Down Day: 80's music videos and a tooting potato

If you read the title and studies show that 87% of people don't, you should have a pretty good idea of how our day went. We slept in and all wore pajamas all day Chloe and I wore pajamas all day. These are the highlights of the day:

Christian was bored so he spent a good deal of time

  tormenting the girls standing in our doorway talking… 

Chloe in her typical spot writing famous romance novels doing "stuff". 

Mom and Dad planning the drive home for later this week. (Aren't they cute?!) 

This is Christian eating meat for those of you who were 

very concerned that he wasn't getting "properly" fed wondering if he liked it. 

My lunch. I eat meat too. Every so often. 

Mia drew "her buddy" Alex Blair. 

She also created this dragon. 

The talented Emma did my nails for me today!

While I got my nails done, Mom, Dad, and Mrs Erin began discussing 80's music. Then Dad started pulling music videos up on YouTube! And they sang along!! I'm not allowed to say if they danced or not, but it was super fun to watch. I love when my parents act like super young people. The following songs were among those played:

"Step by Step"

"Living on a Prayer"

Mrs Erin made us a "Trim Healthy Mama Fat-Stripping Frappa". 

Dad loved it!!! decided to pass. I'm not sure why I drank it...but it was very yummy!!

This evening our 25 year old looking mothers who are actually a little older than that but you'd never know it the mamas went out for girl's night. Meanwhile the Dads ordered pizza and we had another "split screen" movie night. Yes, we do eat pizza. Occasionally. But only from Papa John's. 

Our drop dead gorgeous moms.

…And their dessert. 

Another lazy day activity was writing a group story. The following tale had roughly 7 authors and just now received the title "Dick and Jane". The regular writing is the story, everything in bold is comments from the authors. Enjoy! 

“That’s a terrible, horrible, incredibly foolish idea. Let’s do it and see what happens.” And that’s how their day began, Dick and Jane were scheming...again. The twins were just five years old, but they decided that playing with knives would be fun. And then Dick did it, he cut Jane’s ear off. No that’s not how the story is going to go. Actually Dick and Jane were 10 years old and they had a mystery to solve. Jane said they were playing with knives! No they weren’t! Lydia don’t put that in! “Let’s spilt up.” And then Dick went into the forest and Jane went into the desert of certain death the scary basement. And then Dick died, the end. Lydia no, you can’t do that. Lydia stop. What is she doing? She’s writing everything we say inbetween.  In the basement were nothing but clothes and things, or so she thought. And then she discovered the mummy of Akmenrah. It needs to be a little more quiet in here. It’s my turn! Dick died. Dick happened across a quick sand pit. And he died. And he died. He can’t breathe. You just went! No, I didn’t. Every time Dick dies, Dick dies. Okay, Dick is dead. Well you are saying gibberish. Okay he went to quicksand! Back to Jane, she found a box No, she already found it! She found the tablet of The tablet of Toot’n Tater. King Toot’n Tater. That’s my nickname. Basically I’m a tooting potato. Meanwhile, Dick shot out of the quicksand and died. But He lived! “Did you die?” “Sadly yes.” “But I lived.” While they were in their traps they found out they had special powers. Jane had ice powers and Dick had fire powers. How about poison powers? Who’s turn is it? Alright, stop. They used their powers to defeat the enemy. Back to Jane in the basement with the Tablet of Toot’n Tater, it was moonlight. And they didn’t notice how time flew. It was darkness and the table began to glow. And then she heard, AHHHHHHHHH *Chokes* And then she walked over to the tomb of that person. She absently opened the tomb. And died from the poison filled gases. And then she screamed because the body sat up, unwrapped itself and said “You have no idea how stuffy it is in here.” Was it Dick? Shhh she’s going to write that down! “That is because you’ve been in there for 3000 years.” Yeah, I hate it when it is stuffy. “And it is summer.” Hmm I get a turn, too? Dick died. Just then Dick walked in. He scream at the sight and died again. Can Dick live, please? He died and then he lived. He then walked up and asked about the tablet. “That belongs to Toot’n Tater. No the king Toot’n Tater. I think that is right, right?” Make him say that. Christian your turn. The End. Gabe, stop! Alright let’s conclude the story. No, you have to edit it! They all died. This thing is going to be really funny. Say, The End. The End. You messed everything up. Oh shoot. She said that. Ugh! What now? She is still typing. No we are done. 

The Herd: Quoted

"Ava, you have yellow eyes." -Mia. (She actually has blue eyes, like all the rest of us, so don't freak out.) 

"Pepper I very much disgust." -Gabe

"Ava, can you use the chair so I can have the stool?" -Gabe

"By all means!" -Ava

"Pickles?!" -Ava

"Wait! I have to take a picture of you eating meat!" -Me

"And those are all guys?" -Me talking about the band above in "Living on a Prayer." 

"They are from The Beautiful Man Store." -Mom

"No, Jamie is the owner of The Beautiful Man Store." -Mom

"Great an old creepy guy with graying hair!" -Dad laughing.

