More snow

A morning at the slopes for Jeremy, Carter and Luke.

But then come home to play in the snow some more.

Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Carter and his friend/classmate Cody, had the opportunity to participate in the launch at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.  The launch was for the new interactive app, Ripped Apart - A Civil War Mystery.

The boys' history teacher let us know about the launch, so we sent their information to the Smithsonian staff and the next day a confirmation came for their spot.  Carter was thrilled, he has had a love for history since his fourth grade teacher and has continued his interest (not to mention I like any reason to go in to DC).

The launch was held in the museum.  They met the curator, as well as other staff.  Each student played the new app, while the staff worked with them.  Historic photos and viewing devices were around for them to see...using gloves as to not get their grubby fingers on the historic items. 

The boys were completely engaged in the app, trying to unlock all of the clues.  At the end of the time, they discussed the app with the staff; what they liked, what worked, etc.

Before the launch event even happened, Carter and I headed to the DC earlier so we could go around the museum (a lot of it was under renovation) since we had not been there in a few years.  Heading to DC on a Friday afternoon, one has to question parking...Carter overheard me talking to Jeremy about parking.  I thought the easiest thing to do was to park at my favorite hotel and walk over to the museum, if it was too cold then we would just get a taxi from the hotel.  Carter wanted the taxi, he thought it would be exciting since he had never taken one.  I assured him, it was not that exciting but we did take the taxi (who seemed to think we were out-of-towners and took the longest route to the museum...). 

We wandered through the different areas.  The flag that inspired the Star Spangled Banner is currently at the museum (no photos allowed in that area).  It was incredibly large and almost haunting to see the years of damage.

We visited the American Presidency (skipped the First Lady dresses since I dragged the boys there last time).

And spent time in America on the Move, as well as other places.

After the launch at the Museum, we joined our friends at Co Co Sala, a chocolate restaurant...oh was it delicious.  Hot chocolate, appetizers and desserts; perfection on a plate for a very cold night with great company.

Luke's Big Poetry Moment

Part of being a student at Waterford Elementary is mastering the art of public speaking.  It starts from the early years and continues all the way through.  One of the big public speaking tasks is the Sir Speaks A Lot program.  The first part of the it is reciting a poem.  They recite their poem for the class and if you "win" in class then you move on to do it in front of the entire school and parents.  Each grade is given a theme; for 4th grade the theme was Science.

I found several poems that met the requirements (theme and amount of lines) and then Luke selected his favorite.  He decided to do "Chemistry Class".

Luke and Carter realized that he could use dry ice as a prop (they love that stuff, we have used it for ice cream parties to keep everything cold).  They begged me to get some...and it worked great.  Luke did a wonderful job in his class so he moved on to do it for the entire school.  He did amazing!

 Luke Chemistry Class from Carrie Jenkins on Vimeo.