A Future Ballerina?

Sarah has been taking a Pre-Ballet/Creative Movements Class this summer with the infamous Miss Kim. Miss Kim is a parent at my school who is wonderful at teaching the little ones ballet and dance. This past Tuesday was parent observation day where parents get to go in the studio to see what their girls have learned.

Miss Kim had some pom poms and hula hoops out when we first got there. Sarah and her friend Lily enjoyed playing with the pom poms.

Miss Kim started her class by having everyone get in a circle to hold hands.

Miss Kim played a song where the girls had to jump, skip, hop, and then fall down. Sarah liked falling down.

 Sarah really liked using the ribbons. 

She missed the last two classes and I was impressed at what she had remembered.

Onto Our Capital

After spending two days at Sesame Place, we packed it all up and headed to Washington, DC. We stayed at the Washington Court Hotel that was three blocks away from the Capital Building. Because we were in downtown DC they valeted our car. The boys didn't quite understand why we weren't going to be able to use our car for two days. They did love riding the glass elevators, though. We got checked in and then walked the two blocks over to Union Station. We walked around and looked in some of the shops. Jackson was disappointed that we weren't going to ride the train, but they enjoyed seeing the Amtrak train station. It was very busy! We had dinner and then walked towards the Capital building.

Here we are in front of the water fountain that is in a park in front of the Capital Building. Jackson and Adam were amazed at all the guards around the building.

The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The three of them were very well behave, but I think they were in awe. They could tell we were in a very fancy place. I don't think Adam and Jackson have ever been served orange juice in stemware before.
We headed towards the Air and Space Museum, but stopped to pose on the other side of the Capital first. There is a lot of construction going on at the Mall which was a little disappointing.

After the Air and Space Museum, we walked over to the American History Museum. Here are the boys with Kermit.

 If Jackson were President...

 I think Adam needs to grow a few more inches before he tries to make a speech.

Well, well, the Dumbo ride from Disneyland. Guess who wanted to ride the elephant? Sarah wouldn't go near the flying Elmo but was very upset that we wouldn't let her ride Dumbo. Go figure....

They had a section for kids with all of the classic toys, Legos, ViewMaster, Etch-a-Sketches, Mr. Potato Heads, and Slinkies. The kids were in heaven. 

 Adam's tall Lego tower.

They really enjoyed the transportation section of the American History Museum. This display was actually talking about the trains in Salisbury, NC.

 We couldn't go up in the Washington Monument due to that earthquake we had about a year ago. This was as close as we could get. 

The next morning we ventured down the street to the Post Office Museum before heading to the Building Museum. The Building Museum was supposed to have the best gift shop of all the museums, and it did. They had all kinds of Lego sets and toys. After visiting the store we headed out to the Lincoln Memorial.

 The boys are standing by one of the columns in front of the memorial.

Notice the reflecting pool? It's not so reflecting. It too, was closed and drained due to construction. I've never seen so many "orange fences" in one place before!

We stopped by the Potomac River to have a picnic lunch before heading home. It was a nice quiet ride home because they all three took a nap for the first part of the trip!

Our Fearless Wonder Isn't So Fearless After All

On Tuesday, July 24, we all piled into the van and headed to Langhorne, PA. We were taking Sarah to Sesame Place. Adam and Jackson went a few years ago, and now Sarah is way into Sesame Street, so we just knew she would love seeing Elmo and Abby Cadabby. She was quite excited to be going to "Elmo's House" asking for about a week if we were headed to "Elmo's House" every time we got in the car. All was well until we actually arrived at "Elmo's House". 

I expected Sarah to be timid around the characters as she always kept her distance from the Chick-fil-a cow. What I didn't expect was that she didn't want to do anything. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. She wouldn't even ride the carousel. The same little girl who has no fear of jumping into any depth of water wouldn't even go in the ankle deep water until we dragged her kicking and screaming. Of course, once she was in, she was happy. There is one place where water sprays from all directions all over you. Kevin said she said, "It's raining!" as she walked through finally with a smile on her face.

 Adam and Jackson's favorite place- the nets.

 Here we tried to get the three of them to stand in front of the "Elmo Bush". As you can see, Adam and Jackson were happy to stand and pose to have their picture taken...

 Sarah, on the other hand, ran the other way and hid on my lap.

 Again, we found Cookie Monster on the street and Adam and Jackson ran up to give him hugs...

Sarah had the death grip on me just standing near him.

 She wouldn't even get close enough to the boys for a picture on the front steps of Sesame Street. At this point, we were wondering if it was too late to cancel our breakfast with the characters for the next morning.

After some swimming and avoiding Abby Cadabby who was right across the street from this fire truck, Sarah climbed up and was happy to "drive" the fire truck. We headed back across Sesame Street to save us a spot for the parade. Sarah promptly fell asleep 45 minutes before the parade began. She did wake up to some monsters dancing in front of her and was actually mesmerized by the whole thing.

The next day... We had reserved breakfast with Cookie Monster since Abby would be there. We saw Ernie, Bert, and Big Bird, too. Sarah again had the death grip on me.

 From this distance she was always excited to see the characters.

 But don't get any closer...

 This was as good as it was going to get for a picture with a character.

 Adam and Jackson had a blast. I think they rode everything, especially the water slides, twice!

 Sarah finally enjoying the sprinklers after being coaxed to go in.

I was very surprised at how well they all three behaved during the drive up. It took us 8 1/2 hours and it actually went by pretty fast. I think I feared the worst so it couldn't get any worse than what I had imagined! Sarah did love driving through the tunnel and Adam was excited to stay in a hotel. Who needs Sesame Place when we have tunnels and hotels?