Field Trip to Mount Vernon

5 Moms...13 kids...FUN!

What do Teacher Moms do in the summer?? Take their OWN kids on field trips!  This July (holy cow it was the hottest day of the summmer - heat index of 112!) we ventured to the home of George and Martha Washington, Mount Vernon.  Even in the heat it was an awesome adventure!

Of course we learned a couple things that we'd like to share :)

Starting our Tour!

Planning Your Trip

What to bring...
Printed e-tickets
Refillable water bottle
Camera/Phone
Jogging Stroller if you can - pebbled streets can be tough

Preorder your tickets online and print them.  It is okay if you forget to print, they can still access your tickets, but preordering allowed us to select the tour time we wanted. If we had waited until we got there we might have gotten stuck with a tour that wouldn't have worked with the kids...like during lunchtime :/

Visit http://www.mountvernon.org/tickets to order your tickets.

Selecting a Tour Time:  The Estate opens at 8 am in the summer but since we are 1.5 hours away we planned a 10 am arrival and it was perfect for an 11am tour.  We arrived, got great parking, hit the potty (15 kids!) then visited all the stops on the way to the tour.  The hour was just enough to see everything and then get in our time slot spot.  The house tour is now air conditioned!! Soooo nice!


Lunch Time

Picking their President!  (great caption Colleen!)

After the tour it was a great time to take a lunch break.  We packed a lunch and ate out by the car (ahh Memory Builders), but some in our group got lunch at the cafeteria which had Pizza Hut and other quick service foods.  There is also a reasonable restaurant there if you have time to spare. The gift shop has something for everyone including this statue....

Inside Events
Okay did I mention the HEAT yet...so after lunch needless to say the kids were not so eager to go outside again, although the grounds are huge and there is just tons to see.  We opted to tour the inside portion of the museum and it did not disappoint!  In fact there was a kids room with costumes to dress up in and puzzles and coloring sheets -it was great!!  Then there was a theater with a short movie.  This was a favorite among the kids because when the cannons when off your seats shook! And when it snowed...yup snow in the theater!! Sherry, one of the moms, remembered this from a fieldtrip she took with her class and it was what motivated us to choose Mt. Vernon. It did not disappoint!

Connor was drumming along - so cute! 

Outside Event
By this time in the trip, some of the kiddos were ready for a nap just in time for a car ride home.  A small group of us walked up to the gardens one more time before we planned to leave too.

As much as we wanted to walk down to the Pioneer Village it was just toooo hot.  To our luck though, while we were walking around the Upper Garden, the drum line arrived!  It was definitely worth the wait!

The Drive Home
Okay epic mom fail here!  Yes I know how bad Northern VA traffic is, but remember my trip to DC last month - it was so easy!  Well my darlings there is no HOV access lane where we got on 95 South at least from my GPS. Grrrrr!  The trip home took For.Ev.er! Not that I would have cut the time at the Estate any shorter, because you are going to hit traffic no matter what, yet honestly I would have driven the extra 10 miles into DC then turned around and hopped on the HOV lane and cruised home.  By the time we hit the the Thornburg exit, DQ was calling our name.  Hey ice cream for dinner..why not!!

To all my Teacher Mom friends...we rock this Mom thing! I can't wait for our next adventure!

Taking a Break...Saratoga Springs, NY

Our trip home to NY was to help my mom after she had surgery.  My sister and I were able to sneak away for an hour and run the kids to a park down the street.  There is so much I miss about where I grew up and we rarely get to "vacation" when we vist.  So even though we only had an hour...the time was priceless. 

Interactive Fountain FUN!!
Geyser Park ~ Saratoga Springs, NY

Swing Time with "Aunt Monkey" 

 Even with all the stress of traveling this July you can't beat the simple moments!  Memory Builders for sure!

Memory Builders

The second week in July consisted of unpacking and repacking for another trip to NY with a few swim dates smooshed in there.  For our second 10 hour car ride in 4 days we realized we really needed to break up the trip and stop as much as possible to let the kids run around and tire out!

When I was a little girl my mom always packed a picnic lunch wherever we went and we would have roadside picnics all over Upstate New York and much of Vermont!  "Memory Builders" she would say when we asked why we couldn't go to McDonalds.  At the time, eating a sandwich and chips in the middle of winter from the back of the car was less than appealing, but she was right we have always remembered it!  Obviously it wasn't for the "fun of it" but we got to go so many places because of her thifty Memory Builders.

Here is a quick glance at our Road Trip Memory Builder  :)

counting tree rings after our picnic

We packed a picnic of cheese, crackers, and fruit (okay okay we also stopped off an exit and got some pizza to go geesh I tried :0),
and thanks to iMaps searched our location and looked for a park nearby.  We didn't find a park but we did find a picnic pull off with the entrance to some PA State Park Trails.  It was perfect and the drive to it was gorgeous.

We ate, we ran around, we threw the ball and we got back in the car.  Definitely a MEMORY BUILDER!  Thanks Mom for teaching me to slow down and remember what is important.  My kids will definitley remember this over the McDonalds drive through!