e pluribus unum

Thankful to have been able to spend the holiday weekend in Washington DC.

Thankful to have arrived safely after driving for five hours in this:

Thankful for the International Spy Museum.

 

Thankful to see Ford's Theater.

Where President Lincoln was assassinated.

Thankful for (and jealous of) immaculate subways with no advertising on the walls.

 

Thankful for the National Mall (not the shopping kind) and the many monuments we were able to visit.  Thankful we were all healthy enough to walk 8 miles (according to my phone) on Thursday and 6 miles each of the next following days.

Washington Monument

Martin Luther King Jr. Monument

The Reflecting Pool, site where MLK gave his I Have a Dream speech

Lincoln Memorial

Thankful for the National Museum of American History.

The actual Woolworth's lunch counter from Greensboro, NC

Thankful for the White House (and their new and improved security).

Thankful for the Supreme Court (and the awesome tour).

 

Thankful for the Library of Congress and getting to see the 800 year-old Magna Carta in person since it is only on display for another week.

Thomas Jefferson's personal library.

The original Magna Carta written in 1215.

Thankful for the incredible Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and our amazing tour guide.

The Wright Brothers' actual airplane

Amelia's Earhart's airplane flown solo over Atlantic

Thankful for the National Archives and seeing the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.  No photos allowed, understandably.

Thankful for the U.S. Capitol and being able to tour the inside.

 Thankful for Mount Vernon, home of George Washington.

 

Thankful for one of the best dinners of my life at the Blue Duck Tavern on Thanksgiving.

Thankful that Ella follows her passion and sketched her way around Washington DC all weekend long.

Thankful to have the absolute nicest and funniest friends in the whole world and thankful to see a few of them in DC.

Kevin's old friend Nicole from his Columbia days.

Paula and Tom's adorable kids.

My old buddies Paula and Tom

And thankful for our family in California, for being able to live in New York City, and for each other.

Dirty Rooms

The whole weekend was our oyster, now that sports are over for the season.

We had to be far uptown on Saturday afternoon for Maeve's birthday party so we decided to spend the first half of the day up in the Bronx at the New York Botanical Gardens.  They're having their annual Holiday Train Show which we missed last year.  We also took one of their tram rides around the park for the first time which helped us get a better feel for the size and scope.

It was pretty spectacular.  All the major New York City landmarks made out of only sticks and nuts and leaves and various things found in nature.  Even the train cars were all natural.

Maeve's birthday party was a "Pajamas and Pancakes" party even though it wasn't a slumber party.  And since our entire family is friends with their entire family we all stayed for the party and had a delicious dinner of blueberry pancakes.  

 

Again, waking up on Sunday and knowing the day was ours to do with what we pleased was so refreshing.  Kevin and the kids caught a matinee (Big Hero 6) while I got some much needed time alone.  I read six whole chapters of my book and drank a huge latte in my favorite coffee shop.

In the afternoon the kids got to return to one of their very favorite places, Science Teacher Sarah's.  They spent an exciting two and a half hours making messy science experiments, learning about scurvy and pirates and other random facts and stuffing their faces with pizza and popcorn.

Meanwhile, Kevin and I wandered through the buildings of NYU and made our way to SoHo where we met our friends Alina and Tom.  We checked out a very strange art exhibit that Kevin read about.  You ring the unmarked doorbell, walk up a flight of stairs and go into a loft apartment that is filled about three feet deep with dirt.  The entire apartment.  And it's been that way since 1977.  It belongs to the Dia Art Foundation and the artist is Walter De Maria. 

 

As we were laughing with a few other people who were there checking it out, saying things like "Wow, what a waste of an awesome apartment in SoHo!" and "Who waters this place?" and "Is this structurally sound?", a woman suggested that maybe our reactions and conversation was really the art piece.  So New York.

We checked out one more art installation by the same artist around the corner and then enjoyed the last of our weekend drinking beer with our friends, laughing about the absurdity of New York City real estate, all while our kids were learning science on a Sunday night in a run down West Village apartment with neon green walls.

I can't make this stuff up.

Liberty and Liberals

I skipped Monday's post mostly to spare you people more of the same: "Wow, it's cold outside!"/ "Damn the kids' sports taking over our entire weekends!"/ "I feel like crap."

Ella's last softball game was cancelled on Saturday due to the weather which of course I was thrilled about since I was all loaded up on antibiotics and yes, feeling like crap.  So she and I spent the day cuddled up in bed watching the entire documentary series on the New York City Ballet (produced by Sarah Jessica Parker).

I will toss in a few photos for the Grandmas of the kids getting trophies (just for participating, mind you, which I am not a fan of) and such from last weekend.

This is what Saturday morning cartoons look like at our apartment.

Pizza party for last baseball game

I was feeling well enough Sunday night to join my friend Alina at Doc NYC (a documentary film festival) to see the film Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile, written by her friend's sister.  A must see.  It was the film's world premiere and we were able to stay for the Q & A after with the creators and the lead subject in the film.  Very cool.

The kids had their last creative writing class of this session (they'll continue the next session starting next week).  Whenever a kid finishes a book they get to write the title and their name up on the book wall at Writopia Lab.  Both Ella and Holden now have their names on the wall.  This is by far their very favorite class of the week, which is the biggest surprise to Kevin and me.

 

After jostling with my meds and getting some rest I was back on my feet by Tuesday, in time for a field trip with a group of homeschoolers.  We got to see a musical called Liberty and being the middle of a Tuesday we were able to sit in the front row.  If it comes to your town, I highly recommend it.  Ella walked out saying, "That was amazing..."  It's about a French immigrant girl named Liberty (symbolizing the Statue of Liberty in human form) and her struggles with being a new immigrant in 1884 to the United States.  It is very timely.  There is an evil character of a politician/businessman who is against allowing more immigrants into the country.  Ella said, "Doesn't he see that he will make more money if he lets them in?"  Which goes to show that you don't choose to become a liberal, you're just born that way.