kaleidoscoping chaos...: A "Founding" Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

To my dad (aka Pop Pop), Jocelyn's dad (aka grandpa), my brother (Uncle Mike) and Jocelyn's brother (Uncle Dave) and all the other amazing wonderful father's out there or guys who act like fathers to kids who need them! Hope you all had a great day today.

Jocelyn had to work today and I came up with a what I thought was a pretty good idea for our family with two moms and two kids. We'd go to Mt. Vernon for the day - you know where you celebrate the "father of our country" - George Washington - and hang out on this gorgeous sunny summer Sunday, that also happens to be Father's Day.

We were up and out early. I decided to follow the GPS, which was a mistake. It took us forever to get there in this roundabout weird way. I hate going to Virginia for a million reasons, and I really hate getting lost in Virginia. Half way through the ride the kids fell asleep. Oh great. But there is always a silver lining right? Today there was. The route the GPS took us on, also took us right by this huge Krispy Kreme store with a DRIVE THRU!!!! (Now that I have kids I am pretty sure that the reason Drive Thrus were invented was so that parents could go through them while their small children were sleeping or having temper tantrums... we may never know... but that is my theory.)

Donuts & juice boxes for them and organic oatmeal & iced tea for me - perfect for when they woke up!

We made it there and it was packed! The parking lots were over flowing. The kids were still sleeping so I just went into one of the lots and waited for someone to pull out. The kids were still sleeping so I had my oatmeal and iced tea.   Finally, the kids woke up.  They had their treats and we were on our way.

Overall the day went well. We walked all around. We visited the animals (my kids loved that). We tried to listen to Mrs. Washington in her room, but Vera was way too excited. We did not take the house tour but visited many of the outside barns, slave quarters, blacksmith, and gardens.  Our favorite spot on the grounds was the big hill behind the house overlooking the water. It is an awesome spot. The kids loved running around. It was sunny, clear and breezy. It was gorgeous!

In full disclosure, we also had a number of Jonah meltdowns... 3 potty accidents (thank god all of them outside) and a camera incident.

The camera incident happened at some point after we bought our tickets and walked past the statues of Washington and his family. My really nice camera broke - as in the button you use to snap pictures was gone... This is now the second camera in 3 weeks to become useless to me. The first was my small automatic camera that Jonah threw into the blowup pool the other day (when it was full of water). I was not happy but pushed through it. My kaleidoscopey solution was to buy 2 "old school disposable" cameras at the gift shop. One for me and one for Jonah. Hopefully, I will have those photos for you tomorrow. Today you get just the few photos below.

Back to our adventure. We had a great time and it was getting late. The kids were starting to lose it I could tell. So we walked our way back to the exit - which basically takes you through the museum. My kids loved the museum. It is a really nice museum. But they really really loved the big statues, especially the ones with the huge horses. Jonah loved touching everything and pushing all the buttons. They definitely were in better moods. As we were walking through the museum we ended up in the "hands-on" kids room! My kids went nuts. Vera started cackling to get out of the stroller! There was a big "doll house" of Mt Vernon - both of my kids could not get enough of it. Also a whole set of toy horses and animals - Jonah acted out some very complicated scenario that included Spiderman, Mike the Knight, Washington, Buzz, and Obama??? That kid might have too much information in his head! Vera found the wall with lighted up buttons on animals - when you push them, the animals make sounds! She went crazy - laughing and pushing all the buttons and hugging the wall! It was actually amazing hanging out in there with them. They completely LOVED it!

I don't know if they loved it more because I had been talking to them for 2 hours about everything George Washington and showing them everything at Mt Vernon, but I'd like to think so. Jonah kept asking all these questions about the doll house. Is it our house?  Where is the playroom? Jonah's room? Vera's room? Or did Buzz live there. Wait mommy does Obama live here? I know mommy, the man on the big white horse lives here - mommy it is the same as the house outside? Is that man on the horse real? Where is he?

The whole scene was quite wonderful. There were only like 2 other kids there. The people who worked there were totally into my kids. Playing with them. At one point one of the women who was clearly smitten with Vera, pushed this old fashioned cradle over to Vera, and asked her if she wanted to play with the baby dolls. Vera said yes by shaking her head clearly up and down. Then she pointed to the dolls and said babies. Then she put the little blanket on top of them and gave them a hug. I thought I'd just melt. It was the cutest thing ever! I mean there was a collective sigh in the room - AAAAWWW! How cute!

We stayed there a while. Jonah picked out coloring pages for him and Vera. He picked the one with the horse for him and picked the sketch of the house for Vera.

I had to force them out of there but it was getting late and of course once you exit the museum you find yourself walking through the gift shop...

Jonah got a plastic horse and he told me Vera wanted the cow (and she got it). They were both extremely happy! I got the little stuffed George & Martha (the same ones from the doll house). Jonah told me I could get the treat because I had behaved. Thanks Jonah!

We had a very patriotic week with a smattering of wild life on the side (butterflies, zoo, farm and more farm). Celebrating Flag Day, visiting the WWII memorial, seeing the White House, meeting President Obama (the look alike), and touring Mt Vernon - good stuff!

The funny thing is I can see the "experiences" start to simmer and percolate in their little minds. Jonah (and Vera) is all of sudden mentioning Obama and asking about him (when Jonah does, Vera giggles like a school girl with a crush...)  Jonah's cars are racing to the White House and past statues? Buzz, Spiderman and Batman are now also riding horses like the "statues" (just like at both the WWII and Mt Vernon). Jonah & Vera are wild about BUTTERFLIES, FROGS, and ALL ANIMALS! Vera says butterfly every time she sees one! The horse and cow toys were played with the entire ride home in the car and until they went to bed.

This is completely and totally the fun part of being a parent, despite how tired one might be. The dealing with the 3 potty accidents in public and sneakers that now smell like pee - well not so much...

Happy Father's Day Everyone!