At Home with The Andersons

This chilly Saturday we headed to the National Postal Museum to have fun. C started out sorting Mail on a mail train. We love how hands on the museum is.  They have laminated postcards to sort and even a stamp to cancel them. A favorite for us and maybe the only thing that could trump a train is a big rig.  To C nothing is better than getting behind the wheel and switches of a truck with his Daddy. This is Owney the postal dog .  The most traveled dog of his time. We ventured through the forest following the first US Postal route. We rode in a stagecoach.  It was a little crowded with the other passengers.   I loved hearing the narrative stories told by the other "passengers" inside. Next C helped us explore the ABCs of the post office. Even A got into the fun. Scanning packages is hard work. On a hunt to canceling stamps. Sorting packages is a lot like basketball. ...

Our usual Satuday routine was thrown out of whack when our scheduled activities were canceled because of the impending snow.  What would we do?  In comes the College Park Aviation Museum . I have read about the museum a few times and really just needed an excuse to make the trip. Parking is easy and C was engaged as soon as we walked in with the automated Wilber Wright.  We were so excited with all of the hands on activities.  We explored propellers.  We checked out the controls. We played dress up.  C thought he looked pretty good and loved all of the zippers and badges on his bomber jacket. There were puzzles and airplanes to build We rode airplanes. C and Daddy flew an Airmail plane as well as an early Wright Brothers plane using simulators. There was a fantastic place for us to experiment with different air velocities. C really enjoyed flying in his own plane as well. We...

What a nice surprise after President's Day to have a little snow storm.  Waking up to see the ground covered in clean white snow makes me feel 5 again.  To give both C & A a chance to play in the snow I brought it inside where it was warm.  Some towels on the tile, water shoes to keep us from stepping on bits of snow that fell out, one big bin of snow and we were set.  This also solved the problem of how I could let the toddler play in the snow without making the infant miserable. At first we just explored the snow with our hands and a scoop. Next we hid some toys in the snow. After playing with that for a while.  I made some colored water with food coloring in some plastic cups.  I gave C some foam brushes we had so he could paint the snow as well as a craft stick to stir the snow. The brushes didn't work very well on the snow, so I grabbed his little kitchen ladle. Jackpot!  Then the fun really got started. We went thro...

One of our favorite places to visit is Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria.  This past weekend since the weather warmed up a little we decided to see what the wetlands look like in the winter. On our walk from the parking lot to the wetlands we made lots of little discoveries from wasp nests to green holly trees standing out brightly against the brown forest. Our favorite part however is the boardwalk out and over the wetlands..  Stepping out the first thing we noticed was the water was frozen and all the grass and leaves were perfectly still under the ice. This was fascinating to C.  We found some areas where the water was thawing and talked about how the water was moving there.  Still C kept returning to look at areas under ice to ask us to confirm they were frozen. As always is the case at Huntley Meadows C loved listening for and finding the birds.  Even in the winter there was so much wildlife around, you just had to look a littl...