"We're not allowed to choke on Tuesdays." -Dad

"Well, it's supposed to sound yucky so you don't want any." -Mom to Ava about the Frappa. 

Night at the Museum…During the Day

This morning Mia was bored looking for something to do while waiting for breakfast. So she begged asked to do math "take aways" (a subtraction math facts worksheet). The Blair kids wanted to know why she was in trouble. 

We left the house a little after 9:00am, coffee in hand. Well…actually just for the over 16 crowd. Okay…Dad didn't have any either. *Pauses* Mom and I had coffee. 

In the car Mia helped Gabe with his reading. He was super thrilled to have her help.

Back in the Washington DC district we entered a public underground parking garage after our truck was searched! (Actually that's normal, but we thought it was kind of cool.) Mom and Dad told us to say nothing. We traveled what felt like a very long ways down to finally find a parking spot…in valet. The nice man (who I confirmed did indeed work there) said we could leave our truck there for no extra fee, we just had to give him the keys. This is how close the ceiling was: 

It was rather a confusing set up, but we managed to find our way out. 

This is the flag that the Star Spangled Banner was written about. 

Today we "ran through two museums" or "trudged through them at a snail's pace" depending on who you ask. I was often left behind because I was trying to read stuff and thingys on the everything that caught my eye. (I didn't know we were on a time crunch.)  

The first Smithsonian we sped through was the Natural History Museum: 

Here are some of the displays and such we glanced at while dashing by were able to enjoy viewing. 

This aqua crystal is gorgeous!!

These were Marie Antoinette's earrings. 

The necklace has over 100 diamonds in it and the crown has *pauses for dramatic effect* over 1000!!!

How is that for a statement necklace?!

I can't say I've ever seen a sign quite like this:

These minerals are incredible! 

The white spiky one reminds me of something someone would see in the ocean. 

Other ocean type looking one. That color though!

Can I have a kitchen counter made from this please?

Or *gasp* this!? 

This is "The Hope Diamond" 

and has a history and color which have made it quite famous. 

In case you were wondering what a Cotton Mouth Snake's skeleton looks like...

Look how tiny that frog is!! 

We see sea turtles like this one (well with skin and everything else too) in Maui all the time!

This mummy was a three year old little boy from Egypt.

Those are some pretty big bones!

In one area we could watch some *insert the word for people who study bones* at work. 

She is using a magnifying glass to scrape dirt off that tiny piece of something valuable. 

The thing taking up so much of the screen there is her fingernail! 

In the bug place Mia got to hold a caterpillar which only eats tobacco. 

I have to say, I am grateful I don't have to get into this awkward position in order to take a drink. 

Got teeth?

Gabe's reaction to the ocean creatures section. 

For lunch we purchased overpriced chicken sandwiches to share since we didn't want to spend $80 because we knew we could get something cheaper else at home if needed. 

Gabe picking out the nuts. (He doesn't like nuts. At all. Any of them.)

This is the very large elephant that lives, or that is actually dead, in the center of the museum. 

The second Smithsonian we raced through was The National Museum of American History. It was so cool to be able to see displays of things I got to read about all year in my American History book!

Mia found a dress her size!

This was the second Apple computer. 

It's Dorothy's slippers from the movie The Wizard of Oz! (I have seen that movie.)

Believe it or not, this is a statue of George Washington…

Isn't this cradle quilt darling! 

Some guns and other weapons we saw out of the corner of our eyes. 

My poor, tired, swollen feet. I began kind of just pushing my shoes around, half on half off. 

If I could, I would seriously go barefoot most everywhere. 

 We hit some traffic on the way home, but it wasn't bad. Dinner was once again pretty much completely ready for us when we arrived back around 5:00pm. The kids have been playing, eating, watching a movie, etc, etc, doing kid stuff and the rest of us have been laying around, reading, talking, eating, etc, etc, doing older people stuff. (That would be me and the parents for clarification.)

The Herd: Quoted

"The boys want to watch over me at the park." -Mia

"I wish we were back at Aunt Liz's house…" -Mia

"On the left is the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument." -Chloe
"And on the right we have trees and oh, a lamp-post!" -Christian in an announcer type voice.
"Also on the right we have some train tracks. Again, on the right." -Mom also in an announcer type voice.

"I scream*
"The door was open and I started walking in and it started shutting on me!" -Me

"Now you have to put 'singing Frozen spontaneously in the bathroom' on the blog." -Mom

"Seriously, come on!" -Chloe talking to the automatic waterfall I mean water-faucet.

"Push, push, pull, open the door!" -Chloe and me were having difficulties…

"Look at the turtle!" -Me
"Um, that is a frog, Lydia." -Chloe keeping me on track.

"My teeth are killing me!" -Mia trying to eat her sandwich.

"Well I knew what is was, it's just that the wrong word came out of my mouth." -Me
"Haha, that happens to me all the time!" -Dad