Chinese New Year

In celebration of Chinese New Year, the kids and I went into Chinatown in D.C. Of course, the beautiful, warm weather we'd been having gave way to real January weather for our trip, but the restaurant was warm. While Chinese food is one of our favorites, this was the first time the kids had been out for dim sum--a great way to sample different Chinese foods! The girls were content with white rice while Sam devoured an entire order of pot stickers by himself. The green onion pancakes and spinach dumplings I had were delicious! The wait staff was very kind, picking rice out of Em's hair and bringing me several vegetarian dishes to try.

After lunch, we headed over to a Chinese grocery and picked up a few things for our own Chinese New Year celebration. The kids each chose their own rice bowl to take home, and I grabbed a 5lb bag of jasmine rice to cook at home. The kids also chose their own mini-statues of Lao Tzu--the lion guardian--that they fell in love with outside the restaurant. The grocery also doubled as a Chinese apothecary, and the man showed us some of the different dried Chinese herbs he was weighing out and packaging.

Dim Sum was definitely the kids' favorite part of the trip, but the metro ride to the Air & Space Museum came in a close second. The museum itself didn't hold the kids' attention in part because we've been there so often, but also because of the lack of hands-on activities. One can only look at planes and rockets so many times. Even the gift shop seemed tired this time around. One of these days, we need to head out to the Annex out near Dulles Airport, which I hear is quite interesting.