Natural History Museum - Part 1

 Yesterday Declan told me that he wanted to go see gems - he's been playing a lot of MineCraft this summer.  When I told him that there was a place very close by that we could see LOTS of gems - his eyes lit up!  This morning we found parking right in front of the Natural History Museum and spent the morning looking at gems!
It's my favorite part of the museum so I was super excited to be able to spend lots of time there. Usually everyone humors me for about 10 minutes but we spent almost two hours looking at all sorts of rocks and minerals.
On the way out the kids remembered the butterfly exhibit so guess what? We're coming back soon!!

The American Museum of Art

 We took a trip to the American Art Museum today!  Aidan went to the pool with a friend so it was just the four of us.  I had never been to this museum before but it was great!  Another museum that is a little of off the beaten path and was pretty empty.  The art was great - the kids really liked the modern art area and the atrium with the snack bar!!!

Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian

Today I took the kids to the American Indian Museum in DC.   We were pretty excited to go since I had heard that there was a great area for kids.  It turned out to be not quite as great as we had expected.  The art areas were actually more interesting that the kids area!  We did get parking right out front of the museum which was awesome!  After about an hour in the museum, we decided to walk across the street and spend a little time at the Botanical Gardens.  It's always nice in there and it's great for a long or short visit!  The kids got some pretzels from the street vendor outside of the museum and Declan got his own pretzel since the vendor didn't think he should share.  That made for a VERY happy Declan.  Unfortunately - but in typical fashion - Declan fell really hard right onto his face as we were leaving the botanical garden and got the fattest swollen lip ever!  It's a good thing that we hard parked right outside - I didn't have to carry a screaming and kicking 40 pound preschooler too far!!

 Getting some pretzels!!

Declan after the epic face plant. :(