Art class at the National Gallery

This morning we took of to the National Gallery to do an art lesson from our art book- Artistic Pursuits. The lesson referenced several paintings hanging in the National Gallery, so what better place to go do art? Today's lesson was about orienting your paper/canvas/surface to accommodate your art, and using space.

The girls first decided to draw this portrait-orientated painting, "White Poodle on a Punt."

Then Rowan picked this landscape painting, "Lake Lucerne". Gryphon decided it was uninspiring and drew a daisy with her charcoal pencil instead.

Here are Rowan's "Lake Lucerne" and Gryphon's "Happy Daisy."

It was a great day for the gallery-very quiet, almost empty. Ahhhh, school is back in session! I know its selfish of me, but going to the museums when they are crowded is so annoying! Before we left we stopped off to see our favorite statue, Degas' "Little Dancer", and the Fra Angelico "Adoration" that is circular. That's the only non-rectangle painting I could think of that I knew we could see there, and it made sense to see it because we studied orientation of your art (horizontal/landscape vs vertical/portrait) today.

A very good day!

Fun field trip!

On Wednesday Mark was off from school, so we all drove south to Henricus State Historical Park. Because we have been studying Native Americans and early colonial life, it sounded like a great place to visit. Boy was that an understatement! They have a full size recreated Powhatan village, and as we had the entire place to ourselves, the girls got to work on a dugout canoe, scrape a deer hide, and pound corn to their hearts content. We also went inside a longhouse, and the guide was fantastic-we learned so much!





Henricus is the sight of the Citie of Henricus, named after James I son, Henry. It was on higher ground than the swampy Jamestown, and the surrounding plantations grew tobacco until the Indians attacked in 16?? and the city was abandoned. At the park, they have a replica of the fort, the walls, a soldier's herb garden, and barracks buildings. Gryphon cleaned out the straker cannon, and Rowan got to load it.

The English soldier was a fantastic guide, too- we saw armor, learned about pikes and punishment, and English soldiers lives at that time.

Though Mark thought the rapier was cool, living in 15th century America as a soldier sounded pretty bad to him. He'll take the 21st century, I think.

All in all, a wonderful day and a great field trip! It so neat to live here in Virginia, where there is so much to go and do. We are looking forward to the rest of our studies of American History!

First Day of School!

We started school on Monday-1st and 4th grade, can you believe it??

This year we are going to do American history, given all the opportunities here for it, and started the year off with Native Americans. Our first day we had a field trip to the Museum of the American Indian in DC with our neighbor kids. It was neat to see the things we have been reading about in our books, like cradle boards and moccasins. They have a full size tee pee in the entrance, and a kids area where we saw a video on tanning hides. The girls had read about a Native America Ojibwe girl in a book called "The Birchbark House", and her hated chore of tanning hides, so it was really neat to see it done with our own eyes. They especially liked the fact that tanning with brains is real!

This is the outside of the museum, easily the most beautiful of all the Smithsonian museums architecturally.

Princess Day!

Today we got to the park at opening, and after Pirates and Thunder Mountain went to see the Princess Fantasy Faire and meet some!

Rowan wore her dress and hair, and afterwards both girls got their faces painted and glittered.We also spent a while in Toontown again, and rode the carousel, Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear ride. Except for the new Nemo ride (2 hour wait-even first thing in the morning!) and the Peter Pan ride (I have no idea why that one is so busy) we have rode *everything* in the park! Tonight we will go back to see Fantasmic and maybe hang out on Tom Sawyer Island again. What a great vacation!! See you soon Daddy!

New pictures for Daddy!

Big day today!

We hit Fantasyland first, and hit Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Pinnochio, Peter Pan, Snow White, and a bunch of others. Then it was off to Toon town, where we met characters galore and rode all the rides.

Though I went to Disneyland several times as a kid, this was my first time ever meeting Mickey Mouse!

