Stars and Stripes Forever

Before we left on vacation, we did a major push to tidy the house and bolster the little Toad's spending accounts. Abizella was firm from the moment we got to D.C. she wanted to buy only an American Flag. She proudly marched through the streets waving her flag. Here she is flaring it before the collection of First Ladies Gowns (Hillary Clinton and Lora Bush) at the American History Museum.
The guys played it cool and just breezed through the Ladies evening wear and got some man time in with some heavy duty machinery.
There was also time for play at the American History Museum. Not sure what marbles and blocks have to do with history, but we'll take it.

Superkid even spotted an old friend on the way out. Now THAT is history!
Next up was the National Art Gallery. The kiddos tossed a coin in the fountain to make a wish (the highlight for the kiddos).
My highlight was seeing Abizella twirl through the collection of Degas dancers.
Pops and I also really enjoyed Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington and the only Divinci painting in the Western Hemisphere. While these treasures were largely lost on the littlest Toads POOL TIME wasn't! After all of that cultural refinement, we were ready to burn a little steam. FINALLY we took a dip in the hotel pool.
And a little poolside snack... (I'm telling you, if you haven't had a Tadpole chat recently you're missing out!)
Next stop was Mount Vernon. Uncle Brian, (possibly the only bigger George Washington fan than Pops) did a little pre-trip research and found a special Memorial Day event at George Washington's home. We threw out some blankets on his back lawn and enjoyed the sunset over the Potomac River.

Abizella simply adored the 18th century music being strung on the mansion's back porch. And the crowd adored her as she took to her stage and danced for her pleasing audience. She literally danced the night away.
Superkid took the opportunity to kick back and munch on a piece of grass...
We were all delighted to learn that the "hors d'oeurves" advertised, were actually a collection of cakes. Hey *chocolate cake* is not just for breakfast anymore!
And there was also some time for Aunt Jenny Snuggles (and dog piles...sorry about that Jenny)...
It all was just lovely until we wandered down to take our wagon ride and found that the rides were *over* and it was time to close.
We all tanked.
Pops wanted to secure a sweet spot in the children's hearts for his beloved Mount Vernon. He made deft tactical decision and spun the children through the gift shop to make a selection. Superkid ran from the shop to show me his gains and said, "If you ever want to see Mount Vernon, just look in my kaleidoscope!" Abizella later confided to me, "It came true, I wished for a pony at the fountain (remember the National Art Gallery fountain?) and my wish came true! Tadploe got a bucket-0-revolutionary men. Retail therapy makes everything better. Just ask the kids. They will tell you every time that Mount Vernon was their fav.
And they played Revolutionary War peaceably, well into the night.
We'll definitely be back!

All View... No Room

We hit the pavement hard our first full day in Washington D.C. ...maybe a little too hard, which left the kids begging for less time "viewing" D.C. and more time "rooming" in D.C. But since I am the keeper of the Toad family history, and the kids are too young to have a lasting memory of the trip, they will have to believe what they read on the blog, which is they had a FANTASTIC time. No distance was too far, no line was too long, no oppressive heat could keep them down. They simply just couldn't get enough. So here is what we packed in on day 2.

First up: White house tour, scored by Pops through Senator Scott Brown's office.
We could have stayed all day in the gorgeous mansion, admiring the vibrant green, blue and red rooms, twirling in the East Room, imagining our fancy feast at a State dinner, sucking in the revitalizing AC. But we had stuff to see so we majestically promenaded out the front door,
back into the sauna!
And can you believe it? We waltzed straight into Uncle Brian and Aunt Jenny. It was a serendipitous meeting, we weren't planning on seeing them until later!
It really rallied our spirits.
But we soon parted, they to Ford's Theatre and us to the Air and Space Museum.
Our kind of heaven.

Even Little Chief got untethered to enjoy the moment.
Next stop, the Botanical Garden. A little something for the girls.
I'm not going to lie. At this point we were all had melted into little sticky puddles on the Mall. Pops procured some Gatorade that revitalized us. Abz was restored to her dancing nymph self.
You can only drudge past the carousel so many times before it is imperative to take a spin.
And since the youngest Toads were so well rested, we took the opportunity to join Uncle Brian and Aunt Jenny to pay a visit to the National Archives. No photography is allowed, but the image of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and the Bill of Rights is burned into our memory, right kids?

A Room With a View

We made it! Beautiful Washington D.C.!
Pops scored us this most excellent room with a view of the Washington Monument, and a bay window to sit and bask in its glory.
But first we had to get there. That was an experience in itself.
There were good times (...ahhh sweet succulent blankie)
There were bad times...
And there was even a stop-over at our with our Favorite New Jersey-ians!
This was a banner event.
Some of us have been talking about Mathew's cars for the last 10 months since they relocated to the Garden State.
And we found that New Jersey REALLY is the Garden State! I was eating my heart out dreaming of being a farmer. That's right, lush gardens and goats to boot.
There was even a little time to contemplate the dirt.
We could have stayed MUCH MUCH longer (oh how we miss our Zellers!)... but we had a dinner date to keep. Actually, it was more like a dinner date to crash. Uncle Brian and Aunt Jenny were spending a quiet weekend without kids in the Nation's Capitol. That is until our kids arrived on the scene.
We topped off the night by strolling through the Washington and World War II monuments. It was the perfect night.

Tippy Toes

Miss Abizella's ballet debut was last Saturday. She was spectacular!
Such grace.
Such beauty.
It was fun to watch her prance, twirl, run and giggle with other little ballerinas.

But when it was showtime, she was all business. She followed her teacher's lead with precision.
Here she is with her partner in tutus. Miss Jordan was sensational. Abizella has been telling us all year how Jordan is the best ballet dancer in the class.
It is obvious that both of these little ladies have a flair of their own.

Bush Child

Tadpole spends his days roaming the back yard barefoot. He is absolutely filthy every night when I get home. I have resigned myself to the fact that no matter how hard I scrub his feet each night, I will not see peachy flesh again until next winter. So it came as no surprise that Pops found a blood sucking tick adhered to his arm Sunday morning. We had spent the previous evening at the neighbor's birthday party. While Tad did get a bath *before* the party, the *after* party bath was nixed when he came home and collapsed.

Good thing Pops found the tick because I would have *freaked* out. We calmly consulted Dr. Google, plucked the offending blood-sucker intact from his arm, and put it in a ziploc just in case we need to go to the doctor down the road.

Tadpole asked for the bag and said, "Oh good. Can I keep it? He can be my pet! I will name him Pet-ah!" Superkid got Tadpole a magnifying glass to examine his new pet.
Tadpole next asked, "Can we feed Pet-ah lunch?" Pops responded, "YOU were Peter's lunch. He was eating your blood." Instead of freaking out, Tadpole said, "Can we feed Pet-ah some blood water?"
Acknowledging Tadpole's love for all things wild, we've instituted MANDATORY tick checks and baths from here on out.

The Energizer Toddler

This is one busy little guy. He just keeps going and going and going...

One of his new favorite activities is Truckin' in his new sweet ride...
Every once and awhile he stops in at his favorite feeding spot.
There is always promise of something to delight.
Nothing makes a kid happier than double-fisting delicious dumpster discards.

But even the most energetic amongst us needs an occasional moment to re-charge...

Music to My Ears...

Determined, Abizella pushed a chair up to the sink and said,
"I'm doing the dishes tonight and I'm doing it myself."

...and she did.
I am not about to mess with a girl on a mission.