Keep It Local: 1001 Inventions Family Festival at the National Geographic Museum

We needed a low-key out of the house activity last weekend and, because the National Geographic Museum is relatively small scale for a D.C. museum, mom thought the 1001 Inventions Family Festival would be a good fit.  It was, but there was nothing low-key about it.

There was free admission that day and there was no chance of getting in to see the actual 1001 Inventions exhibit -- there was a line wrapped around the museum for that.  Fortunately, it will be there until February 2013.  AND the museum had all kinds of free activities for kids to do instead -- we made mosaic tiles, built tall spires, painted incense burners and ate our fair share of hummus.  It was crowded, but the staff handled all the people well and took a lot of time with each of the individual children and their crafts.  We were super impressed and, although the family festival is over, we plan to attend one of the remaining FREE family workshops the museum is hosting on October 27, November 24, December 22, and January 19.  And hopefully we'll get in to the actual exhibit soon, too!

In Home Entertainment: Dry Ice + Water = Mad Science Fun

I'm super duper into Scooby Doo these days -- I ask mom to make up Scooby stories about a million times each day, but insist that Daphne "gets taken" in every one -- either by the Leland Brothers, "the drink stand man," the "Phantom Cowboy" or one of several iterations of a "ghost pirate."  And Cam has recently started requesting Scooby Doo/Dora mashup stories.  Seriously.  So when mom had to have Peapod do an unattended delivery of our groceries last night, she knew we'd throw hysterics over making our own fog with the dry ice they leave in some of the coolers.  It was the first thing we did when we woke up this morning -- who doesn't love a jammie-clad, pre-breakfast, mad science experiment?

There's really not much to it -- mom put a small piece of dry ice in the bottom of a tall clear tupperware (to help us resist the urge to touch the dry ice, which apparently doesn't feel so great).  Then we each took a cup of water and, slowly at first, poured water onto the dry ice to create fog.  We helped blow the fog all over the table and then took to "scooping and pouring" it with our cups.

Word is grocery stores, ice cream shops, and boating stores sometimes sell dry ice -- give it a try!

Love: Sharing Lovey

(After wrestling ruthlessly)

"Cam, want to share my lovey?"

"No thanks."

"But, Cam, I love you."

"OK, sure."

"Here, let me brush your face.  Now let's hold hands."

Keep It Local: American Trail Exhibit at the National Zoo

Wolves, people.  Wolves.  We went last week to check out the zoo's long-anticipated American Trail exhibit, which has been closed since before we were born.  Among the first animals we spotted was a grey wolf, who came down promptly to say hello (I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that from its vantage point I sort of look like a small human that had been left alone).  Love me some wolves.

We were instant big fans of the exhibit, which is incorporated into the side of Rock Creek Park and uses many of the woods' natural elements (or was incredibly well done to appear that way).  In fact, mom has since run through there in the morning and seen lots of deer foraging right next to the wolves, bald eagle, and sea lions.  Allegedly, the wolves ran along side their enclosure with her once -- totes like Dancing with the Wolves, mom.

The biggest draw for us was the "tide pool" splash pool -- built next to the sea lion exhibit, the tide pool floods itself every few minutes offering a nice spot to cool off.  It was busy on the day we were there and we imagine in the heat of summer, it'll be mobbed.  We had just missed the sea lion demonstration, but it looked pretty awesome.  As I've taken to saying lately, "Oh my gosh.  Awesome."   Mom also thought the new Searock Cafe (also by the sea lions), which features Chesapeake Bay seafood, looked pretty awesome.  Lobster roll?  Yes, please.

we quickly learned that you are not supposed to climb on these rocks.

In Home Entertainment: Glow-in-the-Dark Water Beads

So, actually, the glow-in-the-dark part was kind of a FAIL.  The directions said to put the water beads in light for 5-7 hours and mom left them in the light for much longer than that, but they really didn't glow.  We tried them in our bath at night with no real dice.  That didn't stop us from having a good time, of course.  We asked for shaving cream (and then colored shaving cream) and glow sticks to "paint" with -- we even discovered that the glow sticks stuck to the shaving cream on the wall and we used those to "build" shapes.  The water beads didn't glow much out of the bath either.  Mom said they worked slightly better under the black light, but obviously she didn't want to put that close to the bathtub.  Good thing a water bead bath is fun all on its own!

impossible to take pics in the dark, but i'm making shapes on the shaving cream here.

Love: A Good Backscratch

Kane: "Cam, will you rub my back?"

Cameron: "Sure, Naney."  Then gives kiss.

Kane: "Cam, I'm tryin' to take a nap.  Don't kiss too loud."

Keep It Local: Brookside Gardens' "Wings of Fancy"

Happy Labor Day!  Summer is officially over  -- hard to believe, especially with today's incredibly hot and humid weather.  This week is back to school week for our whole family:  Kane heads back for another year of preschool; I'm all set for my first preschool experience; mom starts some continuing art education classes; and daddy, well, daddy continues schooling newbie lawyers in his biglaw school of hard knocks.  We have a lot on deck for the fam this fall and we've decided to scale back a bit on the blog for the moment.  Our current plan is to post three times a week, including one local spot to play, one art or craft project, and one whatever the heck we want (which will likely be a favorite moment of the week, funny thing we said, or particularly cute picture).

With that in mind, the local spot to play we're highlighting this week is Brookside Gardens' "Wings of Fancy" butterfly exhibit.  We've posted on Brookside Gardens before, but this was the first time we made it to see the butterflies.  We planned to meet some buddies there and completely lucked out by catching a gigantic black snake upon meeting up (see the pic our friend snapped below).  We wandered (mom wandered, we ran screaming through the gardens as usual) over to the butterfly exhibit and waited just a few minutes before entering -- they only allow a small number of people in at a time, which is why we had yet to visit -- it was so crowded this summer.  Upon entering, we received a great little "lecture" illustrating the life cycle of butterflies, complete with live examples of the different stages.  Kane seemed particularly interested in that.

Then we entered the greenhouse, which was HOT, but full of gigantic colorful butterflies.  Kane and I were truly enthralled -- we both sat quietly throughout the exhibit and patiently looked for the colors of the rainbow (we decided to try and find butterflies every color of the rainbow -- we succeeded).  We purposefully wore bright colors that day and one butterfly landed right on Kane's shoe!  And we both also enjoyed getting to hold specimens.  All in all, a big success.

"Wings of Fancy" is on exhibit until September 16th -- get there while you still can!

do you see the look on my face?  not a small snake.

Kane giving the butterfly cold shoulder.

OK, he can't ignore it anymore.  he has to explain the life cycle.

and it wasn't good news.

flap like a butterfly.

we knew dayglow shoes would come in handy.

my favorite -- the "polka dot one."

mom found a green one for Kane!

a quiet moment in the garden before splashing commenced.