Archers in the Making

We had been waiting to see when the cherry blossoms were going to be in full bloom in DC for a while.  When I checked the forecast on Monday, it said that the peak bloom period would be within the next 72 hours so we had to go quick!  Even though we had other things planned everyday, I thought we could squeeze in a trip to DC on Tuesday.  We ended up getting a later start than I had hoped, then going in the wrong way and getting caught in school traffic in DC itself.  In all it took us 2 hours to get there and get parked.  I did find street parking though, so I didn't have to pay!  (A small victory for me)  It was an absolutely beautiful day though and we enjoyed walking to the Jefferson Memorial and then around the Tidal Pool.  The girls weren't too impressed with the Memorial. I think this is because they know a good bit about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and so were more excited about those monuments.  I realize now that I don't think I've talked much at all about Jefferson to them.  This will have to be remedied in the future.  In the meantime, the trees were just amazing.  There were tons of people out so no picture is without others in it, but it was just too good to miss!  Lyla especially wanted me to take her picture toward the end, complete with all the ice cream she had all over her face.  :) We walked and enjoyed the late afternoon, had a picnic under the blossoms and then headed home.  All in all we were in the car about twice as long as we were out, but I'm glad we got to go anyway.  Besides the obvious treat of seeing the Cherry trees in bloom, every trip into DC just teaches me more about getting around there right?

 Friday we attended a field trip to the Maryland Historical Society with the Lamb of God School.  A friend of mine's son attends there and they had room for tag-a-longs on their field trip so we got to go too!  We really don't know a lot about Maryland history, other than general colonial history, so it was really interesting to learn about how the Maryland colony began and grew.  We learned a lot about indentured servants and slaves.  The girls got to role-play gentlemen on the boat coming to the New World and decide what they would and wouldn't (or couldn't) bring with them from England.  It was a great program and it held all of there attention.  I would definitely go there again.

Gwyn's group got to lead the rest of the group in earning their Geocaching Badge on Friday.  We had scouted out the caches at Oregon Ridge the day before to make sure that everything was where it should be.  She and her two friends taught the troop all about what geocaching is, GPS coordinates, types of caches, trade items, etc.  Then the girls all got to make some trade items before going out to find two caches that were placed nearby.  I must say that I think many of the girls really enjoyed it and I think they are intrigued by the fact that there are things hidden all over the place that they never knew about before.  We may have some geocachers in the making!

Saturday Celee's troop got to go to an animal shelter in Phoenix.  They were in animal heaven because there were three puppies there that they all got to play with for a long time.  The cats at this shelter have two big rooms to roam in, but they don't really act like they want to be petted.  Most of them run, hiss, or bite, but that could be because 10 or so routy girls were in there trying to pet them.  So the cats weren't a hit, but there were also two pigs and a sheep that live at the shelter, and a number of dogs so the girls were happy anyway.

Saturday Gwyn got to go to a Girl Scout Archery program.  In GS here, Brownies aren't allowed to do archery so Celee wasn't able to go.  A library in the city just happened to be having an archery fundamental program on Saturday though, so I took Celee to that.  They didn't actually get to shoot arrows because it was inside, but they got to string a bow and learned how to pull the arrow back correctly.  I even got to try! I got some great info. about lessons that all three girls can attend (for minimal price!) in May.  They are all three so excited!  Bless her heart, Lyla got left out on the archery this weekend, but she tried very hard this week to shoot a homemade bow and arrow at a friend's house.  The amount of effort she is putting forth is proportionate to the length of her tongue sticking out.