signs of spring at river farm.

We had 70 degree weather on Thursday which called for a picnic at one of our favorite spots, River Farm (headquarters of the American Horticultural Society). We played all afternoon there and had fun looking for blossoms and flowers. Elsa found a lizard and Oliver ate a lot of dirt. He was so happy to be wandering on his own and exploring every corner of the garden.

Oliver's James Dean look.

field trip.

Amelia's school had a family field trip to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum last week. It started with a pizza dinner at the school (I think Amelia was most excited about this part) and then they took the bus downtown for an after-hours trip to the museum. Ben took the girls while I stayed home with Oliver. They wouldn't get back until almost 10 and Oliver can get quite grumpy if he's not in bed by 7:30. The highlight of the evening was supposed to be an IMAX movie, but the 3D was broken and the girls told me the movie was really boring. But other than that, I think they liked having a special outing with dad.

at the zoo.

Checking out the lions. Oliver loves to roar like a lion so he had lots of fun watching them and listening to them roar.

Fish head!

date night and our continued quest to devour d.c.'s best burgers.

The blog seems a little food heavy lately. In addition to eliminating sweets for six weeks, we also stopped going out to eat. I guess we're just making up for it.

So bring on the burgers! We rarely eat red meat at home. But I love a good burger. We've hit most of the top-rated D.C. burger joints...Ray's Hell-Burger (here), Shake Shack (here), Good Stuff Eatery (here), Elevation Burger (here), Burger Tap and Shake (here), Burger 7 (here), Five Guys, BGR (here), and most recently, Palena. What am I missing?

Ben took me to Palena last week for an early birthday dinner (Italian and French cuisine from Chef Frank Ruta and rated one of the ten best restaurants in D.C.). While not a burger joint in the least, it does boast one of the best burgers in D.C.  It's all about the beef, served with only Italian truffle cheese and house mayonnaise on a homemade brioche bun with pickles on the side (actually an assortment of pickled items which were quite good). The burger is cooked in truffle oil and was so juicy. (And this is coming from someone who orders her burgers well done. I know this is burger blasphemy but I just can't do pink.) It was delicious.

But enough about burgers. We also ordered the gnocchi which was excellent–Yukon gold potato gnocchi with sweet potatoes, shiimeji and shiitake mushrooms, creamy and crumbled goat cheese and a drizzle of aged balsamico. On a whim I decided to try their homemade vanilla and grapefruit soda. It was tangy and sweet and awesome.

We had the lemon posset for dessert and it. was. amazing. Creamy, custardy, lemony goodness with lemon sorbet and tiny little lemon meringues. The perfect end to our meal.

We didn't go out until after the kids were in bed. Amelia informed me the next day that she read an entire 120-page chapter book in her bed while we were gone. I love her passion for reading and wish that I could read for longer than five minutes at night before falling asleep.

natural history with burgers

Saturday morning we ventured into D.C. and went to the Museum of Natural History. The kids love this museum, particularly all of the (dead) animals. Amelia was delighted with the gems & minerals gallery, which is one of my favorite things there.

After a few hours in the museum, everyone was starving. We headed to Foggy Bottom for delicious burgers at Burger Tap & Shake. Oliver's love for sweet potato fries could not be contained. He demanded the entire basket for himself. Before he would eat a fry, he would tap it on the table. We realized he was copying us, minus the fry sauce.

Later in the afternoon we went to Fort Washington to work off those burgers with a run/walk/bike ride. The weather was perfect.

planetarium.

Friday night we headed to the planetarium at the Howard B. Owens Science Center in Maryland. They had a fun event going on where they read a Fancy Nancy book (Stellar Stargazer) and projected the images on the big screen and then did a "tour" of the night sky. They gave everyone fancy necklaces and really played up the "Fancy Nancy" theme. It was perfect for the girls. They loved looking at the stars and I think we all learned quite a bit. All the stargazing in a really dark room put Oliver right to sleep. (They are doing it again this Friday if anyone is interested.)

lunch time.

Elsa still favors the "tunella" (nutella).

hot pots.

We decided to go out to dinner earlier in the week to celebrate a successful family trip to the dentist. We went to Mala Tang in Arlington for delicious Sichuan hot pots. The dumplings and buns were really good and we had fun cooking our meat and veggies (including some crazy mushrooms that were super good) in our little hot pots. Ben chose a spicy hot pot and I went with mild. They also have a sauce bar where you can load up on lots of different sauces. The girls loved getting the sauces and bringing them to our table. They also had fun with their chopsticks.

date night.

Last week for our date night we decided to try a Korean restaurant, based partly on this list of "40 dishes every Washingtonian must try." If you're looking for a Korean restaurant, Annandale is the place to be. We ate at Gom Ba Woo but were a little disappointed with our meal. I think we just ordered the wrong things. The dumplings were good and our dishes were fine, just not awesome. I got the gal bi tang (Korean short-rib soup) which was on the "top 40" list but I didn't get the spicy version which was probably more flavorful. They brought out several little dishes of appetizers and it was fun to try them, not having any idea what they were.

We ended the night with chocolate overload (hot chocolate and a triple chocolate cupcake) at Buzz Bakery. We love this place for a late night hang out and dessert. Their cupcakes have improved greatly since the last time I had one and I was incredibly tempted by all of the other dessert choices. Ben and I have been doing the Lettuce Eat Cake weight loss contest again (more on that when it ends in a few weeks) and I didn't have any desserts for the first 6 weeks. So this was one of my first indulgences. I've never been one to share a cupcake before, but it was a good choice since my body was experiencing some serious sugar shock.