Finally

For the longest longest longest time, C4 has insisted that she "is not fond of dressing up."

This covers wearing masks, hats, dress up clothes, and halloween costumes. Even dogs. Even just dog ears and dog tails. Even just dog paws. Even black dog spots on a white outfit. Anything. Because she isn't fond of dressing up. But I guess the last few months of getting pictures of dogs on her face changed her mind.

This morning C4 & Q2 found the face paint and somehow I suggested that Q2 get a full face picture. She chose a lion:



And C4 ... after getting 2 small dogs, saw the lion and I suggested she could have a ... golden retriever on her face. The whole face. And she went for it:



Maybe not the best of dog faces, but she loved it.

The last visit of the weekend

D, R, and R6 came over. We decided rather than just hang out we'd take them down to the Mall. It took 2 cars, but we got them to the Mall. After a few parking issues, Me, C4, Q2, D, and R6 got dropped off at the Museum of Natural History and the Sant Ocean Hall. We stayec there for maybe 20 minutes?30 minutes? then to the Mammal Hall, that they love, and eventually into the short film about Morgey's Family Reunion. They LOOOVE that movie. Probably just because it is a movie.

They stopped to see a model of Morgey:


and we went out, petted some dogs, and had a snack before riding the carousel:


I love this photo of D:



And I tried to take a family photo of them:


Then onto the National Museum of the American Indian. We passed the fountain/pools wher the ducks were not swimming. Q2 wanted to go in, but I told her we couldn't because it was for the ducks. But she noted that they had flown away so we could go in.


A the museum we didn't find much on D's tribes, but we did find a display case of dogs, in front of which C4 had to get her photo taken:


By now we were all tired and D & I took the kids to buy ice cream and we sent the guys to get the cars, which were almost a mile away. On the ride home Q2 fell asleep within about 30 seconds of getting in the car.

Big day.

Another weekend post

Also this weekend ... Aunt C. was visiting. She had a conference to go to in Takoma Park, so she was staying with us to save some money. Fine by us, C4 & Q2 loooooooove her. We didn't see enough of her, but every morning and evening the kids got to see and kiss and color with her. So that was fun.

Saturday was another festival of the building arts at the National Building Museum. Another fun fun fun day!

Q2 was a little grumpy at first, and definitely didn't like the blacksmithing outside. So we breezed by that and went inside, where we split up.

Q2 didn't want her yellow hard hat; she wanted a blue one. She cried at the wood chipping. She cried at the stone carving. She didn't want to wear safety glasses so she could hammer nails. She didn't want to create a nuts & bolts sculpture. But we got to spackling ... and we had found our activity.



I only dragged her away from that activity after somebody came by and said there would be dancing outside. People and machines. Called "Pas de Dirt" by the Liz Lerman Dance Exhange, and set to the music from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. So we went out, got good lawn seats and watched the dancing. It made me laugh. It made me cry. I was glad when it was over.

We'd hooked back up with C4 & C39 at this point, and found that C4 had gotten a permit and made a great townhouse:



Q2 saw that and decided the city needed a fountain:



We made some "colorforms" stained glass windows, colored some pictures, and pounded some big big wood:



Then we dragged them away kicking and screaming back to the car and home for lunch and quiet time. That the same as always: not quiet.

So I took them to the park where we met BatQ2:

Another day, another carousel

Athought Thursday I had to work (and it was very very productive!), Friday we were able to spend with E. We met at Air & Space (always fun). And it was a "4 girl day" which is fun, too. We had a snack first:



Poor, E, though, we barely had time to look here, look there, run here, run there and then we were out of there. I hope she enjoys kids, because we certainly didn't get to look at anything for long. We did go through the space station (in which somebody ahead of had ... uh, er, flatulated ... so it was kind of stuffy in there) and through the moon section (sat with strangers, scootched over so they were squished, then watched the movies for 10 seconds, squirmed up a storm, then left), went to the airplane section and went through the nose of the plane (and held the gate for the remaining visitors, and tried to go through backwards).

It was busy, so it was very good there were two of us. I charged E with taking one child, and me the other. Which worked out well. Although we got separted once or twice texting internationally is very easy, and we found each other.

We left, had a snack, and chased pigeons:



Then we decided to go to the carousel. Walking there we stopped to take pictures of E with the capitol and the Washington monument. The pictures turned out not so good, but the kids are having a great time playing in the gravel path:



While digging Q2 must have realized that she wanted to ride on a bunny. But the carousel on the National Mall does not have a bunny to ride on. So we decided to ride on a horse named bunny. Which we found! Here is Q2 riding on her:



And here is me and both girls ... sort of me. Me looking old and slightly odd.



After the carousel we dragged, and I mean dragged, the children through Natural History just to get to the other side. We walked through the incredible new Sant Ocean Hall. We just breezed through the opening exhibit, but WOW. It was great. I'm looking forward to going back on a Monday or something when it isn't busy.

We dragged through the US Naval Memorial, which I really like, and hopped on the Metro. We left E and let her go to the train station alone because Q & C NEEDED to go home and have quiet time after all that.

And so did I.

Here's the photo

Outside of Pizzeria Paradiso! Yum.

The'll go home with anybody

We had dinner with an old friend, E, tonight. I haven't seen E for 15 years at least .... she looks exactly as I remember her! Clearly she's aged better than I!

We had dinner at Pizza Paridiso in DC, near Dupont Circle. Eating at Franklin's so often I'd forgotten what delicious wood-fired pizza tasted like. It was sooooooo good!

Anyway, after dinner there were hugs and kisses and cuddles to go around. Except to the men, which was fine. Both girls were slightly reluctant to bestow their love on the guys. But, again, as parents, C39 and I are fine with that.

But somebody asked Q2 if she wanted to go home to Ireland with E & D (E's husband) while Q2 was in D's arms. Q2 had a quizzical look, but didn't fuss, just stretched her arms out for me.

But once in the car, Q2 started to cry. She wanted to go home with E.

The word is up. Up.

Q2 sometimes likes to go visit C4's room. This is understandable, as she wanted to go pet the dogs.

But, of course, her action upset C4 greatly. Not exactly sure how much of a kerfuffle there was, but C4 put her rightious anger to good use. She made a sign (all by herself! No help on spelling or words!) for her door to keep Q2 out. It read thusly:

Q2, in yours

That would work beautifully if Q2 could read. Really, it would.