The Hirshhorn, Etc.

I'm going to warn you in advance, there are a LOT of photos in this post.

I missed my girls so much this week while I was rushing all around, and the weather was absolutely perfect in the high sixties with clear skies so we had to get out and do something fun. We went to the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum of Contemporary Art and then strolled through a couple of sculpture gardens, had a snack and visited some dinosaurs...the girls were really good and we had a great time!

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I stinking love this kid. She chose this hat this morning and she didn't want the one that actually fit, she wanted this big one. So basically I'm glad she likes it because she'll be wearing it until 2015. I personally love all the stripes together - she looked so darn cute coloring on the train.

And THIS was my view of Bree for the whole 20 minute ride. And yes, actually, she is wearing a tutu. Can you honestly blame her? Tutus are awesome! I'd wear one myself if it were socially acceptable. 

Love, love, love, love, love this next one.

You could say Carly is bossy, but I prefer to think of it as her honing her leadership skills. =)

You can BARELY see the Capitol Building in the background, but it looked really neat in person. I also just now noticed that the black sculpture back there looks just like a kid running. It does not look like that from any other angle. 

Okay, the next few pictures are totally blurry but I had to include them because the story is worth it.

I gave Carly a fun little assignment to draw one thing on each floor that she really liked. The second floor has these awesome rubber legs that Carly said reminded her of her dad...

So that is what she chose to draw - she knew how funny it was =)

Getting everything set up for the big reveal...

Horribly blurry - I'm SO sorry! But OMG, still so cute. Hopefully it's not making you seasick. During all of this Bree was hiding out behind the sun-filtering blinds tapping on the glass and yelling at birds.

This was the winner for floor three. We saw SO many cool exhibits, like a white room with a large o-shaped prism extended from the ceiling and slowly rotating in front of a spotlight. Every time the prism faced the light straight on, it made a circle rainbow on the back wall, then as it turned away, swirls of white and rainbow light danced all around the room. We stood there for a good couple of minutes, which if you have had much experience with kids ages 5 and 2...that's a really long time to stand still and watch something. =)

The museum itself is a ring, open in the middle with a fountain I'm assuming they've turned off for the winter. So beautiful!

Outside in the sculpture garden - love them!

Then! Oh my word! The most amazing thing

The tree is covered in notes like this one. I tried to take a photo of the one that said whoever the moron was who wrote it wished that Americans would just forget about 9-11 already....oh I know....but my camera apparently shares my patriotic views and simple refused. This note, however, was so sweet. I want to hug K.N.

The tree - with all the leaves missing, it's like people's wishes have become its leaves. Bree tried to take the dollar that someone put in place of a note.

Love the light, and Carly's hilarious face. It will be even more funny when enough time has passed that I forget her sassy little moment right here. =)

Across the mall - another cool sculpture garden. 

We found the skating rink! It's right next to the Museum of Natural History. The girls were in desperate need of a snack, even though we'd had a very large picnic lunch on the long ride to the train station, and I don't want to say that "desperate need" was exactly how I felt about that Amstel Light, but...  =)

Carly + some 200 million year old petrified wood + The Museum of Natural History

Meanwhile Bree was waving this big stick around singing "America, America, America".....oh my GOSH I swear I have the most awesome kids.

Hello Triceratops!

Oh yeah! THEN...we discovered that Carly had forgotten her sketch pad while we were perusing all the books in the art museum store so we went back to get it...and then we stopped to take a picture of this. Two great artists at work! Oh yeah and those two other artists over there putting together a multimillion dollar sculpture in the background. =)