Washington 🇺🇸DC 🌸Spring Break Travel with 👦🏼Kids

Hellow  🇺🇸Washington D.C.! DSC_0001* Soft

If you ever 🛣✈️travel to 🇺🇸Washington DC,  Mandarine Oriental Hotel is the 🙋🏼only place to stay. A convenient semi-private bridge walkway to the 🌸Tidal Basin (⏱3 min), and from the front entrance, the view of the Capitol opens up! The hotel is also very conveniently located to the National Mall ~ few blocks and you are at the Smithsonian Castle information center! Adrian kept 🏃🏽 running around the immaculately 🌺🌷maintained turning circle in front of the hotel's entrance! Kids need so little to have fun!

DSC_0012*Times when you think you can hold the Washington Monument in your hands!

Julia is wearing Ralph Lauren vest (shop here) and distressed Hudson Jeans (shop here). Adrian is wearing Janie and Jack collection (shop here). 

DSC_0441Did you 🙈miss the peak bloom of main Yoshino 🌸cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin which was on 🗓April 5, 2018? Not a problem! Kwanzan Cherry blossoms are late bloomers (they reach peak bloom 15 days after the Yoshinos reach peak bloom) and are the most beautiful blossoms you have ever seen!

DSC_0438* BlossomsKwanzan Cherry blossom trees have a much darker pink, a multilayered flower that looks a bit like a small rose. And there are also far fewer people crowding around them. Read more here

DSC_0444The Kwanzan Cherry blossoms trees themselves are quite low to the ground, so they’re especially good for getting a close look at the flowers.

DSC_0061     I am wearing a Ralph Lauren cap, sweater and a vest (shop here) ) and a Tory Burch scarf (shop here). Adrian is wearing Janie and Jack collection (shop here) and Ray-Ban Junior sunglasses.

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Do not stand, when you can sit down, and do not sit when you can lay down🛋 not to mention when you can take a 😴 nap ... I cannot even imagine traveling without the carriage🙈What will I do when Adrian will no longer fit in it😬(Shop Orbit Baby G3 Stroller - Teal - Black - Black here).

DSC_0069There is something magical about Capitol at dusk ✨

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If you ever visit 🇺🇸Washington DC with children, Mandarine Oriental Hotel is the only place to stay🙋🏼We stayed in other hotels nearby trying to save 💵and those 💰savings are NOT worth it🙅🏼! Did you know Mandarine Oriental offers 3rd night free for select 🗓dates in 🌸Spring and ☀️Summer! And no hotel is more conveniently located to 🌸Tidal Basin than Mandarine Oriental Hotel! So, don't save the 💰savings, rather save the 😬aggravation and experience the❤️ best! (Shop Julia's distressed Hudson Jeans here). 

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Do 🌷flowers make you 😍happy? Would you prefer to look at a 💐 bouquet or at the garden🙋🏼? Do you have a favorite 🌺 flower? I am loving this gorgeous 🌷display in front of Mandarine Oriental Wasnt DC!

DSC_0061This is actually my 8 yo Julia taking pictures! When hubby had just about enough!

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When you go 👀🏙sightseeing, is 👟comfort your priority or fashion? Well, thanks to 😘Tory Burch sneakers (shop here),   you can have both👍🏻(Shop my distressed Hudson Jeans here). 

DSC_0515*LfSt IGChildren are closer to the ground, so they 👀notice little wonders of 🌸nature much more than adults do. 👦🏼"Mommy, look a 💧 droplet of water in the flower!" Honestly, I would not have noticed it before children 🙈Do you see the world 🌎 through the eyes of a child? 


DSC_0061"Sons are the anchors of a mother's life." ~ Sophocles. 

The National Mall is Soo 🙈packed during the 🌸Cherry Blossom festival, but if you travel just 🗓few days after the peak, you might have the entire lawn to yourself😉

DSC_0165 Hudson Jeans

I was so comfy in Tory Burch sneakers (shop here), and distressed Hudson Jeans here). Well, after hours in museums, which are absolutely free (we so appreciate it after having visited some in NYC and paid $40 per person), we are heading back to the relaxing Mandarine!

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Mandarine Oriental in 🇺🇸Washington DC has an amazing 🍸Empress Lounge overlooking the gardens and offering a place to relax just steps away from our lavish lobby. It serves casual 🍴dining including 🌅outdoor dining where you can get appetizers, a sandwich or a 🍔 burger. They used to have sushi 🍣 but not any longer 🙅🏼. It is worth it since (besides being adorable), there is a big lawn where your children (if you have) can be entertained by playing ⚽️ball (provided by the hotel) while you have a 💖romantic 🍽dinner by the 🔥 fire. See the menu here


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The Smithsonian gardens are breathtaking, and the Castle, with its Gothic Revival architecture, leaves you in awe. Did you know that the first Secretary of the Smithsonian, Joseph Henry, lived in the east wing of the building with his family, starting in 1849, during the initial construction period? 

DSC_0197We were surprised to learn that the Smithsonian Institution includes a number of outdoor museums. Located directly above the National Museum of African Art, S. Dillon Ripley Center, and Arthur M.Sackler Gallery, the 4.2-acre Enid A. Haupt Garden is actually a rooftop garden. It comprises three separate gardens, each reflecting the cultural influences celebrated in the adjacent architecture and the museums below.

