chasing elephants.

Last Tuesday my adventurous friend Jessica invited us to watch the "elephant parade" with them. Whenever the circus comes to D.C. they parade the elephants through the city to promote the circus. It usually happens during the day but this year it was at night. Jessica also had the great idea to play around at Yards Park first and then walk to the start of the parade.

We had such a great time enjoying the warm (like nearly 80 degrees warm) weather and watching the sun go down on the water. The kids just had fun running and running and running. Oliver was happy to be free of the stroller and climbing stairs to his heart's content. We love Yards Park (one of my favorite weekends last summer involved this park) and can't wait to come back soon to play in the fountains.

We made our way up the street to find the elephant parade and ended up on a crazy chase through the streets trying to find the elephants. There were confused people everywhere. How do you miss elephants in the street?! Crowds of people blindly following other crowds of people. But we caught them just in time! And we saw the horses and clowns and we even saw the circus train go by.

On our way back to the car we walked past a transportation exhibit at Yards Park that we hadn't seen before and we let the kids linger at the exhibit while we enjoyed the weather a bit longer (and until a security guard kicked us out).

Amelia loves coming up with poses for the camera.

Somewhere down there were elephants and horses. Really.

Checking out the elephant parade from a bridge.

it's all about the cake.

I had a delightful birthday last Sunday. It was so nice to hear from family and friends who called, emailed, texted, and sent packages. The girls brought me numerous homemade cards throughout the day. Ben cooked a delicious dinner (butternut squash and lentil soup). The highlight was the amazing cake he made me. A crème fraîche chocolate bundt cake with chocolate ganache to be exact. (Recipe can be found here.)

It was incredible. Chocolatey and delicious and baked to perfection with a perfectly smooth ganache. And not overly sweet. Sadly, I developed a cold that night and couldn't smell or taste for the next four days so I couldn't enjoy the leftovers. But that might have been for the best. Because I think I would have devoured the whole cake. Amelia has already requested that Ben make this cake for her birthday too.

Ben even added a lovely finishing touch with strawberries and cream.

spanish steps.

The Spanish Steps are just up the street from the Textile Museum. The girls were mostly excited about the panda statue. Oliver thoroughly enjoyed his time climbing the steps and was not happy when we left. The kids were thrilled when we came across a playground on our walk back to the car.

"All the board!" (Elsa's version of "all aboard")

unexpected fun at the textile museum.

After our pizza and donut feast we decided to visit the Textile Museum. There is certainly no shortage of museums around here and I was curious about the Textile Museum, although not sure it would be very interesting for the kids. Somehow we managed to spend well over two hours there. It's a small museum in a beautiful neighborhood surrounded by Embassies. Most of the museum was actually closed while they were setting up for a new exhibit. But the exhibit we did see was pretty cool (Dragons, Nagas, and Creatures of the Deep). There were a few textiles from as early as the 5th century. They had a room where the kids could try different types of weaving and other hands-on activities. We happened to be there while they were having a family craft day. I was able to help Amelia weave a place mat. She was really excited about picking out her fabrics. While we worked on that, Ben played with Elsa and Oliver in the gardens. We eventually joined them and had fun playing hide and seek in what the girls were calling their "secret garden."

Washington Monument in the distance.

because donuts should always precede pizza.

We started my birthday weekend with lunch at 2 Amys on Saturday. They have fresh donuts available on the weekend and we couldn't pass them up. Elsa was not happy that she had to share. We also tried their awesome suppli a telefono appetizer (deep-fried rice balls with melty mozzarella goodness inside). And of course yummy pizza. I went with their margherita d.o.c. pizza (certified by the Italian government). I would be more than happy to repeat this meal right now.

the last bit of winter?

Remember these hats? Well, my mom was at it again and made more hats for the girls this winter. We headed out Saturday morning and realized it was actually quite cold. Which gave the girls one last chance to wear their hats. At least I'm assuming it was the last chance. It feels like summer this week.

The girls came up with this awkward pose on their own.