over to National Harbor to do some exploring.  J had heard that the ferry over to Old Town was something that the boys might enjoy.

Luckily the harbor was nearby and easy to find.  It is a relatively new place with lots of shops and restaurants.  Some of the waterfront buildings are still under construction as indicated by the cacophony of power tools.

We stumbled upon this neat, half-buried (what I believe to be) Neptune statue at the water’s edge.

The boys enjoyed climbing all over the statue pieces but the metal quickly got too hot in the morning sun.  We retreated to the cool of the Peep Store for a bottle of water.  Did you know there were such things as Peep Stores?  I had no idea.

When our water and Peep samples were consumed we headed over to the dock to board the ferry.

As expected, the boys thought the boat ride was awesome!  They couldn’t make up their minds what was better: being in the cabin getting drinks out of the water cooler OR checking out the sights on the bow.  Both activities were probably about equal in their eyes.  Personally, I enjoyed being outside.  That’s where I took all my photos 🙂

We were starving by the time we set foot in Old Town.  It didn’t take us long to find a quaint little restaurant with a Chicago-style pizza buffet.  The boys and I made quick work of our pizza and salads then set out to find the King Street trolley.

The boys noticed an ice cream shop while we were waiting for the trolley.  We hurried over to buy a couple of cups before boarding.  I wasn’t sure if the driver would let us take the ice cream with us but he did.

The King Street trolley is free and took us all the way up to the George Washington National Masonic Memorial and back down to the water.  It was a nice little ride around Alexandria.  The boys weren’t too keen on walking around in the heat so it was the perfect solution.

We took the ferry back across the Potomac to National Harbor to retrieve our car.  By the time we got back to the hotel the boys were wiped out.  We all took a little nap while we waited for J’s friend to bring him back from class.  I am proud of myself for navigating through unfamiliar territory with my children and not getting lost!  We managed to have a great adventure just the three of us.