Raising the Revolutionaries

I took Friday off from work to take care of the boys. We had a full day planned. First, we went to the Kitchen Supply Store in Union Market to get them their own Chinese soup spoons and bowls. I also needed some new measuring spoons (ooo, la la!), and I got some chopsticks for the family so the boys could progress past their trainer chopsticks and be more professional at the Chinese restaurants when we go. Cassius chose a matching spoon and bowl, and Maceo chose a leopard print bowl and a floral decoration spoon. From there, we went to the Hirschhorn, a museum we've gone to in the past for activities but not to explore the exhibits. Maceo's favorite exhibit was the color wheel that ran the entire interior ring of the museum.

Here's a favorite painting Maceo photographed.

Maceo captures patrons exploring the exhibit.

For me, the most interesting exhibit was "Manifesto X Agency." In the exhibit, there were 13 films that all featured Cate Blanchett in different roles. In each film, her character's dialogue was the script of 13 different artists' manifestoes about what art is supposed to be. Some were disturbing, some were quite interesting. The boys were transfixed, though that might have just been the effect of watching "TV." But they were asking questions about the films and picking the ones they wanted to go look at.

The final film is a Southern family sitting down to Sunday dinner and when they say grace, it's Claes Oldenburg's manifesto. At the end of the "prayer", they hold hands and all intone the final line, "Square which becomes blobby." I laughed out loud, the boys were bemused, and I kept imagining how cool it would be if the boys just started intoning such lines: "To the incinerator with Chopin!" or the like.

A panorama of some of the films we watched.

After the Hirschhorn, we walked across The Mall to the ice skating rink. We have lovely hand-me down skates from Bridget and Seamus, so costs were defrayed. That's why I didn't feel so bad when Cassius quit skating rather early because "this rink isn't a good one!" Maceo did a very good job and made his around the rink several times!

At least they look like respectable skaters!

Following ice skating, we went to Chinatown and had some lunch. Sadly, the boys were not as outgoing as on trips past, and their orders were a little bit of a struggle. However, when Maceo finished his dumplings and ordered a second plate, he did much better and now he knows how to say "steamed dumplings"!

Some crazy kid joined us for lunch and had a PB and J sandwich!