Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

I tried my best to plan an outing to a new museum or location once a week (in addition to the zoo OBVS) with the girls during the day. We were already homeschooling, and what a great place to live for field trips! And, Amanda is the BEST kind of friend to have in DC: she would text me the days that she had off on a given week and offer to go with me and the girls. THAT IS A TRUE FRIEND, GUYS.

Heading to the metro!

Scary birds of prey, indeed...

So fierce!

Milder birds. Claire found a cardinal, which is the state bird of North Carolina. We see them all the time at our house in Durham.

We spent a lot of time here. They thoroughly enjoyed finding Nemos and Dorys.

This was a cool exhibit; it was an "aquarium" made out of recyclables. Which was particularly of interest to Claire, as we had just studied habitats and made a diorama of a coral reef for school.

I was really looking forward to seeing the Hope Diamond. They girls just wanted to go see the butterflies.

The Natural History Museum has a butterfly house that usually costs an admission, but LO AND BEHOLD, they have free admission on Tuesdays...and we were there on a Tuesday. What luck! However, much like our experience at the Building Museum, our science museum in Durham has a really good (and very large) butterfly house, so the girls weren't overly impressed. They enjoyed it, but it didn't blow their minds.

There's a little butterfly that landed on Claire's shoulder...but you can't really see it here.

The girls were super excited about the Insect exhibit, so we went (although Amanda and I were far less enthused). AND we happened to be in there when one of the scientists was doing a mini-lesson about their tarantulas. Claire and Lily were thrilled, and Amanda, Brynnie, and I stood in the back. 

Can you spot my little learners?

After the lesson, the girls stuck around for a minute and got to chat with the spider handler a little bit longer. We also learned that the spider's name is Cosette. How dainty.

Boswell girls' review of Museum of Natural History: fun and interesting...but maybe not as exciting as some of the other museums (American...Postal...ZOO). But any visits with Miss Amanda are always a win!