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Established in 1972 to manage the museum grounds, Smithsonian Gardens extends the Smithsonian’s museum experience in a public garden setting, providing inspiration with exceptional displays while educating about horticulture, plants, the natural and built environments, and artistic design.

DSC_0197Julia is wearing a Ralph Lauren vest (shop here), and Ray-Ban Junior sunglasses.

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👦🏼Adrian always gets close to things that attract him, like bending down and smelling a 🌷flower. He clings to my leg and says "l love you" a hundred times a day, he hugs and snuggles, and when he lays his head on my shoulder, I melt! I hope, he will hold on to all these tender habits even when grown up.

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Be strong, protect the week, and help those in need. Appreciate the beauty, cherish the nature, and always follow your 💖heart! 

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How can you be at the National Mall and not visit the museums, which are all free, as contrasted with NYC? And, since we are studying Impressionists, children unanimously said they would like to visit the National Gallery of Art.


DSC_0197Pier Augustine Renoir 

DSC_0247-2The Cradle-Camile With Artist's Son Jean. Claude Monet. 1867, oil on canvas. 

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DSC_0248The Japanese Footbridge, Claude Monet. 1899, oil on canvas. 

In 1893, Monet, a passionate horticulturist, purchased land with a pond near his property in Giverny, intending to build something "for the pleasure of the eye and also for motifs to paint." The result was his water-lily garden. In 1899, Monet painted 12 works from a single vantage point, focusing on the arching blue–green bridge and the microcosm of his water garden. Among the 12 works was the National Gallery's Japanese Footbridge. Monet designed and built the landscape that appears in the painting—from the bridge to the pond and its shape, to the water lilies and other plantings. The artist, who as a leader of the impressionists had espoused the spontaneity of directly observed works that capture the fleeting effects of light and color, had in these later paintings subjected nature he recreated to sustained, meditated scrutiny. Also, the vertical format of the picture, unusual in this series, gives prominence to the water lilies and their reflections on the pond.

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Stay tuned for more ...


❄️️Snowstorm in March 🌬

"Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood." ~ Andy Goldsworthy. We did not expect snow and that much snow considering we had 70+F recently. But, knowing our deep affection for snow, we made the best out of it!

DSC_0028Opening the door to 🌬Winter ❄️Wonderland. 

DSC_0105Well, it is officially winter until March 21st! 

DSC_0005"When snow falls, nature listens." ~Antoinette van Kleef.

*IG DSC_0111 coffee"First, I drink my ☕️ coffee, then I do my things." We got more ❄️snow these past weeks in March than during the entire 🌬winter! 

DSC_0054 When I look into your eyes, I see the stars ✨ I hope to be looking at them for the 🌌eternity.
IMG_0901     I see what you see; I feel what you feel; I am so humbled and happy to call you mine!

DSC_0116"There's just something beautiful about walking in snow that nobody else has walked on. It makes you believe you're special." ~Carol Rifka Brunt.

DSC_0018  "A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky—unbidden—and seems like a thing of wonder." ~ Susan Orlean.

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The Universe is not outside of you! Look inside yourself; everything that you want, you already Are! ~ Rumi.

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"Silently, like thoughts that come and go, the snowflakes fall, each one a gem." ~ William Hamilton Gibson.

IMG_0796One of those days when you feel you can fit the entire🌌 universe on your❄️tongue.

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I see You! With all your 💫dreams, ambitions, vices, vultures ... I see you in all your beauty of a human being to whom respect is due ... I see you in your purity, innocence, ❤️love ... I will not push or persuade you to be anything but be YOU in its glorious form, even if such might contradict the current notions of success (whatever that might be😬). The only thing I would aspire you to be - is to be 💖HAPPY💞

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"A snowflake is another beautifully ordered example of what simple, natural meteorological processes can produce. Stars form by gravity, collapsing into spherically ordered structures that can remain in this form only if they release tremendous heat energy into the environment. "~Lawrence M. Krauss.


DSC_0090-2"The very fact of snow is such an amazement." ~ Roger Ebert.

 IMG_0901Shop the winter coat here and the snow pants here

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In a meantime, we are having a blast during the last🌬North Eastern❄️Storm! At least, we got a chance to test our new sleds! This sled is absolutely best!

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It was amazing seeing snowflakes up close! Each unique in its intricate design. Each beautiful and graceful and evanescent. 

IMG_1417When I look into your eyes, I see myself, my today, my tomorrow and my future for the eternity!

FullSizeRender 15Despite all that I have seen, I still get the same exhilaration and awe out of the glimpse of a fallen ❄️ snow, and when I see a mountain, I feel the same urge to climb towards it.

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After the storm, there will always be sun again. Shop these junior sunglasses here.

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These 👧🏻👦🏼two argue with each other all day long😬but when it's time to have fun❄️ohh they know how👍🏻Love them sooo😍.

 FullSizeRender 14Waiting for his 👧🏻sister to go down with the sled. Shop accessories here

DSC_0108Always saying Hello to the horses friends!

DSC_0228Buy similar hat here

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How long will this winter last? We are ready for spring!