Wow, what adventures we've had. Last night we decided to embrace our meatless Friday by going to a fish and chips place in the Columbia Pike section of Arlington that had received great reviews. Problem. When we got to the fish and chips place, it was no longer a fish and chips place. What to do when you have dragged three young children to a restaurant that you can no longer go to. Our solution was to walk down Columbia Pike to the Irish pub, P. Brennan's. What a fun surprise awaited us. In addition to the food being great, during the month of March, Irish step dancers perform at the pub on Friday nights. Meg and Clare loved it. They clapped along. They danced along. And they absolutely loved the green, caped costumes. We don't often take the girls to a restaurant in the evening, because we don't often take them out at all in the evening. They are winding down by that point in the day and would normally be too cranky. But throw in some Irish step dancers and it was a breeze. Score one for Lent (that's why we were seeking out fish and chips) and score one for St. Patrick's Day (that's why the Irish step dancers perform in March). 

More adventure awaited us today. This morning I took all three girls to the Corcoran Gallery of Art's Family Day. I often hesitate to go to these big events because there will always be huge crowds and it can be difficult navigating three kids through a huge crowd. This event was completely worth any hassle. I was so impressed by how well organized the event was and how helpful the volunteers working the event were. The Corcoran itself has enough space to handle the large number of families who were in attendance. With activities all over the building, the crowds were spread out enough so as to not be overwhelming. And the activities, which included Paris, New York and the Wild West themes,  were so much fun. There was an 18th century Paris salon in which the girls could listen to music performed by people in beautiful period clothing (which the girls loved). Also along the Paris theme, children could make masks for a Paris masquerade. 

Face painting was another activity. Meg stuck with the Paris theme and chose the Eiffel Tower.

The Wild West activities included a lassoing demonstration and the children were given small lassos to attempt it on their own. (Not sure why Clare looks as if she is wearing make up in the picture below. Her very fair skin can easily look flushed, but here she almost looks like she's gone for a 1980's pink makeover.) 

Even Baby Anne seem to enjoy the day.

In addition to the fun activities of Family Day, my art-loving children very much enjoyed seeing the Corcoran's collection of John Singer Sargent paintings. Both Meg and Clare adored the beautiful dresses worn by Sargent's subjects. 

After leaving the Corcoran, we celebrated the wonderful spring-like weather by going to one of our favorite parks--Montrose Park in Georgetown. Come to think of it, Montrose Park has a very 19th century feel to it and I could easily imagine some of John Singer Sargent's subjects walking through the park in those beautiful gowns. Meg and Clare, however, enjoyed getting their dresses rather filthy in the park's sandbox.

Such a fun twenty-four hours filled with surprises, new experiences and old favorites. 

Yesterday we played at our neighborhood park. It was cold (in the 30s) but sunny and we needed to get outside. There's nothing like a little sand and snow play.

As we were finishing at the park, Baby Anne decided she was done. Perhaps it was the occasional bitingly cold breeze. Perhaps she was just hungry. But by the time we got to the car, her cry had worked its way up to a scream.

It is a four minute drive from the park to our house and we prepared ourselves for four minutes of screaming. But on the off chance it might work, I began singing You Are My Sunshine. Anne is particularly responsive to music and she has a special fondness for You Are My Sunshine. At one of Clare's story times, the librarian led the children in singing You Are My Sunshine and Anne smiled the largest smile I had ever seen her smile.

As we drove home from the park, the song seemed to work its magic again. Anne quieted slowly. As I repeated the song for about the third time, Meg chimed in. I must admit that my initial response was annoyance. I was afraid Meg was going to break the spell I had over Anne and Anne would begin screaming again. But I held that annoyance in and adjusted my key to Meg's key and we kept singing. Soon Clare joined in and we sang You Are My Sunshine over and over again. Anne quietly listened.

I found myself nearly moved to tears at the sound of my little girls' voices singing to soothe their baby sister. I realized how close I came to missing that moment and I was so grateful I had not let my initial reaction ruin it. With the stress of a new baby in the family, it is so easy to respond with "Hush, don't wake the baby!" So often, the big sisters are just trying to help, while we are just trying to keep our sanity. What a gift those little bright voices were to me yesterday.

It was 64 degrees today and we celebrated the spring-like weather by apparently going to Corinth. Not really, of course. We went to the National Arboretum and hiked up to the Corinthian columns that were once part of the U.S. Capitol Building. The girls were mesmerized. As soon as Clare saw the columns from a distance she began demanding that we get to them as quickly as possible. She even had her map of the Arboretum grounds out trying to figure out the route.

Unbelievably, this was our first trip to the Arboretum. It is one of those places that is highly recommended on D.C. mom blogs and the families that we know who live in Northeast D.C. love it. But we've never been there before today. We only went today because I realized it had paved paths that the girls could run through without getting covered in the mud that is still everywhere. Now I can't wait to go back when everything is in bloom. A friend told me that it is breathtaking when the daffodils come up. We walked around one section that had mini-gardens, including a dyeing garden, a medicinal garden, and a fragrance garden. I can't wait to see that area when there are actually plants and flowers to observe. I am also looking forward to seeing the children's garden, which sounds like it was designed for my dirt-digging, nature-loving girls. But that all must come later in Spring.

The Arboretum is a great example of why it is wonderful to live where we do. Twenty minutes away from us is a complex of over a dozen gardens. It is free and open to the public. Oh, and it happens to have a bunch of Corinthian columns the kids can run around. I love this place.

We have been stuck inside for far too long this winter. Moreover, we've been stuck inside too much over the last week. The large amount of snow we had, plus President's Day, kept Meg and Clare's preschool closed for a week. Sure, the girls played in the snow for a small amount of time each day, but it wasn't sufficient to get out their energy. On Saturday we attempted adventure. To leave the house, I had to first shovel out the car. We went to Lakeshore Learning for the Saturday craft, but Baby Anne began screaming and proved such a distraction we had to leave quickly. We traveled to Vienna, Virginia for the Northern Virginia Model Railroaders open house (see photo above). The model trains were quite fun (with characters from Thomas the Tank Engine making appearances on the tracks to the delight of my children), but, prior to seeing the model trains, large snow drifts had made parking quite difficult and by the time I found a parking place Clare had fallen asleep. Clare woke up enough to see the trains, but was very groggy. We ended the day with a nature class on owls (see my previous post on nature class) at the Long Branch Nature Center. The nature class was fun and included a great owl craft, but Baby Anne again began crying when I put her in the Bjorn for our short nature walk in the snow. We had our fun, but it was a challenging day.

The weather has warmed up and I am committed to getting the girls outside today. The only problem with outside play right now is the mud. With piles of snow melting, there is nothing but mud all around. So, I've decided it is time for a trip to Clemyjontri Park. Clemyjontri is an amazing park, run by Fairfax County, in McLean, Virginia. It has a carousel (which won't be open until warmer weather) along with four distinct play areas, each with different themes. There are playhouses; pretend airplanes, firetrucks, school buses; musical instruments; and largest play structure I have ever seen. When my mother-in-law saw Clemyjontri Park, she couldn't believe there was not an entry fee. Like so many attractions for kids in our area, it is free. For our purposes today, the best thing about Clemyjontri is that it has a rubberized play surface, i.e., no mud (though as you can see from the pictures below taken in previous years, one of our favorite areas is in the dirt and will undoubtedly be muddy).

I do hope our adventure is easier today than it was on Saturday. It must be said that some of the greatest adventures happen because difficulties arise. But, I think we could use an easy day of just running and playing.