At the beginning of March, we hosted my running group and their husbands for dinner and karaoke. One of the husbands had to leave for a bit, but we had a nice picture of him to keep us company while he was gone.
Everyone loved the karaoke!
My friend Emily brought sugar cereal as a hostess gift. The kids were thrilled when they found out the next morning!
Jack and I went to a mother-son trivia night at his school. Our table's theme was 80s!
The moms and their sons:
With the warmer weather came bike rides to school!
Charlie styled his own hair before school one day. His teacher made him comb it down.
I had a Pi Day celebration with my class. They were so excited and brought in lots of treats!
We even played a Pie in the Face game!
We drove to Washington D.C. for spring break this year. The first night we stayed in Virginia and visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The kids are standing in front of the Enola Gay, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare.
There were so many cool things to see!
Our next stop was Arlington National Cemetery. Jim and the kids are standing in front of the eternal flame at JFK's grave.
We had a front row seat for the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
We all took turns siting in this marble ceremonial chair.
We had a great view of D.C. from the tomb of Pierre L'Enfant, the designer of Washington D.C.'s original city plan.
We found a fun Mexican restaurant in Alexandria.
We stayed in downtown Washington, DC the next 6 nights. We had a great view from our hotel room. We got to watch this crew take down the big sign on the side of the building.
On Monday morning, Jim took Jack and Patrick on a tour of Georgetown University.
While the others were on Jack's first official college tour, I took Charlie and Maggie to a local library and then to the National Postal Museum.
It was not the best museum we've ever been to, but it provided some good entertainment.
Next, we met up with the others at the Supreme Court Building. The spiral staircase was very cool! Here is the view looking down from where I was.
Here is the view looking up!
Charlie and Maggie enjoyed looking up the staircase as well.
Here is another cool staircase in the Supreme Court Building. I think this would make a good album cover for a band.
Court was not in session, but we did get to peek into the courtroom.
The top of the Supreme Court steps provided us with a great view of the Capitol, our destination the next day.
I walked down the steps after our tour and took this picture of the kids at the top. Before we went in, we saw a large group of school kids start to storm the stairs before an armed guard quickly put a stop to them. You can only come down the stairs after your tour, not before you pass through security.
Next, we went to the National Archives Museum where we saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, among other cool things. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside. The kids were rewarded with ice cream afterwards.
We came across this statue of Lincoln on our walk back to the hotel.
We took a break in the hotel and watched some of the construction on the building across the street.
On Tuesday (Pi Day), we started with a tour of the Capitol building.
It's huge!
We met our guide in front of the plaster model of the Freedom Statue that is on top of the dome.
The inside of the dome:
Here we are by a statue of Harry S. Truman, the only Missouri statue we saw.
The House was not in session, but we did get to go in the House Gallery (no pictures from it).
Next, we went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, where Charlie found the Hope Diamond. Years ago when Nana was staying at our house with the kids, Charlie answered the Final Jeopardy question correctly with "the Hope Diamond." Nana was so impressed. He finally got to see it in real life.
Coming back from the restroom, I found our crew ready to move on (or take a nap).
We went to the Mall. Maggie took a couple pictures of the rest of us.
Patrick and I wore our pi shirts that day. We had a few people notice. We wore pi tattoos and handed them out to other people we saw wearing pi shirts. We did not hand out a lot of tattoos.
On Wednesday, we toured the White House.
After the White House, we went to the Smithsonian American History Museum.
Charlie played a replica of one of Prince's guitars (the real one is in the case behind him).
We are tired!
We passed Ford's Theatre on our walk back to the hotel.
We also passed St. Patrick's church, which Patrick was thrilled to pose in front of for a picture.
I'm not sure what this was, but it provided a great backdrop for a picture of our favorite girl.
On Thursday, we went to the International Spy Museum. I barely took any pictures, but really enjoyed my time there. We spent 4 hours exploring, and I could have stayed longer.
In the afternoon, we went to Mount Vernon. We were shocked to run into Charlie's teacher on the grounds!
The Mount Vernon Ladies Association has worked hard to preserve the view as it was in Washington's time.
We walked around and explored the grounds.
Then, we toured the home.
We went into Georgetown for dinner that night. We saw flowers on the steps of the Ukraine Embassy.
After dinner, we went back downtown to walk around the lighted monuments at night.
Maggie and Jim read all of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address to us.
On Friday, we explored Great Falls.
Maggie is a budding photographer.
After the hike, we went to the Jefferson Memorial.
A view of the Washington Monument from the steps of the Jefferson Memorial.
Cherry blossoms!
Jim and I walked to an Irish pub for a drink before dinner. It was super crowded and charged a $10 cover, so we decided to look elsewhere. We found a German bar that served us green beer and a specialty Irish cocktail, without a cover and without the crowds. Win!
On Saturday morning, we woke to find a marathon going by on the street outside our hotel. We were able to watch from our window. Navigating our way out of town amidst a marathon wasn't fun, though. We did get a late start to our drive home because Maggie got sick in the night. She was a trooper on the way home, though.
Back home, Jack thought it would be funny to put this sign up in our front yard, next to the house for sale next door. There is no third floor, so Jack thought it would be funny to claim there was one, but it was haunted.
Patrick, Charlie, and I went to the Mother-Son Dance. It was a country theme.
My sweet date opened the car door for me.
The boys chose Culvers for our pre-dance dinner.
My handsome dates!
Jack turned SIXTEEN at the end of March. Check out the size of the cake!
The family came over to celebrate.
Aunt Sue brought Jack a Trader Joe's nametag and suggested he get his first job there. Spoiler alert...a few months later he did!
I accompanied Maggie and Charlie on a field trip with their REACH classes downtown. We went to the Arch and to the Economy Museum.
We had a picnic lunch outside the Arch.
Charlie is picking up a gold bar at the Economy Museum. It's heavy!
We finished the month with more chess.
