American History Museum

It was a gorgeous day yesterday, and even though we had to get Ella to a birthday party in the afternoon, we decided to head down to DC to visit the Smithsonian Museum of American History. (n.b. It seems like our kids have been invited to more birthday parties in the past two months than they have in the past two years! And they're all sleepovers. Are all Maryland parents crazy? Luckily our no sleepovers rule is firmly entrenched, so we've had no complaints with picking them up at bedtime)

These Smithsonian Museums are so incredible!

We got to see the actual star-spangled banner from Ft McHenry 200 years ago (no pics in there, though)


There were some volunteers demonstrating old-fashioned things: a spectrograph (3-D photo viewer) and a cotton gin



We saw an exhibit on communities in a changing nation



We saw a Dumbo ride car (Leah's favorite thing there)


There was an awesome dollhouse


The first muppets


Some gorgeously embellished Stradivarius instruments


Everybody got to have a turn trying to be president


Streets named after Presidents from across the country


Too true


Leah was reaching her limit


Ella is unimpressed by the british soldier


Declaration of Independence


Rosie the Riveter in training


"I need a rest!"


In front of a Huey -- shout out to Princeton my brother-in-law who can fly one of these


What to do when everybody's grumpy? Get lunch! Leah was so excited that they had mac-n-cheese

Big girls went for burgers


Exhibit on shipping was very interesting


The transportation exhibit was great!

Don't know why my girls get such delight from interacting with statues

We were just there!


For once, it was a gorgeous sunny day