After Toontown and Ariel, we did fastpasses at Space Mountain, and hit Tom Sawyer Island where we met Capt. Jack Sparrow. He was *hilarious*-he picked imaginary stuff from the girls hair, inspected their autograph books, and was great fun! Then we had a relaxing lunch at the Blue Bayou and watched the parade-a very nice couple gave us front row seats.





Last of all we did the Disney Princess dress (tomorrow is Princess Day for us) and Rowan got a dress, gloves and wig. She is the spitting image of Belle, and she loved waving to kids who called out to her as she walked by. It was a perfect Disney day-everything just flowed great and we haven't missed anything we wanted to do! The only thing that would make it better is having Daddy here, too. We miss you Daddy!

Disney fun for Daddy!

Mark is, sadly, home in Virginia at work. He just couldn't take any leave right now while working on his masters, so these pictures are for him! We miss you Daddy!!!

We hit the Thunder Mountain Railroad first thing, and it was lots of fun! Then we did Pirates and the Jungle Cruise and Haunted House, and headed to Splash Mountain. Rowan wanted no part of Splash Mountain's big drop, so she stayed below with Grandpa. She also opted out of the Matterhorn, so Gryphon and I did that by ourselves.

We saw an Alladin and Jasmine show and got their autographs, and also ran into the Mad Hatter at his store with Alice. The girls are enjoying collecting autograph's in their books. They also got some Mickey ears-Gryphon has pirate ears and Rowan has princess ears. I have "year of a million dreams" ears, which were *free*-yeah me!!

Right now we are eating Wienershnitzel hot dogs in our hotel room and relaxing before we head back to the park tonight. Its not too terribly crowded, or too terribly hot, so thats good.

More pictures coming tomorrow! We love you Daddy!

Wedding bells...

Cara and Jack were married at the Golden Nugget (where they met!) on Monday. I took some pictures of the happy couple around Las Vegas, but I'm keeping them under wraps until I can get home and look at them. They are very happy, and I'm so thrilled my little sister is married to such a neat guy. Congratulations Cara and Jack!

Viva Las Vegas!!

We are in Las Vegas!! My little sister Cara is getting married (actually, as of this writing, already has!) and we flew out for the wedding.

Rowan hasn't been on a plane since she was a baby, and while she looks happy in the obligatory airplane shot- she wasn't once it took off! Turns out, she's scared of flying, and spent most of the flights avoiding glimpses out the window and grasping the armrests with white knuckles.

We stayed at the Flamingo with Grandma and Grandpa, and thoroughly enjoyed the *fabulous* pool. It was 110+, and the cool water slides felt great! Grandpa is lots of fun in the pool, too!

We also went to the Mirage for a dolphin habitat visit, and saw the white tigers. The girls liked the talking fountains/statues at Cesar's Palace, and the fountains at the Bellagio. Vegas isn't really a "kid place" though, and they are anxiously awaiting the next leg of the trip to...Disneyland! Pictures coming soon from the Happiest Place on Earth!

Well, it had to happen sometime...

... we have our first broken bone. Naturally, it was Rowan! She broke her pointer finger on her right hand at the McDonald's playland. Of course she says it doesn't hurt.

Guess we'll taking a break from gymnastic's for a while, but it should be better in 3 weeks, provided she wears the splint.

And stops banging the splint on everything because it makes a neat tapping sound.
And stops doing cartwheels.
And pretty much stops doing all those crazy things you would think she'd stop doing onher OWN, since her finger is, after all, BROKEN!

Wish us luck...

Cousins and fun!

Mark's sister Joy and her three darling girls-Haley, Abby and Emma-are visiting us this week from St. Louis. The girls have enjoyed hanging out with their cousins, and visiting the sights of Washington. (Ok, to be honest, I think Gryphon and Rowan are about D.C.'ed out!) To celebrate Emma and Abby's birthdays (1 and 3!) we went to the Baltimore Aquarium, and saw a dolphin show.