Family Fun: Grandparents Visiting

Grandma S and Grandpa John stayed with us through Thursday.  They joined in the fun for cousin B and JJ's birthday party at the Monster Mini Golf.

 The golf course is all lit by black lights with scary monsters along the way.  Cousin L had her birthday their awhile back.  

 

 My kiddos favorite part of Monster Mini Golf is this claw machine. The party package comes with a bunch of arcade money cards.  This claw machine lets you play until you win something. It's full of rubber ducks!

The kiddos traded their tickets from the arcade for little prizes. These teeth were so funny.

Baby L had a few milestones this week.  These funny pictures show the results of the first. She learned how to put pants on herself! Once she got the hang of it she just wanted to keep going. She has 4-5 pairs on here.

 She also cut 3 teeth -- 2 molars and one bottom tooth. She had some very grumpy moments in the stroller and in the car.

 At home she is pretty chill and gets her way a lot.  She loves to play with the boys car ramps. She can entertain herself for a long time in the playroom with all the toy drawers. She is also very tidy.  She likes to help me put things in the washer, close up cupboards, and bring out food from the pantry.

 Tuesday we worked on projects all day, including refinishing our dining room table, more on that in the next post.  Then the crew,  minus L and I, headed off to see the Orioles play the Red Sox at Camden Yards.

 

Wednesday we went downtown to see some art galleries. Big brother S giving L hugs on the metro:

First stop, the newly reopened Renwick Gallery.

The current exhibit is called "Wonder".  It was pretty amazing.

These nests are called Shindig by artist Patrick Dougherty

 The rainbow thread sculpture was similar to the one we saw at the BYU Gallery, both were done by artist Garbriel Dawe.

 These towers are made of hundreds of thousands of stacked index cards stacked by artist Tara Donovan.

 

 This one was done by Janet Echelman. You are supposed to lay on the floor and watch the colors shift and change in the handwoven net as it crosses the 100 ft space.

 

We passed by the White House on our way to the National Gallery of Art. Hot kids don't look too happy.

Huge fountain in the rotunda of the National Gallery of Art:

 We did not spend any time wandering around this massive museum.  I asked the kids which artist (of those they had studied) that they wanted to go see the paintings from - Van Gogh and Mary Cassatt - and we went directly to those exhibit rooms.

 Here is A with the painting that she liked the best:

 And brother M with his favorite:

That was true until we passed by a school group that was talking about this painting.  We learned that it was based on a true story where the noblemen lost his leg, survived, was proud of his courage, AND had the shark added to his family crest!  Then this painting became their favorite.  From wikipedia: 1778 oil painting by American painter John Singleton Copley, depicting the rescue of Englishman Brook Watson from a shark attack in Havana, Cuba.