We arrived in Virginia on Thursday for a 4 day visit with my cousin, Carrie, her family, and for another trip to the capitol. Today, we spent the day at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Our first stop took us through an American Airline plane from the 1950’s.
Trista’s trying to argue with the man you buy tickets from. He’s not answering back, though.
Today the museum celebrated a century of women in aerospace. There were games, crafts and hands on activities throughout the museum. After visiting each station, the kids got a stamp on their “passports.” After they received 4 stamps, they got an Amelia Earhart pin.
This picture was the first game. It was about women in flight. They had to identify which plane was the fastest, slowest, oldest, newest, and which was piloted by women (they all were.)
Second stop: The girls got to decorate their own banners with stickers and letters, similar to those found at old air shows.
Maya wanted purple and only allowed JT and Kassy to add letters and sparkly stars to it. She had to peel the backs off of the stickers herself, but Kassy was allowed to place the letters for “Reach for the Stars.”
This is one of the Wright Brothers military planes. There are only 8 of their planes left in existence and 3 of those can be found here.
At the third station we visited, the girls got to create their own old fashioned pilot license. Here’s Bella posing for her picture that was later pasted into her “license.”
Station #4: Creating their own space mission patch. The patches were adhesive backed pieces of felt with a paper circle in the middle. The kids chose a stamp, stamped their patch, and then decorated it with markers. A cameraman for the Nasa channel, actually filmed them making these for a news report about the event. (See his camera on the table in the left side of the shot?) If I had the Nasa channel, I’d keep an eye out for them.
Here’s the reason for our trip. Amelia Earhart has been one of Kassy’s heroes since she was 11 years old. She was disappointed last year when we visited DC but didn’t get a chance to visit the Air and Space Museum, so we made sure that we got there this year. She was obviously thrilled to be able to see one of her planes and before we left the museum, she stopped by the gift shop and bought Earhart’s biography which she has already started.
In the “Pioneers of Air” section there was a small children’s area. These collapsable planes were a hit with the little kids. Here Ava is not so happy about having to share her plane with Aria. She cheered up after Ari got her own plane.
Ari’s flying and zooming.
Okay, these were even a hit with the biggest kid. They were all moving too much. My iPhone shutter speed couldn’t keep up.
Maya was hesitant, but after she realized that they weren’t scary she got in a plane too.
Kassy and rockets.
Kassy and I were waiting in line here to walk through the living quarters of a space station.
The girls got to test their skills with astronaut gloves on. Trista’s trying to build a tower with these thin blocks.
After working with the gloves it was time for my little astronauts to suit up in Nasa gear and get ready for their mission.
Their mission? Assemble the space shuttle. They worked as a team and with a little help from a grown up they did it. (Ari wanted nothing to do with the dress-up, so she worked in plain clothes. Ari not wanting to dress up is pretty weird.)
Behind JT and the kids is Charles Linbergh’s “Spirit of St. Louis,” the plane that made the first transatlantic flight. I was kind of suprised. I had always pictured it being bigger. It was still amazing to see, no matter the size.
My Bells. Just loved this spot and this cute face.
As we were leaving DC, I snapped this picture of the Washington Monument. It was a beautiful day!
We intended to head straight to Georgetown Cupcakes right after we left the museum, but that was delayed a little. Thanks to an unclear GPS we missed several turns and then made our way through town by trying to navigate it ourselves. We finally made it to the scene of Bella’s favorite show “DC Cupcakes” only to find the streets packed with cars and people and a line from the shop stretching down the street. I snapped the best picture I could get and Bella got a peek in the windows where she saw a few faces she recognized from TV. That appeased her.
After getting ridiculously lost again, we finally made our way back to the interstate with the intention of heading to Mt. Vernon. I’m going to blame it on the GPS again, but we never made it to Mt. Vernon. By 4:00, I was tired and frustrated and ready to head home. Next year we’ll hit Mt. Vernon first. On a positive note, we saw some really nice parts of the city that we never would have seen without our many mishaps.
We got back to Carrie’s around 5:00. We started dinner and then Carrie, Kassy, and I headed to a consignment sale where Kassy picked up an outfit for her Effie Trinket Halloween costume. Here she is trying on the jacket. There’s also a matching skirt and there are big plans for pink hair, make up, accessories, and eye lashes.
Before we put the kids to bed we had the kids pose for a cousins shot. Maya was refusing clothes, so we shot the picture while we could.
It’s almost 11:00pm and the house is quiet. The littles girls’ giggling stopped just about 30 minutes ago even though they were tucked in at 8:30. That just means they’re just like their mommies, who spent more than a few nights giggling and whispering late into the night when they were little girls.
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