My little girl turned FOUR last week! Super crazy. For her birthday we asked if there was anything special she wanted to do. Her original response was “go to the park”. We then explained she could do more too and started listing off loads of places. In the end she told us she wanted to go to the museum, because theres a museum in Animal Crossing video game. Though in the game theres Art, Dino Skeletons, Live Insects and Butterflies. Luckily the Smithsonian covers most of that stuff all in one building and it’s only a short drive and a metro ride away!

First we checked out the Dinosaur Skeletons and Fossils, since that was her first request. It’s also a big thing in the game. You dig up fossils, take them to the museum and a little owl guy checks them out and then you have skeletons that you can donate to the museum or sell for profit.

I may have gone a bit overboard with the photos, but seriously the Smithsonian is SO COOL! I grew up visiting all the museums on field trips, with my family and then as a teenager with my friends. I had the biggest smile on my face all day watching CT freak out about everything. She is really into skeletons and such right now (Thanks to the Dr. Suess book: Inside Your Outside, All About the Human Body) So the exhibits actually kept her attention.

Lucky for us there was also a small exhibit with live fish. So we could check that off the Animal Crossing list.

They also had gems and live butterflies like in the game! (I took so many photos of the butterflies that they require their own post)

As you can tell from our required photo outside the museum, it was COLD! I think it was freezing temps actually. Don’t worry, we were all super bundled up.

To end our Animal Crossing themed museum trip, we headed next door to the National Gallery of Art Sculptural Garden. Seriously one of my absolute favorite places! CT loved walking underneath the sculptures and see just how big they were!.

The entire day was just so much fun. We all enjoyed ourselves and are already planning another trip down. There’s so much more to see!!!

Check back tomorrow for my ridiculous amount of butterfly pictures from the Live Butterfly Pavilion at the Smithsonian.