Keep It Local: Third Floor at the National Portrait Gallery + American Art Museum

I'm not sure how we've been to the National Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum as many times as we have and missed the wonderful 20th century and contemporary art collections on the third floor, but last week we finally accidentally discovered them. We were actually trying to get over to American Cool, but were detoured by the installation of another exhibit. And thank goodness because the art on the third floor is awesome! It's big, it's loud, it's right up my alley. Cam was on the verge of a meltdown, so we didn't get to spend as much time as we wanted up there, but I'm guessing we'll be making a special trip back soon just for that. Don't miss out!

p.s. don't forget to enter our Thinkfun Giveaway -- it ends Sunday!!!

Keep It Local: Presidents' Family Day at the National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum

Happy Presidents' Day! We know we just posted on the National Portrait Gallery, but they've just been having so much great programming lately, we had to go again! And we know we chose well because we ran into several different friends there, including the No Monsters in My Bed crew. It was obviously a hot spot. We spent a good chunk of this past Saturday enjoying Presidents' Family Day at the NPG and the American Art Museum. In fact, there were so many fabulous activities set up in the courtyard, we didn't even make it out to the galleries this time! Well, Cam and daddy did. But I was ALL OVER the art activities. I met GW again (I swear he was slightly shorter this time) and my second favorite president (Mr. Lincoln), made a top hat, built with Lincoln Logs, designed my own presidential china, colored presidential pop art (a truly awesome art project that we're planning to try at home too), and watched the Nats Racing Presidents boogey down. I give it two thumbs up for a great presidential celebration (and you know how I feel about presidents).

that's a lot of stripes, blondeness and rain boots (Cam changed into her dressy flats upon arrival, obvi).

my top hat.

my presidential china pattern.

now that's a presidential pose.

such a cool pop art project. mom wanted to stay there all day.

Keep It Local: Portrait Story Days at the National Portrait Gallery and DC Youth Poetry Slam

We have a knack for accidentally discovering the coolest (and often free) events and programs in DC. It happens all the time, which is likely an indicator that the city is just teeming with awesome opportunities for kids, but we like to think we have a particular affinity for finding them just the same. Mom has been waiting to take us to Portrait Story Days at the National Portrait Gallery for a while. We're no strangers to art museums, but she wanted to make sure we were both old enough to really get the program. Turns out it is super laid back and we would have been just fine ages ago, but regardless, it was awesome.

While we waited for the Story Days to begin, we checked out the Gallery's fabulous exhibit "Dancing the Dream," which is filled with multimedia art of all kinds of dance styles. Cam loved the ballet and I loved that I was able to pick out Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies" video. The exhibit is at the Gallery until July and we definitely recommend checking it out.

When it was storytime, we listened to a fabulous book about Julia Child and then made self-portraits from fruits and veggies while video of Julia played on the wall. It was such a cool activity! After we finished our mugs, we got to check out discovery kits, too. Each kit comes with a doll of someone whose portrait is in the museum, along with lots of ideas for prompting kids to look and examine the artwork. I was pretty psyched to pull Abe Lincoln (one of my top two favorite presidents, along with GW) and Cam was thrilled to get Jacqueline Kennedy. We went on a search throughout the Gallery for portraits of our peeps and then spent a good amount of time comparing our doll to the portrait. Cam was a little antsy to get to the Kogod Courtyard snack bar, so she and daddy went ahead, but I spent a lot of time discussing Lincoln's portrait with mom, describing it using the great set of notepads in the kits, and drawing my own portrait of him, too (they let us keep the notepads, which are awesome and will be used on lots of future museum trips).

We finally met up with Cam and daddy in the courtyard only to find that the Gallery was setting up for the semi-finals of the DC Youth Poetry Slam team -- the competition was going to determine the team to represent DC nationally and internationally. Mom and I were PSYCHED. Cam was tired. So Cam and daddy headed home and mom and I poked around the Gallery a bit more until the slam started and then we made sure we had front row seats. Mom talked to me a bit about what slam poetry is and told me that even though these were kids, they would likely be talking about sort of adult subjects. I insisted that I wanted to stay, so we did. I thought it was neat that kids got up to perform and that a lot of the poetry sounded like music to me. I even volunteered to be a judge (random audience members just the competition), but mom said I was too young. I kept my own scores anyway. And mom was blown away. Seriously, blown away. She thought the kids were super brave and talented and inspiring. I might have caught her crying a bit. Maybe.

The National Portrait Gallery hosts Portrait Story Days on select Saturdays and Sundays each month. You can check the events calendar right here. We HIGHLY recommend both the storytime and the discovery kits.

If you get a chance and feel that your kids are old enough or are comfortable with your younger ones being exposed to some more mature issues, you should definitely check out DC's youth slam poets at an open mic night, which they hold the 3rd Saturday of each month at Busboys & Poets. Amazing.

Saw You in a Park of a Courtyard: Kogod Courtyard and National Portrait Gallery

We have been trying to fit in a visit to the National Portrait Gallery for some time, but have a hard time because it doesn't open until 11:30 a.m.  During the week, that runs pretty close to the time we have to get Kane from school and on the weekend, 11:30 is a late start for us.  Mom and I popped in yesterday to take a look and ended up spending most of our time in the Kogod Courtyard eating lunch (after spending most of the morning "shopping" in the nearby Forever 21 store waiting for the Portrait Gallery to open).  As far as we're concerned, the Kogod Courtyard and the Courtyard Cafe are a destination in and of themselves.  It's cool, it's quiet, and they serve up grilled cheese and tomato soup.  And there is a pretty neat water feature running the length of the courtyard, too.

We did take a few minutes to check out some of the Portrait Gallery and to run up to the American Art Museum's exhibit on video games (the American Art Museum and the Portrait Gallery share space), which mom wanted to check out for Kane.  She seemed pretty psyched that they had giant Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros. games, but I wasn't interested.  We don't have any video games (although at one point we also didn't used to watch t.v., so there's hope yet), but older kids would probably like this exhibit and parents who grew up in the 80s would get a kick out of it, too.

If you are looking for other activities in the area, the Martin Luther King public library is right across the street and has Baby/Toddler storytime Fridays at 10:30 a.m. and Tales for Twos and Threes Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m.  The Spy Museum is also a stone's throw away if you have older kids and want to spend some dough.  And the Gallery Place/Chinatown metro stop (green/yellow/red lines) is literally right outside the building.

accessories shopping at Forever 21 --  i was pretty psyched about the hot pink 

rubber coin purse and lip chaps i got

waiting for Portrait Gallery to open